Transition from intravenous to subcutaneous insulin: effectiveness and safety of a standardized protocol and predictors of outcome in patients with acute coronary syndrome.

Objective: The study objectives were 1) to assess the effectiveness and safety of a standardized protocol for the transition to subcutaneous insulin and oral feeding in diabetic or hyperglycemic patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who were receiving intravenous insulin and glucose at the time of the transfer from the intensive cardiac care unit to a general ward and 2) to identify predictors of transition outcome.

Research Design And Methods: This was a prospective observational study. The protocol specifies that patients receive a 100% of their daily subcutaneous insulin requirement from the first day of oral feeding, calculated from the intravenous insulin rate during the final 12 h divided into two: 50% basal and 50% prandial.

Hyperglycemia during acute coronary syndrome: a nurse-managed insulin infusion protocol for stricter and safer control.

Background: Diabetic patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) might benefit from tight glycemic control by means of insulin infusion. Nurse-implemented insulin infusion protocols (IIP) are available but none validated in patients with ACS admitted to a coronary care unit (CCU).

Aims: To assess feasibility, effectiveness and safety of a new nurse-managed IIP (Desio Diabetes Diagram, DDD) for intensive glucose control in patients with suspected ACS and known diabetes or blood glucose (BG) >200 mg/dL.

["Incomplete closure" of the mitral valve: the relationships to valvular regurgitation and to the morphofunctional characteristics of the left ventricle].

Objectives: The present study was designed in order to evaluate the prevalence of mitral regurgitation in patients with the "incomplete mitral leaflet closure" echocardiographic pattern, to verify whether the amount of "incomplete mitral leaflet closure" is related to the severity of mitral regurgitation and, last, to verify the relation between the "incomplete mitral leaflet closure" and left ventricular morphology and function.

Methods: We studied 80 patients (14 patients with dilatative cardiomyopathy, 26 patients with coronary artery disease, and 40 patients with hypertensive heart disease or aortic valve disease) showing the "incomplete mitral leaflet closure" pattern, retrospectively selected from a population composed of 1700 consecutive patients routinely examined in our echocardiographic laboratory. In all patients we evaluated the presence and the severity of mitral regurgitation, the morphological and functional parameters of the left ventricle, the systolic diameter of the mitral annulus, the distance between the point of mitral leaflet coaptation and the annular plane, and the incomplete mitral closure area, assuming the last two parameters as indexes of the severity of incomplete closure of the mitral valve.

Does aortic regurgitation affect transmitral flow? An echo-Doppler study.

Recent studies suggest that the presence of aortic regurgitation can interfere with Doppler measurement of mitral pressure half-time in patients with mitral stenosis. Amongst the factors affecting the transmitral flow in aortic regurgitation a putative role may be played by the mechanical hit of the aortic regurgitant jet impinging on the anterior mitral leaflet, as is very often seen with Doppler Color Flow examination. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of pure aortic regurgitation on the transmitral flow in patients with normal mitral valves.