INTRODUCTION Heart failure, primarily in the elderly, is a growing epidemic in today's world. It leads to high rates of disability and mortality, as well as significant health care expenditures, making it important to assess possible predictors of adverse cardiac events. In Cuba, heart failure mortality is 19.1/100,000 population. OBJECTIVES Assess the value of stress-rest protocol gated-SPEC...

OBJECTIVES To study the prognostic value of high-sensitive troponin (hs-cTn) I in stable coronary artery disease. METHODS In total, we studied 705 patients. Secondary outcomes were the incidence of: (1) acute ischemic events and (2) heart failure or death. The primary outcome was the composite of them. RESULTS Patients with hs-cTnI >0 ng/ml (62.1%) were older, had a lower estimated glomerul...

BACKGROUND There is a paucity of data on the prognostic role of C-reactive protein (CRP) measured after myocardial infarction. We prospectively examined the association of CRP with heart failure and death among patients with myocardial infarction in the community. METHODS AND RESULTS All Olmsted County residents who had a myocardial infarction meeting standardized criteria were prospectively ...

Chronic intractable heart failure that is unresponsive to maximum medical therapy can have a wide variety of causes; these include advanced valvular diseases and severe myocardial ischemia, ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) in heart failure following extensive myocardial infarction, chronic heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in which the myocardium itself is progressively damaged or ...

Thematic Units Arrhythmias and Electrophysiology Basic Research Bioengineering and Medical Informatics Cardiac Surgical Intensive Care Cardiomyopathies Cardiovascular Nursing Cardiovascular Pharmacology Cardiovascular Surgery Chagas Disease Echocardiography Epidemiology and Cardiovascular Prevention Heart Failure Hemodynamics Cardiovascular Interventions High Blood Pressure Ischemic Heart Disea...

organic nitrates are commonly used in angina pectoris and ischemic cardiomyopathy. in order to optimize their effectiveness and patient convenience, several aspects must be observed. adequate doses, suitable dosage forms and asymmetric pattern of usage to prevent the nitrate tolerance are some factors that a physician must be familiar with. the objective of the present study was to define the p...

acute heart failure. Percutaneous treatment with dilation of the coartation and stenting was decided upon, with good results. In our area,more than 90%–95% of heart failure cases are due to ischemic heart disease, hypertension, arrhythmias and valvular disease, but on occasion, as with this patient, the unexpected may happen. In this case, and contrary to all statistics and initial data, the so...

Background and Aims. Fibronectin containing the extra domain A (ED-A(+) Fn) was proven to serve as a valuable biomarker for cardiac remodeling. The study was aimed at establishing an ELISA to determine ED-A(+) Fn in serum of heart failure patients. Methods. ED-A(+) Fn was quantified in serum samples from 114 heart failure patients due to ischemic (ICM, n = 44) and dilated (DCM, n = 39) cardiomy...

Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD), currently used in treatment of terminal heart failure, are working on principle of rotary pump, which generates continuous blood flow. Non-pulsatile flow is supposed to expose endothelial cells to high stress and potential damage. Therefore, we investigated longitudinal changes in concentration of circulating endothelial microparticles (EMP) as a possible...