M E Pfisterer

..The aim of this prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was to assess the preventive effect and safety of low-dose sotalol after heart operation...

..We sought to define the incidence of late clinical events and late stent thrombosis in patients treated with drug-eluting (DES) versus bare-metal stents (BMS) after the discontinuation of clopidogrel as well as their timing and outcome...

..There are no prospective trial data on long-term outcomes in 80-year-old patients with chronic angina with regard to antiischemic therapy...

..To assess the long-term benefit-risk ratio of drug-eluting (DES) vs. bare-metal stents (BMS) relative to stent size...

..It is not known, however, whether improvements relate only to physical or also to mental and social domains of QoL and whether women benefit in a similar way to men...

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..It is uncertain whether intensified heart failure therapy guided by N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is superior to symptom-guided therapy...

..If right ventricular shock is diagnosed, urgent reperfusion of the infarct related artery and appropriate circulatory support are required...

..The Trial of Invasive versus Medical therapy in Elderly patients (TIME) recently showed early benefits in quality of life from invasive therapy in patients aged 75 years or older, although with a certain excess in mortality...

..We sought to test the hypothesis that late recanalization of infarct-related coronary arteries (IRAs) improves long-term left ventricular (LV) function...

..CONCLUSION: MVD angioplasty with complete revascularization has a long-term event-free survival similar to that of SVD angioplasty but at the price of a higher rate of 6-month restenosis and repeat interventions...

..To investigate whether there is an increased risk of cardiac events with a combined therapy of clopidogrel and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)...

..It should be considered whether current guidelines should be changed to account for these considerations, and other adequately powered randomized controlled trials should be performed to endorse current knowledge...

..It will provide unique information comparing two treatment strategies in two age groups irrespective of ejection fraction regarding prognosis, quality of life, as well as resource utilization and costs...

..Four patients with elevated troponin levels after supraventricular tachycardia without evidence of coronary artery disease and very low risk scores for acute coronary syndrome are described and discussed...

..Costs should not be an argument against invasive management of elderly patients with chronic angina...

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..Little is known about the relation between severity of ischemia and duration of myocardial stunning. The aim of this study was therefore to characterize the impact of ischemia on myocardial stunning and on its duration...

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..It is unknown which patients benefit most from drug-eluting stents (DES) against bare-metal stents (BMS) in a long-term clinical outcome...

..To assess major bleeding complications in patients after coronary stenting who are on dual antiplatelet drugs with or without oral anticoagulants...

..3 g/dL by 23% (adjusted risk ratio 1.23, P = .01). CONCLUSION: Anemia proved to be an independent predictor of death and major clinical adverse events among elderly patients with stable symptomatic CAD...

..We sought to confirm this observation and to assess whether this increase in risk was also seen with second-generation drug-eluting stents...

..Our aim was to determine whether drug-eluting stents are good value for money in long-term, everyday practice...

..The effect of a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on the long-term prognosis of patients with silent ischemia after a myocardial infarction (MI) is not known...

..Asymptomatic high-risk diabetic patients therefore might benefit from routine screening for silent ischaemia and risk stratification; furthermore, silent ischaemia has to be treated accordingly...

..Whether, for example, less restrictive use of revascularisation procedures in this elderly HF population can improve the outcome for patients with CAD warrants further study...

..As no detailed comparative evaluation in consecutive patients referred for evaluation of CAD has been reported, this prospective study evaluating 2384 coronary segments in 149 consecutive patients was performed...

..We sought to assess the ability of a new noninvasive method to quantify atherosclerosis severity and to examine its power to predict cardiovascular events...

..B-type natriuretic peptide levels are higher in patients with congestive heart failure than in patients with dyspnea from other causes...

..Prior studies were focused on younger and less well-characterized patients. We aimed to identify predictors of early hospital readmission and death in elderly patients with HF...

..Methods to ensure sustained benefits of cardiac rehabilitation need to be explored. The aim was to assess the effect of a home-based intervention (INT) on exercise adherence and risk factors after cardiac rehabilitation...

..In conclusion, in hypertensive patients, echocardiographic LV hypertrophy can be excluded on the basis of a single blood sample for the determination of BNP and CRP...

..Thus, the VDD mode seems to be superior to the DDD mode in CRT patients...

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..Low nonspecific binding supported the "stealth" properties of the carrier while cytotoxicity was absent. This versatile carrier appears promising for diagnostic or therapeutic medical use...

..While predilatation was recommended per protocol, direct stenting was not forbidden: thus, direct stenting was performed in 49 patients (TAXUS n = 23, control n = 26)...

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..Evidence-based medications (EBM) are underused in older patients despite potentially larger absolute benefits. Little is known about factors influencing prescribing in the elderly with acute coronary syndromes...

..The relative effect of glucose-lowering strategies of "insulin provision" versus "insulin sensitization" among patients with CAD remains unclear...

..We aimed to evaluate prospectively whether patients with normal coronary angiogram but abnormal epicardial vasoreactivity to cold pressor test (CPT) are at increased risk for cardiovascular events...

..In addition, new second-generation DES with a decreased risk for late stent thrombosis have to be developed...

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..To determine the effect of anti-ischaemic drug therapy on long-term outcomes of asymptomatic patients without coronary artery disease (CAD) history but silent exercise ST-depression...