Publications by authors named "Nidal Asaad"

Article Synopsis
  • Three different strategies exist for starting warfarin: fixed dosing (FWD), clinical dosing (CWD), and genetic-guided dosing (GWD), with GWD shown to be superior in some trials.
  • In a study comparing CWD and FWD, researchers found no significant difference in time spent within the therapeutic range or in extreme INR levels between the two methods.
  • The conclusion is that CWD did not provide better anticoagulation quality compared to FWD, suggesting that fixed dosing may continue to be a viable option.
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Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers identified 1,196 rare functional variants related to arrhythmias, with 137 deemed pathogenic, and evaluated their associations with atrial fibrillation (AF) using polygenic risk scores (PRS).
  • * This research highlights the necessity of including diverse populations in genomic studies, as it aims to improve understanding of cardiac arrhythmias and address health disparities in genomic medicine.
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  • Resting ECG is an effective, non-invasive method for evaluating heart electrical activity, with abnormalities linked to clinical biomarkers that may indicate early disease stages, particularly coronary artery disease (CAD).
  • The study analyzed 12-lead ECG data from over 13,000 participants and identified significant associations between ECG traits (like RR, QTc) and various clinical biomarkers, revealing risk factors for conditions like type 2 diabetes and CAD.
  • Machine learning models outperformed traditional regression methods in predicting CAD risk, achieving an impressive area under the curve of 0.84, indicating strong predictive accuracy, with a high odds ratio indicating a significant increase in CAD risk in the top scoring decile.
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  • A study on smoking trends among patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Qatar analyzed data from nearly 28,000 patients between 1991 and 2022.
  • Approximately 49.1% of those patients were smokers, predominantly male, and smoking decreased with older age, while smokers showed a lower risk of in-hospital mortality.
  • Despite the downward trend in smoking habits over the years, about 50% of AMI patients still smoked, with younger patients and non-Qatari nationals being particularly affected.
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  • This study evaluated clinical outcomes of patients with acute heart failure (AHF) in the Arabian Gulf, specifically looking at those with mitral regurgitation (MR) across 47 hospitals.
  • Of the 5005 patients analyzed, 29.8% had MR, with an average age of about 59 years, and showed significant comorbidities including lower hemoglobin levels and higher rates of left atrial enlargement and cardiogenic shock.
  • Results indicated that MR was linked to a higher risk of all-cause mortality after one year and a greater chance of hospitalization for heart failure within three months.
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Background: We aimed to study the presentation and in-hospital outcomes of obese patients hospitalized for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in a Middle Eastern country.

Methods: This retrospective study included patients admitted to the Heart Hospital between 2015 and 2020. Patients were divided according to their body mass index (BMI): Group I (BMI 18.

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Background: Cardiovascular disease patients are more likely to be readmitted within 30 days of being discharged alive. This causes an enormous burden on health-care systems in terms of poor care of patients and misutilization of resources.

Aims And Objective: This study aims to find out the risk factors associated with 30-day readmission in cardiac patients at Heart Hospital, Qatar.

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Accurate determination of mortality attributable to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is critical in allaying concerns about their safety. We reviewed every death in Qatar that occurred within 30 days of any SARS-CoV-2 vaccine administration between January 1, 2021 and June 12, 2022. Probability of association with SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was determined by four independent trained reviewers using a modified WHO algorithm.

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This case series demonstrates how COVID-19 infection might affect the heart in the context of acute myocardial infarction. Atrioventricular (AV) block might appear as one of the significant cardiac complications of acute MI in patients who tested COVID-19 PCR positive regardless of the presence of CVOID-19 infection symptoms. In our series, conduction disorders as a complication of acute inferior STEMI are more common in patients who tested positive for the COVID-19 infection.

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Background: The prognostic impact of obesity on patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) remains under-evaluated and controversial.

Methods: Patients with AF from the Gulf Survey of Atrial Fibrillation Events (Gulf SAFE) registry were included, who were recruited from six countries in the Middle East Gulf region and followed for 12 months. A multivariable model was established to investigate the association of obesity with clinical outcomes, including stroke or systemic embolism (SE), bleeding, admission for heart failure (HF) or AF, all-cause mortality, and a composite outcome.

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Background: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a leading cause of death worldwide. However, there is limited information on the outcome of the OHCA in the Middle East population, and limited studies have been carried out in the Arab Gulf countries. Hence, we aim to study the incidence and rate of survival in the OHCA setting and to assess the impact of gender on the clinical outcome following OHCA.

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We are reporting a case of a young Nepalese man, who was not known to have any past medical history, and who presented with palpitations. An electrocardiogram showed negative P-waves atrial rhythm in II, III, arteriovenous fistula, and V3-V6 with a variable block at 90-130 bpm. No positive "normal" P-waves were demonstrated in any tracing.

