Illness representations of coronary artery disease: an empirical examination of the Illness Perceptions Questionnaire (IPQ) in patients undergoing surgery, angioplasty and medication.

Background: This study sought to validate empirically, through factor analysis, the theoretically developed Illness Perceptions Questionnaire (IPQ) measure of illness representations, and investigated how illness representations varied within an illness condition between different treatments.

Methods: Two hundred and fourteen coronary artery disease (CAD) patients, 70 of whom were undergoing medication, 71 to undergo angioplasty and 73 to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), completed the New Zealand Heart Attack Recovery Project version of the IPQ. The core cognitive illness representation statement responses were subject to principal components analyses (PCA), with oblique rotation.

Leucocyte-depleting arterial line filtration does not reduce myocardial injury assessed by Troponin T during routine coronary artery bypass grafting using crossclamp fibrillation.

Introduction: Leucocyte filtration can reduce inflammation and end-organ damage. The aim of this study was to test the cardioprotective effect of systemic leucocyte filtration during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) for coronary revascularization.

Methods: Sixty patients scheduled for elective coronary artery bypass grafting were prospectively randomised to receive either a test leucocyte-depleting (LD) filter or a control standard arterial line filter in the CPB circuit.

HIV-related aneurysm of the aortic root in a patient outside Africa: a case report.

We report a patient infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) with an aneurysm of the aortic root. No definitive histopathological diagnosis was entertained in this case. Based on the existing literature, we discuss a potential causative relationship between HIV and aortic aneurysm.