Publications by authors named "Tolga H Efe"

Article Synopsis
  • Vitamin D deficiency is linked to poor cardiovascular health and impaired diastolic function, especially in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS).
  • A study involving 117 ACS patients used echocardiography to measure diastolic function and found that lower vitamin D levels correlated with worse diastolic metrics.
  • Results indicated that low vitamin D was a significant predictor and independent risk factor for diastolic dysfunction in these patients, even with preserved left ventricular systolic function.
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to assess the evolution of fragmented QRS (fQRS) and NT-proBNP levels during myocardial infarction (MI). Among 511 patients, 205 (40.1%) had fQRS, with 54 (26.

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Article Synopsis
  • Management of atrial fibrillation (AF) in severely obese patients is complex, but cryoballoon ablation (CBA) shows encouraging results despite certain risks.
  • In a study involving 72 severely obese patients (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m) compared to 129 normal-weight patients (BMI < 25 kg/m), similar procedural times were observed, but severely obese patients had higher radiation exposure and more complications.
  • Although outcomes for paroxysmal and persistent AF were slightly lower in severely obese patients, CBA is still a viable treatment option with relatively good success rates.
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The triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index is a marker of insulin resistance and is associated with cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Left ventricular remodeling (LVR) after myocardial infarction (STEMI) is associated with poor prognosis. This retrospective study included 293 STEMI patients.

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Background: Although the autonomic reaction such as bradycardia is observed frequently during pulsed-field ablation (PFA)-guided pulmonary vein isolation (PVI), its mechanism and effect on the adjacent intrinsic cardiac autonomic nervous system (ICANS) are unclear.

Objectives: This study aimed to reveal the clinical impact of PFA on ICANS by investigating the serum S100 increase (ΔS100), a well-known denervation relevant biomarker.

Methods: Pre- and postprocedural serum S100 analyses were systematically conducted in patients undergoing PVI using either the pentaspline PFA or cryoballoon ablation (CBA) system.

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Catheter ablation is a widely used, effective and safe treatment for AF. Pulsed field ablation (PFA), as a novel energy source for cardiac ablation, has been shown to be tissue selective and is expected to decrease damage to non-cardiac tissue while providing high efficacy in pulmonary vein isolation. The FARAPULSE ablation system (Boston Scientific) follows the idea of single-shot ablation and is the first device approved for clinical use in Europe.

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Para-Hisian pacing (PHP) is among the most useful maneuvers in cardiac electrophysiology during sinus rhythm and identifies whether retrograde conduction is dependent on the atrioventricular (AV) node. In this maneuver, the retrograde activation time and pattern are compared during capture and loss of capture of the His bundle while pacing from a para-Hisian position. A common misconception about PHP is that it is useful only for septal accessory pathways (APs).

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Atrial tachycardia (AT) with alternating cycle lengths is sparsely reported, and, hence, the ideal mapping strategy has not been firmly established. Beyond the entrainment during tachycardia, some fragmentation characteristics might also give important clues for its possible participation in the macro-re-entrant circuit. We discuss a patient with prior atrial septal defect surgical closures who presented with dual macro-re-entrant ATs related to a fragmented area on the right atrial free wall (240 ms) and the cavotricuspid isthmus (260 ms), respectively.

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Background: The cryoballoon (CB) represents the gold standard single-shot device for pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Single-shot pulsed field PVI ablation (nonthermal, cardiac tissue selective) has recently entered the arena. We sought to compare procedural data and long-term outcome of both techniques.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the Tp-e interval and Tp-e/QTc ratio as predictors of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with type 2 diabetes, both with and without microvascular complications.
  • A total of 240 patients were evaluated, revealing significant differences in the Tp-e/QTc ratios between those with and without complications, particularly in relation to diabetic neuropathy, nephropathy, and retinopathy severity.
  • This research highlights a crucial link between myocardial repolarization metrics and diabetic complications, indicating that these measures could help assess arrhythmia risk in diabetic patients.
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Objectives: Elevated red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is an independent prognostic factor for cardiovascular events that are major causes of mortality in patients with carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. Due to the limited number of studies, we aimed to investigate the relationship between RDW levels and long-term mortality for these patients.

Method: This retrospective study included patients with CO poisoning, who presented to the emergency department.

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Objective: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurological disorder, and ergot dopamine agonists (DAs) are no longer usually preferred in the treatment due to the increased risk of valvular heart disease. Some recent studies have shown that commonly used non-ergot DA also increases the risk of heart failure. On the other hand, there are studies showing conflicting data about this relationship.

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Objectives: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a chronic, inflammatory, and autoimmune connective tissue disease that is associated with vascular lesions, and fibrosis of the skin and visceral organs. Cardiac complications may occur as a secondary effect of SSc as a result of pulmonary arterial hypertension and interstitial lung disease. The objective of this study was to assess whether the pulmonary pulse transit time (pPTT) could serve as a diagnostic marker for pulmonary arterial alterations in patients with SSc, prior to development of pulmonary hypertension.

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Objective: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, inflammatory, and autoimmune connective tissue disease. One of the leading causes of mortality among SLE patients is pulmonary hypertension. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between echocardiographic findings, including the pulmonary pulse transit time and pulmonary hypertension parameters, in SLE patients.

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Flash pulmonary edema frequently develop in case of bilateral renal artery stenosis and unilateral renal artery stenosis with functional solitary kidney. In some rare cases, unilateral renal artery stenosis with bilaterally functional kidneys may also lead to flash pulmonary edema. Here, we present a case of flash pulmonary edema caused by accessory renal artery stenosis.

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Marijuana and its synthetic forms, called synthetic cannabinoids (SCs), are used as recreational drugs. Bonzai is a kind of SC. Adverse cardiovascular events have been reported with abuse of marijuana and SCs, including arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, and sudden cardiac death.

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Objective: Pulse pressure (PP) is the difference between systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and is an independent predictor of atrial fibrillation (AF). In this study we investigated the relationship between PP and atrial conduction times.

Methods: The study included 157 patients with essential hypertension.

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Introduction And Objective: The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is established as a reliable marker of systemic inflammation. Low-grade inflammation has a key role in the pathogenesis and progression of hypertension (HTN). Blood pressure (BP) load, defined as the percentage of abnormally elevated BP readings, is a good marker of HTN severity.

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Background And Objectives: The recently discovered myokine irisin has a proposed role in adipose tissue metabolism. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between serum irisin level and the coronary artery severity in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD).

Subjects And Methods: Sixty-three patients who underwent coronary angiography (CA) diagnosed with stable CAD and twenty-six patients with normal coronary artery (NCA) were enrolled in the study.

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Objective: It is thought that abnormal cardiac impulses of the autonomic nervous system during sleep are responsible for sleep-related bradyarrhythmias. Despite a proposed common etiopathogenesis and having common name of "sleep-related bradyarrhythmias," precise importance of sinoatrial or atrioventricular (AV) node involvement remains elusive. This study aimed to determine whether there is a difference in sleeprelated bradyarrhythmias from the point of view of heart rate variability (HRV).

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Introduction: The relationship between inflammation and mortality after acute pulmonary embolism (APE) has previously been investigated with different variables (platelet/lymphocyte ratio, etc).

Objectives: We investigated the predictive value of lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR) for mortality in first 30 days after APE.

Methods: The study population included 264 APE patients of which 230 patients were survivors, 34 patients were non-survivors.

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