Noncardiac surgery in the patient with heart disease.

Clinicians are increasingly asked what they can do to evaluate and lower the risk of perioperative cardiac complications. Approximately 4 decades ago, there were few tools to guide the evaluation of perioperative risk. The American Society of Anesthesiology Classification System (ASA class) gave only a vague idea of the risk patients faced during surgery, but the modern era of clinical risk assessment for perioperative complications has seen the introduction of tools that allow clinicians to estimate risk, and also the addition of stress testing for assessing perioperative risk.

The role of nicotinic acid metabolites in flushing and hepatotoxicity.

Flushing and hepatotoxicity are important adverse effects of nicotinic acid. This article reviews the role of metabolism of nicotinic acid in the production of these side effects. The suggestion that nicotinic acid (NUA) formation produces flushing is traced to a correlation of flushing with NUA C(max) (maximal concentration) and the observation that aspirin inhibits NUA formation and flushing.