Pravastatin reduces the incidence of cardiac events among patients with myocardial infarction.

We retrospectively compared the incidence of cardiac events in myocardial infarction (MI) patients treated in our departments between 1990 and 1999 with pravastatin or without cholesterol-lowering agents. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of pravastatin in the secondary prevention of MI. Cardiac events--defined as fatal or nonfatal recurrent MI, sudden cardiac death, and death from congestive heart failure--occurred in 8 (2.

Diagnosis of ischemic heart disease with exercise echocardiography: Comparison of images obtained at peak- and post-exercise.

Peak-and post-exercise stress echocardiography were compared with respect to ability to detect coronary artery disease in 138 consecutive patients undergoing supine bicycle stress echocardiography. Sixty of these patients had single-vessel disease; 37, double-vessel disease; and 19, triple-vessel disease. Exercise was performed in the 20- to 30-degree left decubitus position on an echo-bed with an ergometer.

Acromegaly with multiple cardiovascular complications--cardiomyopathy, chordae rupture of mitral valve, myocardial infarction and sick sinus syndrome.

A 62-year-old woman had acromegaly and developed congestive heart failure with cardiomyopathy, mitral regurgitation due to chordae rupture, coronary artery disease and sick sinus syndrome. Since congestive heart failure was resistant to medical therapy, mitral valve replacement, aortocoronary bypass surgery and implantation of permanent pacemaker were performed one month after her admission. Although acromegalic patients with cardiomyopathy are usually resistant to therapy, we successfully treated the patient by the surgeries.

Myocardial ischemia adjacent to infarction enhances the magnitude of exercise-induced ST-segment elevation one month after myocardial infarction.

The aims of this study were to compare exercise-induced ST-segment elevation with and without ischemia and to examine the relation between exercise-induced ST-segment elevation and the location of myocardial ischemia. Seventy-nine patients with first anterior myocardial infarction underwent thallium-201 exercise myocardial scintigraphy test one month after myocardial infarction. There were 37 patients showing no reversible defect (non ischemia group), 33 with reversible defect in the territory of the left descending coronary artery (homozonal ischemia group) and 9 with a reversible defect in the territory of the left circumflex or right coronary artery (remote ischemia group).

[Quadricuspid pulmonary valve with valvular stenosis and regurgitation identified by transthoracic echocardiography: a case report].

A 74-year-old man was admitted to our hospital complaining of dyspnea. Parasternal transthoracic echocardiography showed a quadricuspid pulmonary valve above the aortic valve and a hypoplastic accessory cusp between the right and left cusps of the pulmonary valve. The pulmonary valve ring diameter was normal (26 mm) but the transvalvular peak velocity was 3.

Diagnosis of vasospastic angina by hyperventilation and cold-pressor stress echocardiography: comparison to I-MIBG myocardial scintigraphy.

Objectives: We assessed the usefulness of hyperventilation and cold-pressor stress echocardiography in the diagnosis of vasospastic angina compared with that of iodine-123 metaiodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG) myocardial scintigraphy.

Background: Various noninvasive methods have been used to detect vasospastic angina, but they are not very sensitive in the diagnosis of vasospastic angina. 123I-MIBG images and stress echocardiography have recently been proposed as a useful tool for detecting vasospastic angina.

Nitric oxide, anti-inflammatory drugs on renal prostaglandins and cyclooxygenase-2.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are frequently used as analgesics. They inhibit cyclooxygenases (COX), preventing the formation of prostaglandins, including prostacyclin and thromboxane. A serious side effect of COX-1 and COX-2 is renal damage.