Is it safe to allow patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators to drive? Learnings from a single center experience.

Background: Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implant indications have widened in recent years after the publication of the Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial 2 and the Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial. On the contrary, guidelines on resumption of driving after ICD implant were published almost 10 years ago when the ICD implant rate was much lower and candidates were generally older.

Aim Of The Study: The overall objective of our study was to evaluate whether patients implanted with ICDs have higher risk than the general driving population.

Serum levels of different tumour markers in patients with chronic heart failure.

Background: serum levels of carbohydratic antigen 125 (CA 125), a tumour marker related to ovarian cancer, are increased in patients with heart failure (CHF). To our knowledge there are no data concerning the levels of other tumour markers in CHF.

Methods: we measured serum levels of Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP), Carcinoembrionic antigen (CEA), CA 19.

One biologic marker (carbohydrate antigen-CA 125), two different diseases (ovarian cancer and congestive heart failure): practical implications of monitoring CA 125 serum levels. A case report.

Carbohydrate antigen (CA) 125 is a glycoprotein produced by the serous epithelium, found to be increased in ovarian cancer and currently used in the follow-up of patients with this malignancy and to evaluate the response to therapy. However, an increase in the blood levels of this tumor marker has been recently reported even in patients with congestive heart failure. We report a case of a woman in whom previously high levels of CA 125 were related to the presence of an ovarian cancer; after bilateral oophorectomy and chemotherapy, the CA 125 levels remained within the normal range for several years, until a new increase was recently detected, raising the suspicion of a cancer recurrence.

[New and old beta-blockers in the treatment of heart failure].

Controlled clinical trials, performed in more than 16,000 patients to date, have consistently shown the beneficial effects of long-term beta-blocker therapy in patients with chronic heart failure. However, it is not clear whether this represents a class effect or it is specific only to some agents. Beneficial effects on the prognosis of the patients with mild to moderate heart failure have been shown with metoprolol, bisoprolol, and carvedilol.