BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate whether variant meso-Rex bypass with transposition of abdominal autogenous vein can be used as an alternative treatment modality for selected patients with symptomatic extrahepatic portal vein obstruction. METHODS This was a retrospective review of six consecutive patients who received this alternative procedure for the treatment of symptomatic...

Increasing evidence suggests that erythrocytes may participate in atherogenesis. We sought to investigate whether the total cholesterol content of erythrocyte membranes (CEM) is significantly different in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) compared to patients with nonsignificant coronary stenosis and determine the correlation between CEM and the severity of coronary stenosis. M...

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has become an important treatment for patients with heart failure and left ventricular dyssynchrony (Cazeau et al., 2001; Abraham et al., 2002; Auricchio et al., 2002; Cleland et al., 2005). For left ventricular (LV) pacing in CRT, transvenous placement of a lead into one of the posterolateral tributaries of the coronary sinus (CS) is the first choice. Ho...

A 71-year-old woman who had suffered from pulmonary thromboembolism with deep vein thrombosis for 12 years presented the hospital with a huge thoracic aortic aneurysm. During thoracic endovascular therapy, she had a sudden coronary artery occlusion without having organized stenosis or plaque rupture even under the dual antiplatelet treatment and heparinization. She turned out to be having a pro...

Takayasu's aortitis patients present a variety of symptoms, including angina pectoris, aortic valve regurgitation, and aortic branch stenosis. The case described in this paper primarily presented with angina pectoris. Close investigation revealed a left coronary artery ostium lesion, an aortic root aneurysm, and a mild aortic regurgitation. The patient underwent a modified Bentall operation wit...

Noninvasive detection of coronary artery stenosis with noninvasive imaging modalities (electron beam CT, MR angiography) has recently emerged. The use of helical CT in the visualization of epicardial coronary arteries is limited by cardiac motion artifacts due to long acquisition times and lack of an ECG trigger and is therefore reliable only in the determination of coronary graft patency. With...

BACKGROUND Significant left main coronary artery stenosis is an accepted indication for surgical revascularization. The potential of angiography to evaluate the hemodynamic severity of a stenosis is limited. The aims of the present study were to assess the long-term clinical outcome of patients with an angiographically equivocal left main coronary artery stenosis in whom the revascularization s...

To study the relationship between the quantitatively assessed coronary artery dimensions and the regional coronary flow reserve as measured by digital subtraction cineangiography, we investigated 17 coronary arteries with a single discrete proximal stenosis and 12 normal coronary arteries before and after intracoronary administration of papaverine. Coronary flow reserve was found to be curvilin...

purpose: to assess the relationship between the severity of coronary arteries involvement and the extent and pattern of myocardial scars in cardiac magnetic resonance of patients with history of remote myocardial infarction. materials and methods: the cardiac magnetic resonance images of sixty patients with history of remote st segment or non-st segment elevation myocardial infarction were revi...