Peri-procedural ST segment resolution during Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PPCI) for acute myocardial infarction: predictors and clinical consequences.

Objective: ECG ST segment resolution (STR) has been used to assess myocardial perfusion in STEMI patients undergoing PPCI. However, in most of the studies ECGs recorded at different time points after the actual procedure have been used, limiting the options of therapeutic interventions while the patient is still in the catheterisation laboratory. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence and clinical consequences of intra-procedural STR during PPCI.

Patterns of ST segment resolution after guidewire passage and thrombus aspiration in primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) for acute myocardial infarction.

Background: ST segment elevation allows the rapid identification of patients with acute myocardial infarction who benefit from emergency reperfusion. Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) has emerged as the preferred perfusion strategy for patients presenting with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

Methods And Results: We studied the effects of the simple passage of an angioplasty guidewire followed by mechanical thrombus aspiration on the ST segment displacement in 289 patients presenting with acute STEMI.

Intermittent jamming of a bileaflet mechanical heart valve in the absence of any extrinsic cause of obstruction.

Structural failure of mechanical heart valves is associated with a high mortality, especially when the valve is implanted in the aortic position. We describe a case of early intermittent dysfunction of a bileaflet mechanical heart valve implanted in a 67-year-old female. Transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography demonstrated intermittent jamming of the leaflets in both the open and closed positions in the absence of any obvious obstruction.