Profound thrombocytopenia induced by clopidogrel with a prior history of long-term safe administration.

Clopidogrel has shown an excellent safety, tolerability and efficacy ever since its marketing. However, here we report a rare case with profound thrombocytopenia following clopidogrel administration previously safely exposed to this same drug. This reminds us that thrombocytopenia might be induced by clopidogrel even with a prior, safe history of long-term administration.

Coronary intervention in patients>or=75 years old with ST-elevation myocardial infarction: in-hospital and 6-month clinical outcomes.

Background: ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in elderly patients presents specific clinical characteristics. The study on percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in elderly patients (>or=75 years) with STEMI, however, has less been performed.

Methods: In the present study, 522 consecutive STEMI patients undergoing PCI within 12 hours from symptom onset were investigated, and clinical characteristics and in-hospital and 6-month outcomes of 66 elderly patients (>or=75 years, group A) were compared to those of 456 younger patients (<75 years, group B).

[Body mass index and prognosis in patients with systolic heart failure].

Objective: In individuals without cardiovascular disease, elevated body mass index (BMI) is associated with an increased risk of death. However, in patients with certain chronic diseases, including heart failure, low BMI has been associated with increased mortality. We investigated the association between BMI and prognosis in patients with systolic HF.

[Association between single nucleotide polymorphisms of matrix metalloproteinase-3 gene and the severity of coronary atherosclerosis in patients with coronary artery disease].

Objective: To investigate the association between the severity of coronary arteries in patients with coronary artery disease and the single nucleotide polymorphisms of MMP-3 gene.

Methods: One thousand and three hundred seventy-one patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) diagnosed by coronary angiography and six hundred and ninety-five healthy controls without CAD were enrolled in this study. The SNPs of -1612 5A/6A, -376C/G, Glu45Lys of MMP-3 were genotyped by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (RFLP) in all subjects.