Health-related quality of life in fibromyalgia and refractory angina pectoris: a comparison between two chronic non-malignant pain disorders.

Objective: To compare health-related quality of life in 2 different populations with chronic pain: patients with fibromyalgia and patients with refractory angina pectoris. Previous separate studies have indicated that these patient groups report different impacts of pain on health-related quality of life.

Methods: The Short-Form 36 was used to assess health- related quality of life.

Stress-induced cardiomyopathy in Sweden: evidence for different ethnic predisposition and altered cardio-circulatory status.

Background: In this paper, we report about new insights regarding clinical course, long-term outcome, ethnic/genetic predisposition and cardio-circulatory status in the large stress-induced cardiomyopathy (SIC) cohort from Sweden.

Methods And Results: We have included 115 consecutive SIC patients between January 2005 and January 2010 at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg. Hemodynamic status and sympathetic nerve activity were evaluated and compared with those of healthy controls.

Sympathetic nerve activity in stress-induced cardiomyopathy.

Purpose: To evaluate directly recorded efferent sympathetic nerve traffic in patients with stress-induced cardiomyopathy (SIC).

Background: SIC is a syndrome affecting mostly postmenopausal women following severe emotional stress. Though the precise pathophysiology is not well understood, a catecholamine overstimulation of the myocardium is thought to underlie the pathogenesis.

High prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux in patients with clinical unstable angina and known coronary artery disease.

Objectives: Esophageal disease may mimic acute anginal pain. However, the prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux in the acute setting of patients with clinically unstable angina (UA) pectoris is not known. The aim of this study was to determine the co-existence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and gastroesophageal reflux in UA, and to study the feasibility of esophageal investigation in the chest pain unit.