Recurrent and Residual Shunts After Patent Foramen Ovale Closure: Results From a Long-Term Transcranial Doppler Study.

Objectives: Assess the evolution of right-to-left shunt (RLS) after transcatheter patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure.

Background: Despite the high number of interventional procedures performed worldwide, limited systematic data on the long-term abolition of RLS after percutaneous closure are available.

Methods: All patients treated at our Institution between February 2001 and July 2009 were included in this single center, prospective study, and were asked to repeat late contrast transcranial Doppler (cTCD).

Efficacy of cilostazol for the treatment of Raynaud's phenomenon in systemic sclerosis patients.

Cilostazol is a selective inhibitor of phosphodiesterase-III with antiplatelet, antithrombotic and vasodilating properties. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of the drug on vasculopathy and Raynaud's phenomenon (RP), in a series of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), before and after cilostazol treatment. Twenty-one consecutive SSc patients with moderate or severe RP were enrolled in an open-label study.

Symptom onset-to-balloon time and mortality in the first seven years after STEMI treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

Objective: To evaluate the consequence of treatment delay of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) on long-term survival.

Background: Network organisation based on early recognition, shortening prehospital time delays and procedural delays is the cornerstone of optimal clinical results in the acute phase of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Nevertheless, the evidence of a relationship between symptom onset-to-balloon time and mortality is weak, and few long-term data are available.

Brachial artery endothelial-dependent flow-mediated dilation identifies early-stage endothelial dysfunction in systemic sclerosis and correlates with nailfold microvascular impairment.

Objective: To assess possible correlations between endothelial-dependent flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery and nailfold videocapillaroscopy (NVC) in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Evidence has shown that vascular impairment in SSc may be a sign of endothelial dysfunction involving both microvascular and macrovascular systems, although the pathological mechanisms of the dysfunction are poorly understood.

Methods: Forty-three consecutive patients (mean age 51 +/- 11 yrs) with SSc were studied.

Guide wire fracture during percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty: possible causes and management.

A 46-year-old woman underwent diagnostic coronary angiography in our institution due to a myocardial ischemia following a dobutamine echo-stress test. The patient showed critical stenosis of the left anterior descending (LAD) artery involving the ostium of a large diagonal branch. The planned treatment of coronary bifurcation by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was direct stenting of the main branch with 'jailed' wire technique to protect the side branch, provisional T stenting of the side branch, and final kissing balloon inflation.

Optimization of flow reserve measurement using SPECT technology to evaluate the determinants of coronary microvascular dysfunction in diabetes.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to validate a new method to measure regional myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR) with technetium-labelled tracers in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2).

Methods: A total of 40 consecutive DM2 patients without history of coronary artery disease (CAD) and 7 control subjects were recruited. Dipyridamole myocardial blood flow index (MBF) was assessed by measuring first transit counts in the pulmonary artery and myocardial count rate from gated SPECT images using (99m)Tc-labelled tracers.

Hypoadiponectinemia in lipodystrophic HIV individuals: a metabolic marker of subclinical cardiac damage.

Background And Aim: To evaluate cardiovascular abnormalities in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) treated HIV patients with no signs or symptoms of cardiovascular impairment, and to assess the relative role of multiple concomitant risk factors.

Methods And Results: Forty-four consecutive HIV subjects (mean age 41+/-6 yrs) were enrolled. Inclusion criteria were HIV infection, CD4+cell count>150/ml, HAART treatment for at least 4 years.

The kidney is the major site of S-adenosylhomocysteine disposal in humans.

S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH), the metabolic precursor of homocysteine in the body, is a potent inhibitor of methylation reactions. Several methylation reactions play a major role in epigenetic regulation of protein expression, atherosclerosis, and cancer development. Here we studied the mechanisms responsible for the maintenance of circulating SAH levels by measurement of the arterio-venous differences across the kidney, splanchnic organs, and the lung in humans.

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging detects subclinical right ventricular impairment in systemic sclerosis.

Objective: To assess myocardial involvement in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) with no signs or symptoms of cardiac impairment (New York Heart Association functional class I).

Methods: Fifty patients (45 women, 5 men, age 53.3 +/- 12.