OBJECTIVE To establish why recurrent myocardial ischaemia predicts adverse outcome in patients with refractory unstable angina on maximal medical treatment. DESIGN Prospective observational study in 101 patients with refractory unstable angina who underwent continuous ST-segment monitoring and kept detailed pain charts prior to cardiac catheterization. Setting Tertiary referral centre. RESU...

Studies were made using ordinary selective coronary angiography and angiography during ischaemia produced by right atrial pacing, on a series of 41 patients with ischaemic heart disease, to examine the response of the collaterals to the ischaemia stimulus. Regional myocardial perfusion was determined under the same circumstances by measuring regional 133Xenon washout curves. No collaterals were...

OBJECTIVES Numerous mechanisms have been proposed to participate in adaptation of heart to ischaemia by ischaemic preconditioning. We have described previously a release of cardio-protective protein fraction during ischaemic preconditioning of dog heart. In the current study the effect of high soluble protein fraction (HS fraction) released from isolated perfused rat liver after ischaemia and r...

Predisposing factors [2] Conditions causing arterial emboli eg, mural thrombus following myocardial infarction, auricular thrombus associated with mitral stenosis and AF, septic emboli from valvular endocarditis, fragments of proximal aortic thrombus, arterial catheterisation dislodging bits of plaque. Conditions causing arterial thrombosis atherosclerosis (most common), aortic aneurysm or diss...

AIMS Adenosine stress computed tomography myocardial perfusion imaging (CTP) is an emerging non-invasive method for detecting myocardial ischaemia. Its value when compared with fractional flow reserve (FFR), a highly accurate index of ischaemia, is unknown. Our aim was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of CTP and its incremental value when used with computed tomography coronary angiography (...

OBJECTIVE Inotropic agents are used clinically to improve ventricular function during ischaemia. The goal of this study was to determine whether inotropic stimulation during moderate left ventricular (LV) ischaemia exacerbated post-ischaemic LV dysfunction. METHODS In 18 open-chest, anesthetized pigs, LV pressure versus subendocardial segment length loops were used to generate regional preloa...

Asymptomatic ("silent") ischaemia has been shown to be of prognostic significance in patients with stable and unstable angina and more recently in patients recovering after myocardial infarction. No therapeutic regimen has yet been shown to improve the prognosis of patients with silent ischaemia after infarction, which can be found in as many as a third of these patients. Attempts to achieve th...

AIMS A family history of premature coronary artery disease (CAD) in an apparently healthy individual conveys an increased risk of future CAD. The extent to which inducible myocardial ischaemia exists and is associated with long-term incident CAD in apparently healthy siblings of early-onset CAD patients is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS Asymptomatic siblings (n = 1287, aged 30-59 years) of pati...