I A Khan

..The clinical, diagnostic, and management perspectives on aortic dissection and its variants, aortic intramural hematoma and atherosclerotic aortic ulcer, are reviewed...

..The current review focuses on the thrombolysis in the treatment of myocardial infarction and other conditions...

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..Early surgery may be considered in patients not responding to antibiotic treatment and in those with prosthetic valve endocarditis...

..Methods used as a means of assessing atrial stunning, atrial stunning after conversion of atrial fibrillation/flutter, and the cause, mechanisms, determinants of the extent, and drugs affecting atrial stunning were examined...

..Atrial stunning is a transient depression of atrial and atrial-appendage mechanical function after successful cardioversion of atrial fibrillation compared with its precardioversion state...

..Prognosis is poor and the common causes of death are intractable heart failure and sudden cardiac death...

..Patients with substantial structural heart disease were excluded from most of the trials...

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..Right atrium stunning is less marked and improves earlier than that of left atrium, resulting in a differential atrial stunning explaining the rare occurrence of pulmonary edema after cardioversion...

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..The patient was free of symptoms on 2-year follow-up. The clinical perspectives of the nonatherosclerotic coronary aneurysm are discussed...

..The purpose of this review is to outline the established therapies and update the recent advances and potential future strategies in the treatment of long-QT syndrome and torsade de pointes...

..To study the effect of reinforcement as a quality improvement intervention in the evidence-based management of the coronary syndromes...

..The single oral loading dose of propafenone appears to be highly effective for conversion of recent-onset AFib, with a relatively rapid effect within 2 to 3 h and freedom from serious adverse effects...

..Electrocardiograms of the WPW syndrome displaying morphology of different pseudo patterns are presented and the mechanisms causing pseudo patterns are reviewed...

..Factors precipitating rapid ventricular rate should be treated as well...

..Therefore, ventricular hypertrophy and myocardial infarction should not be diagnosed from the electrocardiograms of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome...

..We sought to evaluate the prognostic value of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in asymptomatic, ambulatory patients with chronic renal failure treated with long-term hemodialysis...

..This report presents a case of torsades de pointes that was precipitated by substance abuse in a patient with idiopathic long Q-T syndrome and required several treatment modalities...

..Described here is a case of the development of atrial fibrillation in a newly diagnosed 37-year-old patient with systemic lupus erythematosus who was started on intravenous methylprednisolone therapy...

..The literature on the isolated pulmonic valve endocarditis caused by group B streptococcus is reviewed...

..A case of scleroderma is reported that presented with a large pericardial effusion, which antedated the other clinical and serologic features of scleroderma. The pericardial involvement in scleroderma is reviewed...

..This patient also manifested mitral valve prolapse and Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome with right-sided accessory conduction pathway...

..Therefore, when the absolute levels of serum cholesterol are no longer valid (beyond 24 h after an MI), the cholesterol ratios still could be useful for cholesterol risk assessment in patients with acute MIs...

..Stress electrocardiography and imaging studies are not useful prognostic tests and long-term survival mainly depends on the residual left ventricular function, which is usually good...

..CONCLUSION: The ST-segment changes detected on ambulatory Holter monitoring are of limited value in identifying coronary artery disease and predicting the future adverse cardiac events or death in unselected patients with chest pain...

..The treatment approach to patients with suspected toad venom poisoning is described...

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..CONCLUSION: Incidence of ibutilide-induced torsade de pointes is higher in women than in men. Greater caution must be observed while using ibutilide in women...

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..High serum cTnI predicts increased severity of sepsis and higher mortality. A close monitoring of patients with septic shock and elevated levels cTnI is warranted...

..A succinct review of myocardial infarction in patients with essential thrombocythemia is presented, and therapeutic strategies in such patients are discussed...

..Hyperkalemia has been reported to cause failure of atrial capture due to pacemaker exit block. We report a case where hyperkalemia resulted in failure of both the atrial and the ventricular pacemaker capture...

..Clinical considerations and management of torsade de pointes are described...

