OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was a comparison of risk-adjusted outcomes of 3 approaches to carotid revascularization in the open heart surgery (OHS) population. BACKGROUND Without randomized clinical trials, the best approach to managing coexisting severe carotid and coronary disease remains uncertain. Staged carotid endarterectomy (CEA) followed by OHS or combined CEA and OHS are commonl...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES The prognostic value of chronic total occlusion in nonculprit coronary arteries in patients with myocardial infarction undergoing primary angioplasty remains controversial. Several publications have described different methodologies and conflicting findings. In addition, causes of death were not reported. Our aim is to analyze the prognostic impact of chronic total o...

It is common in longitudinal studies to collect information on the time until a key clinical event, such as death, and to measure markers of patient health at multiple follow-up times. One approach to the joint analysis of survival and repeated measures data adopts a time-varying covariate regression model for the event time hazard. Using this standard approach, the instantaneous risk of death ...

BACKGROUND Theophylline has been shown to improve respiratory function and oxygenation in patients with chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the impact of theophylline on mortality in COPD patients has not been not sufficiently evaluated. METHOD Two investigators independently searched for eligible articles in 4 databases. The eligibility criterion for this meta-analysis was...

BACKGROUND We performed a review of a large incident peritoneal dialysis cohort to establish the impact of current practice and that of switching to hemodialysis. METHODS Patients starting peritoneal dialysis between 2004 and 2010 were included and clinical data at start of dialysis recorded. Competing risk analysis and Cox proportional hazards model with time-varying covariate (technique fai...

and commentary also appear in ACP Journal Club. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . For correspondence: Dr B R Celli, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA. [email protected] Source of funding: no external funding. BODE index for predicting death in chronic obstr...

BACKGROUND There are limited data on mortality outcomes associated with use of amiodarone in atrial fibrillation and flutter (AF). METHODS We evaluated the association of amiodarone use with mortality in patients with newly diagnosed AF using complete data from the Department of Veterans Affairs national health care system. We included patients seen in an outpatient setting within 90 days of ...

A Cox model is a statistical technique for exploring the relationship between the survival of a patient and several explanatory variables. G Survival analysis is concerned with studying the time between entry to a study and a subsequent event (such as death). G A Cox model provides an estimate of the treatment effect on survival after adjustment for other explanatory variables. In addition, it ...

BACKGROUND Left atrial (LA) size is an established marker of risk for adverse outcomes in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). However, the independent prognostic importance of LA function in HFpEF is not known. METHODS AND RESULTS We assessed LA function measured by speckle-tracking echocardiography in 357 patients with HFpEF enrolled in the Treatment Of Preserved Cardiac ...

BACKGROUND Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is a highly successful treatment for prolonging the lives of selected patients; however, preoperative and postoperative renal dysfunction has been an important predictor of adverse cardiovascular events. Concerns have recently grown regarding chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. In the pr...