Blood Culture-negative Endocarditis Caused by : Whipple's endocarditis.

Case Description: A 67-year-old man was admitted with progressive heart failure due to blood culture-negative endocarditis of the aortic valve. Urgent aortic valve replacement was needed. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of samples of the explanted aortic valve revealed .

Incidental congenital coronary artery vascular fistulas in adults: Evaluation with adenosine-N-ammonia PET-CT.

Aim: To assess the functionality of congenital coronary artery fistulas (CAFs) using adenosine stress N-ammonia positron emission tomography computed tomography (PET-CT).

Methods: Congenital CAFs were incidentally detected during coronary angiography (CAG) procedures in 11 adult patients (six males and five females) with a mean age of 64.3 years (range 41-81).

Septic Pulmonary Embolism Caused by Infected Pacemaker Leads After Replacement of a Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Device.

BACKGROUND Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has been demonstrated to reduce morbidity and mortality in patients with advanced, drug-refractory heart failure. Procedure-related mortality is less than 1% in larger studies. Approximately10% of CRT patients have to undergo surgical revision because of infections, dislocations, or unacceptable electrical behavior manifested as high threshold, unstable sensing, or unwanted phrenic nerve stimulation.

Unilateral and multilateral congenital coronary-pulmonary fistulas in adults: clinical presentation, diagnostic modalities, and management with a brief review of the literature.

Background: Congenital coronary-pulmonary fistulas (CPFs) are commonly unilateral, but bilateral and multilateral fistulas may occur. In multilateral CPFs, the value of a multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) imaging technique as an adjuvant to coronary angiography (CAG) is eminent. The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical presentation, diagnostic modalities, and management of coincidentally detected congenital CPFs.

Coronary artery disease in congenital single coronary artery in adults: A Dutch case series.

Aim: To assess the current diagnostic and therapeutic management and the clinical implications of congenital single coronary artery (SCA) in adults.

Methods: We identified 15 patients with a SCA detected from four Dutch angiography centers in the period between 2010 and 2013. Symptomatic patients who underwent routine diagnostic coronary angiography (CAG) for suspected coronary artery disease and who incidentally were found to have isolated SCA were analyzed.

Exercise-induced left bundle branch block: an infrequent phenomenon: Report of two cases.

Exercise-induced left bundle branch block (EI-LBBB) is infrequent phenomenon. We present two patients with angina pectoris who developed EI-LBBB during exercise tolerance test. The first patient with typical angina pectoris had significant obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) requiring percutaneous coronary intervention of multiple lesions including placement of drug eluting stents.

Personalized prediction of lifetime benefits with statin therapy for asymptomatic individuals: a modeling study.

Background: Physicians need to inform asymptomatic individuals about personalized outcomes of statin therapy for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, current prediction models focus on short-term outcomes and ignore the competing risk of death due to other causes. We aimed to predict the potential lifetime benefits with statin therapy, taking into account competing risks.

Comparison of frequency of periprocedural myocardial infarction in patients with and without diabetes mellitus to those with previously unknown but elevated glycated hemoglobin levels (from the TWENTE Trial).

In patients without a history of diabetes mellitus, increased levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) are associated with higher cardiovascular risk. The relation between undetected diabetes and clinical outcome after percutaneous coronary intervention is unknown. To investigate whether these patients may have an increased risk of periprocedural myocardial infarction (PMI), the most frequent adverse event after percutaneous coronary intervention, we assessed patients of the TWENTE trial (a randomized, controlled, second-generation drug-eluting stent trial) in whom HbA1c data were available.

Comparison of eligible non-enrolled patients and the randomised TWENTE trial population treated with Resolute and Xience V drug-eluting stents.

Aims: The TWENTE trial recently enrolled more than 80% of all eligible patients, who were randomised to zotarolimus-eluting Resolute or everolimus-eluting XIENCE V stents. In the present study, we investigated whether eligible, non-enrolled patients differed from the randomised TWENTE trial population in baseline characteristics and one-year outcome.

Methods And Results: Characteristics of 1,709 eligible patients were analysed.

Apparent and internal validity of a Monte Carlo-Markov model for cardiovascular disease in a cohort follow-up study.

Objective: To determine the apparent and internal validity of the Rotterdam Ischemic heart disease & Stroke Computer (RISC) model, a Monte Carlo-Markov model, designed to evaluate the impact of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and their modification on life expectancy (LE) and cardiovascular disease-free LE (DFLE) in a general population (hereinafter, these will be referred to together as (DF)LE).

Methods: The model is based on data from the Rotterdam Study, a cohort follow-up study of 6871 subjects aged 55 years and older who visited the research center for risk factor assessment at baseline (1990-1993) and completed a follow-up visit 7 years later (original cohort). The transition probabilities and risk factor trends used in the RISC model were based on data from 3501 subjects (the study cohort).

Estrogen receptor alpha gene polymorphisms and risk of myocardial infarction.

Context: The role of estrogens in ischemic heart disease (IHD) is uncertain. Evidence suggests that genetic variations in the estrogen receptor alpha (ESR1) gene may influence IHD risk, but the role of common sequence variations in the ESR1 gene is unclear.

Objective: To determine whether the ESR1 haplotype created by the c.

C-reactive protein predicts progression of atherosclerosis measured at various sites in the arterial tree: the Rotterdam Study.

Unlabelled: Background and Purpose- C-reactive protein (CRP) predicts myocardial infarction and stroke. Its role as a predictor of the progression of subclinical atherosclerosis is not yet known. We investigated whether CRP predicts progression of atherosclerosis measured at various sites in the arterial tree.