Prospective association of obstructive sleep apnea risk factors with heart failure and its subtypes in postmenopausal women: The Women's Health Initiative.

Study Objectives: The relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and heart failure (HF) incidence in postmenopausal women has been understudied, given the limited representation of women in heart failure studies. We investigated the relationship between OSA risk factors and HF and its subtypes in postmenopausal women.

Methods: We performed a prospective analysis on the adjudicated HF outcomes in the Women's Health Initiative from enrollment (1993-1998) to September 30, 2016.

Use of speckle-tracking echocardiography-derived strain and systolic strain rate measurements to predict rejection in transplant hearts with preserved ejection fraction.

Background: Noninvasive diagnosis of allograft rejection in heart transplant recipients is challenging. The utility of 2-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) to predict severe rejection in heart transplant recipients with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was evaluated.

Methods: Adult heart transplant patients with preserved LVEF (> 55%) and severe rejection by biopsy (Rejection Grade ≥ 2R) or no rejection between 1997 and 2011 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota were evaluated.

Expect the unexpected: Rectus sheath hematoma comes without a notice.

[Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-11.asp].

Lyme Carditis: An Interesting Trip to Third-Degree Heart Block and Back.

Carditis is an uncommon presentation of the early disseminated phase of Lyme disease. We present the case of a young female who presented with erythema migrans and was found to have first-degree heart block which progressed to complete heart block within hours. After receiving ceftriaxone, there was complete resolution of the heart block in sequential fashion.