Prolonged drying trend coincident with the demise of Norse settlement in southern Greenland.

Declining temperature has been thought to explain the abandonment of Norse settlements, southern Greenland, in the early 15th century, although limited paleoclimate evidence is available from the inner settlement region itself. Here, we reconstruct the temperature and hydroclimate history from lake sediments at a site adjacent to a former Norse farm. We find no substantial temperature changes during the settlement period but rather that the region experienced a persistent drying trend, which peaked in the 16th century.

Multivessel percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with multivessel disease and acute myocardial infarction.

Background: The optimal percutaneous interventional strategy for dealing with significant non-culprit lesions in patients with multivessel disease (MVD) with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) at presentation remains controversial.

Methods: A total of 820 patients treated with primary angioplasty for AMI between 1998 and 2002 were classified in groups of patients with single vessel disease (SVD) or MVD (> or =70% stenosis of > or =2 coronary arteries). Patients with MVD were subdivided in 3 groups on the basis of the revascularization strategy: 1) patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of the infarct-related artery (IRA) only; 2) patients undergoing PCI of both the IRA and non-IRA(s) during the initial procedure; and 3) patients undergoing PCI of the IRA followed by staged, in-hospital PCI of the non-IRA(s).