Pre-procedural glucose levels and the risk for contrast-induced acute kidney injury in patients undergoing emergency coronary intervention.

Background: The incidence, risk factors, and outcome of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) in 730 patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) undergoing emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), whose contrast volume was below maximum allowable contrast dose (MACD) was prospectively investigated.

Methods And Results: MACD was defined as (5ml×body weight [kg]/baseline creatinine [mg/dl]). CI-AKI was defined as a greater than 25% increase in creatinine from the baseline or an absolute increase of ≥0.

Circulating high-mobility group box 1 and cardiovascular mortality in unstable angina and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

Objective: High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a damage-associated molecular pattern molecule, which suggests a potential role of this protein in the pathophysiology of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Circulating HMGB1 has been shown to be independently associated with cardiac mortality in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. However, its prognostic value remains unclear in unstable angina and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (UA/NSTEMI).

Impact of statin therapy on plaque characteristics as assessed by serial OCT, grayscale and integrated backscatter-IVUS.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of statin treatment on coronary plaque composition and morphology by optical coherence tomography (OCT), grayscale and integrated backscatter (IB) intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging.

Background: Although previous studies have demonstrated that statins substantially improve cardiac mortality, their precise effect on the lipid content and fibrous cap thickness of atherosclerotic coronary lesions is less clear. While IVUS lacks the spatial resolution to accurately assess fibrous cap thickness, OCT lacks the penetration of IVUS.