Cardiology Journal 2009, tom 16, nr 5

Al-Mallah et al. [1] present in the current issue of Cardiology Journal a new meta-analysis studying the impact of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) on the incidence of new onset diabetes mellitus (DM). In 18 carefully selected randomized controlled trials, they report this endpoint with ACEI or ARB therapy vs comparators in more than 100,000 patients..

The histamine I receptor antagonist diphenhydramine is a freely available, over the counter medication for sleep and the most frequently used antihistamine drug. It inhibits the fast sodium channels and, at higher concentrations, the repolarising potassium channels, particularly Ikr which leads to prolongation of the action potential and the QT interval...

Cocaine has become the most frequently used illicit drug among patients presenting to emergency departments worldwide. Although acute myocardial infarction is the most common reported cardiovascular manifestation in this setting, there are many other potential cardiotoxic effects of cocaine use including coronary artery spasm, arrhythmia, and sudden death...

In familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC), asymmetric left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy has been considered to be the predominant phenotypic expression, whereas right ventricular (RV) involvement is still ambiguous. In most cases, the right ventricle remains unaffected until secondary pulmonary hypertension develops. Several FHC-causing mutations of genes encoding sarcomere-related proteins have been identified which are transmitted in an autosomal-dominant manner...

I have read with interest the comments by Dr Kardesoglu on our paper ‘Predictors of successful iatrogenic pseudoaneurysm compression dressing repair’. I could not agree more in regard to preventing the formation of iatrogenic pseudoaneurysms(PSA)...

A 25 year-old female was found to have a continuous murmur along the right parasternal border during pre-operative examination for patellar tendon surgery. On two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography (TTE), an echolucent tunnel measuring 3 mm in width from the noncoronary cusp of the aortic valve to the right atrium was identified (Fig. 1A)...

A 44 year-old male with a history of chronic Chagasic cardiomyopathy (CChC) (exclusively dromotropic form), systemic hypertension and centripetal obesity, presented for a routine electrocardiogram (ECG). There was no history of syncope or sudden death and no evidence of heart failure. Laboratory tests were within normal ranges...

The ‘pill in the pocket’ concept is an established therapy for atrial fibrillation. The current guidelines for the management of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction endorse the concept that faster time to reperfusion is associated with important reductions in morbidity and mortality...

Alexander Samoylov (Fig. 1) was born on 27 March, 1867, in Odessa. After completing gymnasium school, he began at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics in Novorossiisk University, but before graduating changed his mind in favor of medicine...

The identification of a good prognostic factor of neurological outcome after cardiac arrest is needed. S-100B protein seems to be a promising early predictor of brain damage. Yet it is necessary to reach a consensus on cut-off values, time of blood sampling and the predictive accuracy of S-100B protein...