Testing awareness of heart disease among West Australian women.

Cardiovascular disease [CVD] is the top cause of death in Australian women. Large studies in the US and Europe have shown that the majority of women do not consider CVD as their greatest health threat. Australian women's awareness has not previously been investigated.

Cardiac rehabilitation - reducing hospital readmissions through community based programs.

Background: Community based cardiac rehabilitation programs have been shown to reduce cardiovascular disease related mortality and morbidity.

Methods: An observational study of 954 cardiac patients admitted to Royal Perth Hospital (Western Australia) with a cardiac event and registered in the HeartBeattrade mark cardiac rehabilitation program between October 2000 and December 2005. The primary end point was nonelective readmission for a cardiac condition within 12 months.

The effect of an adenosine and lidocaine intravenous infusion on myocardial high-energy phosphates and pH during regional ischemia in the rat model in vivo.

We have previously shown that an intravenous infusion of adenosine and lidocaine (AL) solution protects against death and severe arrhythmias and reduces infarct size in the in vivo rat model of regional ischemia. The aim of this study was to examine the relative changes of myocardial high-energy phosphates (ATP and PCr) and pH in the left ventricle during ischemia-reperfusion using 31P NMR in AL-treated rats (n = 7) and controls (n = 6). The AL solution (A: 305 microg.

Pretreatment with an adenosine A1 receptor agonist and lidocaine: a possible alternative to myocardial ischemic preconditioning.

Objective: The heart possesses an extraordinary ability to remember short episodes of sublethal ischemia and reperfusion (angina), which protects the myocardium and coronary vasculature from a subsequent lethal insult, a phenomenon known as ischemic preconditioning. A therapeutic goal for more than 2 decades has been to develop a pharmacologic mimetic comparable with ischemic preconditioning. Our aim was to investigate the preconditioning effect of a new combinatorial therapy targeting adenosine A1 receptors and voltage-dependent sodium fast channels in the in vivo rat model of regional ischemia.

Protection against ventricular arrhythmias and cardiac death using adenosine and lidocaine during regional ischemia in the in vivo rat.

Despite decades of research, there are few effective ways to treat ventricular fibrillation (VF), ventricular tachycardia (VT), or cardiac ischemia that show a significant survival benefit. Our aim was to investigate the combined therapeutic effect of two common antiarrhythmic compounds, adenosine and lidocaine (AL), on mortality, arrhythmia frequency and duration, and infarct size in the rat model of regional ischemia. Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 49) were anesthetized with pentobarbital sodium (60 mg.