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Loss of function mutations in store-operated Ca entry (SOCE) are associated with severe paediatric disorders in humans, including combined immunodeficiency, anaemia, thrombocytopenia, anhidrosis and muscle hypotonia. Given its central role in immune cell activation, SOCE has been a therapeutic target for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Treatment for such chronic diseases would require prolonged SOCE inhibition.

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Background: The vast majority of literature on atrial fibrillation (AF) is based on studies from the developed world that mainly includes Caucasian patients. Data on AF in other ethnicities is very limited. The aim of this hospital-based study is to evaluate the effect of concomitant hypertension (HTN) on the characteristics and outcomes of Middle Eastern Arab and South Asian patients with AF in the state of Qatar.

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Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relation of high-sensitive cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) elevation with characteristics of supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) episode (duration and maximum heart rate) and coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) findings in patients with SVT who presented to the emergency room with palpitation.

Methods: This retrospective, single-center, noninvasive study included all patients aged between 18 years and 65 years who presented to the emergency department due to narrow-complex SVT and underwent CCTA to rule out coronary artery disease (CAD) due to elevation of hs-cTnT and reverted back to sinus rhythm after intravenous adenosine. The first, second, and the maximum hs-cTnT levels were obtained from the database.

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Atrial fibrillation (AF) is often asymptomatic. The prognosis of asymptomatic AF is at least similar or worse than symptomatic AF, but there are no such data from Middle East patients with AF. The Gulf-SAFE (Gulf Survey of Atrial Fibrillation Events) registry is a multicenter prospective survey of patients presenting with AF to participate medical institutions in 6 countries in the Gulf region.

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Sodium glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and loop diuretics can cause volume depletion. However, the long-term safety of the concurrent use of both agents has not been widely evaluated. We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study to evaluate the safety of SGLT2 inhibitors with loop diuretics vs SGLT2 inhibitors alone among diabetic patients.

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Objective: To rapidly exclude severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection using artificial intelligence applied to the electrocardiogram (ECG).

Methods: A global, volunteer consortium from 4 continents identified patients with ECGs obtained around the time of polymerase chain reaction-confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis and age- and sex-matched controls from the same sites. Clinical characteristics, polymerase chain reaction results, and raw electrocardiographic data were collected.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates how obesity and diabetes affect complications after atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation in real-world scenarios in the US, using data from 2005 to 2013.
  • - Results showed a significant increase in complications for obese patients (11.7% complication rate) compared to non-obese (8.2%) and for diabetic patients (10.7%) versus non-diabetic (8.2%).
  • - Obesity was linked to higher complications, longer hospital stays, and increased costs, while diabetes was only associated with longer stays; the findings suggest the need for future research on the benefits of weight loss before AF ablation.
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Background: The novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) spread rapidly around the world and was declared as the second pandemic of the 21 century. The first case was detected in Qatar on February 29, 2020. In order to protect patients and staff in Heart Hospital, the only tertiary cardiac center in Qatar, new measures were implemented to reduce the spread of infection in our hospital.

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Article Synopsis
  • The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted healthcare delivery, especially in hospital admissions for cardiovascular issues.
  • Data from Hamad Medical Corporation hospitals in Qatar showed a notable decrease in cardiovascular admissions, with acute myocardial infarction dropping by 31% and unstable angina by 79%.
  • Despite the reduced admissions, the overall death rate remained unchanged, suggesting that fear of COVID-19 and lockdown measures may have deterred patients from seeking necessary cardiac care.
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Background: In heart failure (HF) with sinus rhythm, resting and exercise heart rates correlate with exercise capacity and mortality. However, in HF with atrial fibrillation (AF), this correlation is unknown. Our aim is to investigate the association of resting and exercise ventricular rates (VRs) with exercise capacity and mortality in HF with AF.

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Objectives: A decrease in Emergency Department (ED) visits for cardiac conditions has recently been reported from the US and Western Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data are still scant, and the correlation between cardiac symptoms and confirmed diagnoses are not available. There are no reports on changes in ED volumes at a national level, or from countries in the Asia-Middle Eastern region.

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Brugada syndrome (BrS) is a rare genetic disease, of which its clinical manifestations include, but not limited to, syncope or sudden cardiac death. A 30-year-old Bangladeshi male patient with a past medical history of epilepsy was admitted following successful resuscitation from an out of hospital cardiac arrest secondary to ventricular fibrillation. Electrocardiogram (ECG) upon admission was suggestive of BrS type I.

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In 1992, the Brugada brothers published a patient series of aborted sudden death, who were successfully resuscitated from ventricular fibrillation (VF). These patients had a characteristic coved ST-segment elevation in the right precordial leads on their 12-lead electrocardiogram with no apparent structural heart abnormality. This disease was referred to as "right bundle branch block, persistent ST-segment elevation, and sudden death syndrome.

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