..Reported here is a case of stress-induced transient left ventricular apical ballooning syndrome in a young woman...

..The syndrome of transient left ventricular apical ballooning could be considered among the causes of long QT syndrome and torsade de pointes...

..Acetaminophen has not been shown to prolong QT interval or effect cardiac repolarization...

..This finding is defined as pseudo-pseudoaneurysm. The authors report a case of postinfarction posterobasal pseudo-pseudoaneurysm along with review of the literature on the subject...

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..The embolized fragment was extracted with a gooseneck snare technique and the reservoir of the system was removed under local anesthesia without any complications. The patient was free of symptoms at 7 seven months follow-up...

..However, the combination of new devices with pacemaker and cardioverter-defibrillator capabilities appear promising in these patients warranting further study...

..Emergent surgical repair led to successful recovery. A brief overview of the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management of this challenging and potentially fatal complication is presented...

..Ibutilide appears to be an effective drug for conversion of recent-onset atrial fibrillation and flutter in elderly patients under monitored conditions. Complications are rare and transient...

..Elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction have higher QT dispersion than younger patients with acute myocardial infarction, and QT dispersion does not change early after thrombolytic therapy in elderly or younger patients...

..Three patients underwent coronary bypass surgery and 1 patient died of cardiogenic shock. CAD may be associated with HIV disease...

..Glyburide, unlike metformin, causes an increase in QT dispersion. Increased dispersion may be a factor underlying an increased risk of arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death...

..2 +/- 0.7 versus 0.7 +/- 0.4 mm; P = 0.0002). Resolution of ST-segment elevation after thrombolytic therapy was less marked in elderly patients, indicating a reduced response to thrombolytic therapy in this patient population...

..All four patients were female. We discuss the risk factors for development of ibutilide-induced torsade de pointes...

..We present a case of acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction triggered by heavy alcoholic binge drinking in a man and discuss the available explanations of this rare association...

..CONCLUSION: Ibutilide used for pharmacological cardioversion of atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter is more effective in African Americans but carries a higher risk of torsade de pointes...

..CONCLUSION: The rare complication of acute pulmonary edema after cardioversion has been reported mostly in patients with underlying cardiac disease, and is independent of the amount of energy used for cardioversion...

..We report a case of postcardioversion acute pulmonary edema after electrical cardioversion of atrial fibrillation in a patient with severe mitral regurgitation...

..The MVO2 increased from 29 +/- 8 ml/min at peak DSE to 31 +/- 9 ml/min with adjunctive HG (p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Handgrip adjunctive to peak DSE results in a modest increase in MVO2, primarily by an increase in end-systolic wall stress...

..We report a case of a large left main coronary artery aneurysm in a 59-year-old male who had cardiac catheterization for effort angina and inducible myocardial ischemia...

..The choice of rewarming therapy is based on the degree of hypothermia. The evaluation, electrocardiographic manifestations, and management of hypothermia are reviewed...

..The clinical validation will require a large and diverse patient population, a clearly defined and uniform diagnostic strategy, incorporation of multiple biomarkers in addition to PAPP-A, and measurement of outcomes data...

..Diagnosis of histoplasmosis was confirmed by biopsy and serological tests. Patient has been free from symptoms of pulmonary stenosis for 4 years after successful pulmonary artery stenting...

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..Coronary artery disease was a late complication of AIDS...

..These topics are the personal choices of the authors...

..Pharmacokinetics, efficacy, and safety of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor antagonists are elaborated...

..This review re-examines the mechanisms of genesis of third heart sound in regard to the hemodynamic and echocardiographic aspects, and its clinical importance...

..The existing literature on the subject is succinctly reviewed...

..The success of the revascularization procedures depends on the presence of amount of dysfunctional but viable myocardium. The basics and evaluation of reversible myocardial dysfunction are reviewed...

..In conclusion, in patients with CAD, beta blocker therapy does not affect the extent, severity, and reversibility of perfusion defects on adenosine SPECT MPI...