Cardiology Journal 2008, tom 15, nr 3

Exercise and pharmacologic stress echocardiography have been used routinely in clinical practice for the past twenty to thirty years [1–3]. Over this time, stress echocardiography has become an accepted means of evaluation for perfusion-limiting coronary artery obstruction, and for assessing risk. Historically, based on meta-analyses, the sensitivity and specificity have been reported to be approximately 80% [4, 5]. However, it has been traditionally held that exercise stress testing is superior to pharmacologic stress testing due to a more “physiologic” effect with exercise...

The present review summarizes current aspects on how to perform noninvasive microvolt T-wave alternans (mTWA) testing in clinical practice. The focus is on methodologic issues such as patient-related, or technical aspects, and interpretation of the results. Special attention is given to the different sources of noise that may interfere with mTWA assessment..

The present review summarizes current aspects on how to perform noninvasive microvolt T-wave alternans (mTWA) testing in clinical practice. The focus is on methodologic issues such as patient-related, or technical aspects, and interpretation of the results. Special attention is given to the different sources of noise that may interfere with mTWA assessment...

Woman, 21 years old, with history of von Willebrand’s disease and Noonan’s syndrome, asymptomatic. Physical examination: Low insertion of ears, hypertelorism Heart rate: 60 bpm Blood pressure: 120 × 60 mm Hg

We reported a case of large right atrial thrombus which migrated from the inferior vena cava after acute left ventricular dysfunction due to 5-Fluorouracil cardiotoxicity. The patient had recurrent episodes of chest pain and dyspnea suggestive of pulmonary thromboembolism and several days later control echocardiography showed that the right atrial thrombus had disappeared...

A case of sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia underdetected by a single chamber implantable cardioverter defibrillator because of RR interval irregularity is presented. The programmed stability criterion is responsible for the underdetection. Special attention must be paid when it comes to programming this detection parameter....

We report a case of an otherwise healthy 63-year-old male with incessant, highly symptomatic ventricular arrhythmia that displayed over 60,000 premature ventricular contractions and 499 runs of non-sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) during 24 hours of ECG monitoring...

The purpose of this study was to compare risk predicted using available risk scores and actual outcomes in patients with left main coronary artery disease undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention with stent implantation (PCI LM)...

Heart failure (HF) patients can benefit from a proper RS. We had observed that they show an increase in the number of arrhythmias during the first year of pharmacological treatment...

Patients after myocardial infarction (MI) are at greater risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) than people in the overall population. The aim of this study was to detect mutations, including intronic ones, in the KCNQ1 gene coding for proteins of cardiac potassium channels and evaluate their possible effects on the clinical course in patients after MI...