Effect of Cold Atmospheric Plasma Therapy vs Standard Therapy Placebo on Wound Healing in Patients With Diabetic Foot Ulcers: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Diabetic foot ulcers are a common complication of diabetes and require specialized treatment. Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has been associated with benefits in wound infection and healing in previous smaller series of case reports. Yet the effect of CAP compared with standard care therapy in wound healing in diabetic foot ulcers remains to be studied.

Results From the International Drug Coated Balloon Registry for the Treatment of Bifurcations. Can a Bifurcation Be Treated Without Stents?

Objectives: This observational study assessed the 9-month clinical outcomes in patients with coronary bifurcation lesions suitable for drug-coated balloon (DCB) angioplasty. It was the intention to use DCB's without additional stenting (DCB-only strategy) in selected patients for this chosen strategy. Bail-out main branch (MB) and/or side branch (SB) stenting, however, were permissible when flow limiting dissections or excessive recoil occurred.

Five-year results of the Multicenter Randomized Controlled Open-Label Study of the CYPHER Sirolimus-Eluting Stent in the Treatment of Diabetic Patients with De Novo Native Coronary Artery Lesions (SCORPIUS) study: a German multicenter investigation on the effectiveness of sirolimus-eluting stents in diabetic patients.

Background: Because a delayed arterial healing response after drug-eluting stent implantation has raised concerns about safety in diabetic patients, long-term effects of treatment with sirolimus-eluting stent (SES), as compared with bare-metal stent (BMS), have to be established. The aim of the 5-year follow-up of the randomized, controlled, open-label multicenter SCORPIUS study was to assess long-term safety and efficacy of the CYPHER (Cordis, Johnson & Johnson, Bridgewater, NJ) SES in percutaneous coronary intervention of diabetic patients.

Methods: A total of 190 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were randomized to receive either a SES (n = 95) or a BMS (n = 95).

Six sequence variants on chromosome 9p21.3 are associated with a positive family history of myocardial infarction: a multicenter registry.

Background: Recent genome-wide association studies have identified several genetic loci linked to coronary artery disease (CAD) and myocardial infarction (MI). The 9p21.3 locus was verified by numerous replication studies to be the first common locus for CAD and MI.

Megakaryocyte impairment by eptifibatide-induced antibodies causes prolonged thrombocytopenia.

Glycoprotein (GP) IIbIIIa inhibitors are used in the treatment of acute coronary syndromes. Transient immune-mediated acute thrombocytopenia is a recognized side effect of GPIIbIIIa inhibitors. We provide evidence that GPIIbIIIa inhibitor-induced antibodies can affect megakaryocytes in the presence of eptifibatide.

[ESC/EASD joint guidelines on diabetes and cardiovascular diseases].

The ESC/EASD (European Society of Cardiology/European Association for the Study of Diabetes) joint Guidelines on diabetes, pre-diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases have, for the first time, addressed diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) as a pathophysiological entity in Europe. Based on these guidelines, diabetes mellitus is regarded from the outset to be a cardiovascular disease, whose life-threatening complications myocardial infarction and stroke can only be avoided by an interdisciplinary concerted action. The most important information of these guidelines for the interdisciplinary cooperation of primary-care physicians, diabetologists and cardiologists are the postulations that patients with the main diagnosis diabetes mellitus with or without known CVD should, at regular intervals, be referred to a cardiologist, and patients with the main diagnosis CVD with or without diabetes mellitus should, at regular intervals, be referred to a diabetologist.

The PHARAO study: prevention of hypertension with the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor ramipril in patients with high-normal blood pressure: a prospective, randomized, controlled prevention trial of the German Hypertension League.

Background: The prevention of hypertension with the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor ramipril in patients with high-normal blood pressure study addresses the issue of whether progression to manifest hypertension in patients with high-normal blood pressure can be prevented with treatment.

Methods: A total of 1008 participants with high-normal office blood pressure were randomized to ramipril treatment group (n = 505) and a control group (n = 503). The patients were followed up for 3 years.

Serum thyrotropin levels predict all-cause and circulatory mortality in patients with invasively treated coronary artery disease.

The aim of the present study was to analyze the relation of low or high serum thyrotropin (TSH) with mortality in patients with invasively treated coronary artery disease. We followed-up 942 patients who underwent coronary angioplasties or coronary artery bypass graft surgery over a mean follow-up period of 6.4+/-1.

One-year results of the SCORPIUS study: a German multicenter investigation on the effectiveness of sirolimus-eluting stents in diabetic patients.

Objectives: This study sought to analyze the effectiveness of drug-eluting stents in a high-risk group of diabetic patients. Previously, this had been analyzed only in substudies of larger trials or in clinical investigations enrolling a small number of patients.

Background: Drug-eluting stents are highly effective in reducing the rate of in-stent restenosis.

A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled multicenter clinical trial to evaluate the effects of the angiotensin II receptor blocker candesartan cilexetil on intimal hyperplasia after coronary stent implantation.

Background: Preclinical data suggest beneficial effects of angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) on neointima formation after vascular injury. Preliminary clinical data, however, revealed conflicting results. The AACHEN trial was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical multicenter trial to evaluate the effects of candesartan cilexetil on intimal hyperplasia after coronary stent implantation.

Outcome after coronary artery bypass graft surgery, coronary angioplasty and stenting.

Aims: We undertook this prospective observational study to investigate the long-term prognosis after balloon angioplasty (PTCA), coronary stenting (CS) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

Methods And Results: A total number of 1038 patients with PTCA (n=499), CS (n=294) or CABG (n=245) were followed-up over a mean time of 6.4+/-1.

Interaction between factor V Leiden and serum LDL cholesterol increases the risk of atherosclerosis.

Objectives: We investigated the association between the factor V Leiden gene variant and carotid atherosclerosis in a cross-sectional study and explored possible associations between this gene variant and coronary artery disease (CAD) in a case-control study.

Methods: The presence (n=1696) or absence (n=703) of carotid atherosclerosis were sonographically assessed among participants of the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP). The case-control study included 1021 patients with severe CAD and 2791 healthy SHIP participants.

[High blood pressure and coronary heart disease. Are there new therapeutic options?].

Besides type 2 diabetes and cigarette smoking arterial hypertension represents the most powerful risk factor for the development of coronary artery disease. Independent from the existence of coronary artery disease i. e.

Candidate genetic markers and the risk of restenosis after coronary angioplasty.

The aim of the present study was to test for possible associations between candidate gene polymorphisms and the risk of restenosis and recurrent restenosis after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) without stenting. We followed up 511 PTCA patients, and restenosis and recurrent restenosis were defined according to angiographical criteria. Genotyping of the beta-fibrinogen -455 G/A, glycoprotein (GP) IIIa PlA1/PlA2, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) 4G/5G, factor V Leiden 1691 G/A, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) -238 G/A, TNFalpha -308 G/A, interleukin (IL)-1alpha -889 C/T, IL-1beta -511 C/T, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) 677 C/T and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) 4 b/a gene polymorphisms was performed by PCR and restriction-fragment-length-polymorphism-based techniques.

Angiotensinogen M235T gene polymorphism and recurrent restenosis after repeated percutaneous transluminal coronary angiography.

The present study was designed to prospectively test the hypothesis that gene polymorphisms of the renin-angiotensin system are associated with recurrent restenosis after repeated percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. Five hundred and eleven patients after first successful angioplasty were characterized with respect to the angiotensinogen M235T, angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion and angiotensin II type 1 receptor A1166C gene polymorphisms. In 164 of these patients repeated angioplasty on a restenotic lesion was performed.