Relation of Coronary Flow Reserve to Other Findings on Positron Emission Tomography Myocardial Perfusion Imaging and Left Heart Catheterization in Patients With End-stage Renal Disease Being Evaluated for Kidney Transplant.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and often goes undetected. Abnormal coronary flow reserve (CFR), which predicts increased risk of cardiac death, may be present in patients with ESRD without other evidence of coronary artery disease (CAD). We prospectively studied 131 patients who had rest and dipyridamole pharmacologic stress N-ammonia positron emission tomography myocardial perfusion imaging (PET MPI) for kidney transplant evaluation.

Can physicians identify inappropriate nuclear stress tests? An examination of inter-rater reliability for the 2009 appropriate use criteria for radionuclide imaging.

Background: We sought to determine inter-rater reliability of the 2009 Appropriate Use Criteria for radionuclide imaging and whether physicians at various levels of training can effectively identify nuclear stress tests with inappropriate indications.

Methods And Results: Four hundred patients were randomly selected from a consecutive cohort of patients undergoing nuclear stress testing at an academic medical center. Raters with different levels of training (including cardiology attending physicians, cardiology fellows, internal medicine hospitalists, and internal medicine interns) classified individual nuclear stress tests using the 2009 Appropriate Use Criteria.

The role of F18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in identifying patients at high risk for lethal arrhythmias from cardiac sarcoidosis and the use of serial scanning to guide therapy.

Substantial literature exists linking inflammation with arrhythmia, in particular with regards to serological markers of systemic inflammation. Regional inflammation can be identified using positron emission tomography (PET) with the radiotracer F18-fluorodeoxyglucose (F18-FDG). In the current series, we demonstrate novel applications of cardiac PET using F18-FDG and N13-ammonia radiotracers in the evaluation and treatment of arrhythmia associated with cardiac sarcoidosis.

Comparison of surgical pericardial drainage with percutaneous catheter drainage for pericardial effusion.

Objective: We sought to investigate the outcomes for different treatments of pericardial effusions.

Background: The optimal initial management for symptomatic pericardial effusions remains controversial.

Methods: We performed a 3-year retrospective, single-institution study comparing open surgical drainage to percutaneous pericardiocentesis for symptomatic pericardial effusions.

Cardiac tamponade as a complication of laparoscopic hiatal hernia repair: case report and literature review.

We report the case of a 61-year old female with history of gastroesophageal reflux disease and hiatal hernia who developed hemopericardium and tamponade one day after laparoscopic hiatal hernia repair and Toupe fundoplication. The patient underwent emergent pericardiocentesis and subsequent surgical pericardial window. During surgery, a tack that had been used to secure mesh to the inferior aspect of the diaphragm was found to have penetrated the pericardium near the right ventricle.

Clinical features, surgical treatment, and long-term outcome in adult patients with moyamoya disease. Clinical article.

Object: The object of this study was to report the clinical features, surgical treatment, and long-term outcomes in adults with moyamoya phenomenon treated at a single institution in the US.

Methods: Forty-three adult patients with moyamoya disease (mean age 40 +/- 11 years [SD], range 18-69 years) were treated with encephaloduroarteriosynangiosis (EDAS). Neurologists examined patients pre- and postoperatively.