OBJECTIVES This study sought to assess the impact of generalist versus specialist direction on the pattern of care and outcome in patients admitted to the hospital for unstable angina. BACKGROUND Physicians trained as internists or as cardiologists may have different approaches to treating patients with unstable angina. METHODS We reviewed a prospectively collected cohort of patients discha...

PURPOSE Resting 123I-BMIPP scintigraphy can detect coronary artery disease based on persistent abnormality of myocardial fatty acid metabolism after transient ischemia. The present study aimed to determine the value of resting 123I-BMIPP scintigraphy in diagnosing coronary artery disease and predicting the therapeutic outcome in patients with chest pain symptom. METHOD Five hospitals particip...

BACKGROUND Identification of patients at risk for progression of coronary stenosis and adverse clinical events while awaiting coronary angioplasty is desirable. OBJECTIVE To determine the standard clinical or angiographic variables, or both, present at initial angiography associated with the development of adverse coronary events (unstable angina, myocardial infarction, and angiographic total...

BACKGROUND Inferential evidence suggests that silent ischemia might be related to sympathetic activity. Study of [3H]norepinephrine kinetics is a suitable tool to assess the regional sympathetic activity. This method was applied to investigate whether silent myocardial ischemia in unstable angina is related to and depends on cardiac sympathetic overactivity. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients with ...

Neutrophils contribute to the healing of and scar formation in myocardium after ischemic injury. Many recent studies indicate that neutrophils may be involved in the genesis and propagation of myocardial ischemia. To characterize neutrophil function in ischemic heart disease, neutrophil chemotaxis, leukotriene B4 (LTB4) generation, and elastase release in plasma were measured in 20 patients wit...

Coronary artery calcification is increased in the presence of atherosclerosis. However, there is great variability in the calcification of individual coronary stenoses, and the clinical significance of this finding remains unknown. We tested the hypothesis that culprit lesions associated with myocardial infarction or unstable angina are less calcified than are stenoses associated with stable an...