BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most commonly encountered arrhythmia and is associated with an elevated risk of stroke. Improving the identification of patients with the highest risk for AF to enable appropriate surveillance and treatment, if necessary, is critical to reducing AF-associated morbidity and mortality. Multiple common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are unequivoca...

AIM To evaluate the correlation among changes in fundus autofluorescence (AF) measured using infrared fundus AF (IR-AF) and short-wave length fundus AF (SW-AF) with changes in spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and fluorescein angiography (FA) in central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC). METHODS Two hundred and twenty consecutive patients with CSC were included. In addition t...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine if: 1) insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) in amniotic fluid (AF) exhibited proteolytic cleavage in cases of intra-amniotic inflammation; and 2) if the matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-3, MMP-8, MMP-9) in AF are associated with the degradation of IGFBP-1 in AF. METHODS AF samples (n=20) were obtained from preterm gestations...

OBJECTIVE The quality of life (QoL) is impaired in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the data on the perceived QoL of patients with different types of AF is limited. In this study, we investigated the QoL of patients with intermittent and chronic AF. METHODS The study was designed as an observational cross-sectional study, and 135 consecutive patients with documented AF admitte...

       We are presenting a case illustrating atrial fibrillation (AF) following the use of methylprednisolone in a patient with pelvic and femur fracture. A 48- year- old man with no significant past medical history, was admitted to the emergency department after injury in a car accident. He suffered a multiple bone fracture with chief complaints of pain and shortness of breath. He was transfer...

BACKGROUND Endurance running performance of African (AF) and non-African (NAF) athletes is investigated, with better performances seen for Africans. To date, no study has compared the age of peak performance between AF and NAF runners. The present research is an analysis of the age and running performance of top AF and NAF athletes, using the hypothesis that AF athletes were younger and faster ...

BACKGROUND The relationship between pulmonary vein (PV) anatomy and successful catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) is poorly understood METHODS First-pass contrast enhanced PV magnetic resonance angiography was performed in 71 consecutive patients prior to PV isolation. PV diameter and cross-sectional area (CSA) were measured prior to PV isolation. Any symptomatic or asymptomatic AF...