INTRODUCTION The time course of pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) levels was studied at admission, immediately after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and 1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 24 and 48 h after PCI in acute coronary syndrome with ST segment elevation (ACS-STE) to determine the impact of PCI, concomitant clinical complications and heparin administration. MATERIAL AND METHODS Pre...

BACKGROUND Foreshortening is a recognized problem that is present in angiography and results from views that are not perpendicular to coronary lesions. This limits visual coronary analysis as well as 2D quantitative coronary angiography systems (QCA). The CardiOp-B System is a 3D image acquisition and processing software system designed as an add-on to conventional X-ray angiography system. Car...

BACKGROUND The aortic valve dysfunction of patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) suggests that hypercholesterolemia affects not only coronary arteries but also the aortic valve. We studied the aortic root of patients with homozygous FH and those of patients with heterozygous FH to characterize the premature atherosclerotic lesions by using histopathologic specimens. METH...

Objective: Although the efficacy of visual interpretation 99mTc-MIBI myocardial perfusion imaging has been repeatedly confirmed in diagnostic and prognostic evaluation coronary artery disease (CAD), automated quantitative dependent on computer programs is controversial. In our study, we compared data, such as sum stress score (SSS) difference (SDS), with angiography results. We investigated abi...

In the case of Sahadevan and col. 2 3 the lateral ischemia of the medulla oblongata in a man 19 years old took place prior to the vertebral angiography and it was precisely the cause of this examination; as a complication following the mentioned angiography, a transient cortical blindness appeared. Incidentally, cortical blindness seems to constitute one of the most frequent complication of ver...

AIMS In patients submitted to coronary angiography, fractional flow reserve (FFR) assessment by a pressure wire can be used to guide the decision for revascularization. Routine application of FFR assessment and 1-year outcome of patients are poorly documented. The aim of this study was to report a 4-year single-centre experience where the use of FFR for decision making in equivocal lesions is e...

BackgroundMyocardial bridge consists of muscle fiber bundles lining an epicardial coronary artery for a variable distance. Although myocardial bridge is associated with a benign prognosis, its presence has also been considered a cause of angina, myocardial infarction, malignant arrhythmia and sudden death. There is no general consensus about therapeutic strategies in symptomatic patients with m...

PurposeElevated Lipoprotein (a) Lp(a) is an independent, genetic, and causal risk factor for cardiovascular disease.Knowledge regarding the role of levels in Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy (CAV) development scarce. Small studies were published with controversial results.Therefore, association between CAV heart transplant (HT) patients has not been firmly established.MethodsObservational nested ...