Coronary artery disease in patients with rheumatic and non-rheumatic valvular heart disease treated at a public hospital in Rio de Janeiro.

Objective: to estimate the prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in valvular heart disease of rheumatic (RVHD) and non-rheumatic (NVHD) etiology, assessing possible predictive factors for the presence of CAD.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of a series of cases obtained from a pre-defined population, wherein 1,412 patients referred for heart surgery of any etiology were evaluated. Of these, 294 primary heart disease patients aged > or =40 submitted to cinecoronary arteriography (CA) were identified and studied.

[Chronic Chagas disease patients with sinus node dysfunction: is the presence of IgG antibodies with muscarinic agonist action independent of left ventricular dysfunction?].

Studies have shown that muscarinic agonist IgG antibodies from Chagas disease patients alter the electrical activity of cardiac cells in vitro. Others have considered their presence, along with sinus node dysfunction, to be consequences of progressive cardiac lesions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between these antibodies and sinus node and left ventricular dysfunction in 65 chronic Chagas disease patients.