Cardiology Journal 2008, tom 15, nr 1

Introduction of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) as a method of choice for the treatment of patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction has brought a marked improvement in short- and long-term prognosis in this group of patients. Nevertheless, despite restoring complete patency of epicardial coronary vessels, in some patients the blood flow through these vessels remains diminished to a lesser or greater degree...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common dysrhythmia, affecting an estimated 2.2 million adults in the United States, and it is projected that this number will soar to 5.6 million affected people by the year 2050 [1, 2]. Risk factors for the development of AF include advanced age, diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, valvular heart disease, coronary artery disease, left ventricular dysfunction, wide pulse pressure, excessive alcohol consumption, obstructive sleep apnea and personality traits such as anger and hostility [2–8]...

A 51-year-old woman without significant history was admitted to the hospital after an episode of ventricular fibrillation. Upon admission, the patient was unconscious, with sinus rhythm, pulmonary venostasis and low blood pressure, without systemic venostasis...

A case of a 26-year-old man without continuity of blood flow in the level of the isthmus of the aorta is described. During interventional catheterization, we reconstructed this continuity and implanted a vascular stent...

The optimal treatment strategy for patients with symptomatic hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) and end-stage liver disease (ESLD) is not well defined. Although medical management is the accepted first line treatment, patients who are unresponsive to medication require further interventions. Since ESLD patients have a high operative risk for surgical myomectomy, alcohol septal ablation (ASA) emerges as a good alternative in these cases...

Torsade de pointes (TdP) is increasingly recognized as a complication of drug therapy. The most common cause of drug-induced QT prolongation is inhibition of the rapidly activating component of the delayed potassium current (IKr). Moxifloxacin, a widely used fluoroquinolone, is a weak IKr inhibitor and has been associated with QT prolongation...

Impaired cardiac output (CO) is a key element of heart failure (HF). So far, there has been no simple, reliable, inexpensive and non-invasive CO measurement method feasible for clinical practice. Not a single diagnostic test has been elaborated to diagnose and monitor HF...

The no-reflow phenomenon due to microvasculature damage is sometimes observed in patients despite patency of the infarct-related artery. The study aimed to assess the predictive value of clinical, hemodynamic and electrocardiographic parameters for the development of the no-reflow phenomenon in patients after successful coronary reperfusion...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between atrial fibrillation and atrial dilation and the spatial distribution pattern of connexin 40 in the atria of patients with coronary heart disease...

Obesity has been shown to affect heart rate variability (HRV). Adipokines (hormone-like peptides secreted by adipose tissue) display several bioactivities and have an impact on the cardiovascular system. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of obesity (BMI ≥ 30) and adipokines (leptin, adiponectin and resistin) on HRV...