OBJECTIVE To investigate the association between treatment with an angiotensin receptor blocker and clinical outcomes in patients with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction with preserved left ventricular systolic function. DESIGN A prospective cohort study using data from a nationwide large scale registry. SETTING 53 hospitals involved in treatment of acute myocardial infarction in Ko...

PURPOSE We aimed to determine the treatment of choice criteria for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) by analyzing the factors causing alpha-adrenergic receptor blocker (alpha-blocker) monotherapy failure. MATERIALS AND METHODS This retrospective study enrolled 129 patients with BPH who were prescribed an alpha-blocker. Patients were allocated to a transurethral resection of prostate (TURP) g...

PURPOSE To investigate whether combination treatment using an α-blocker and 2 mg of tolterodine could improve the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) as much as α-blocker and 4 mg of tolterodine without voiding difficulties in real life practice. METHODS We restrospectively recruited patients who were treated at four urology clinics between January 2006 and May 2008. A total of 1,094 ...

Tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) is a key regulator of inflammation and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). TNF-α blocker therapies can be very effective for a substantial number of patients, but fail to work in one third of patients who show no or minimal response. It is therefore necessary to discover new molecular intervention points involved in TNF-α blocker treatment of rheumatoid arthritis patients...

AIM Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is an inherited cardiac disease predisposing to life-threatening arrhythmias. We aimed to determine the prevalence of arrhythmias and efficacy of beta-blocker treatment in mutation-positive family members diagnosed by cascade genetic screening. METHODS AND RESULTS Relatives of six unrelated CPVT patients were tested for the rele...

BACKGROUND Angiotensin II receptor antagonists have been proposed as a replacement therapy after the occurrence of either an angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor-induced angioedema or cough. However, recent studies indicate that angioedema is associated with elevated bradykinin levels in a small fraction of patients treated with angiotensin-II-receptor blockers, suggesting a common pat...

BACKGROUND Recent data suggest that β-blockers are associated with prognostic advantages in heart failure (HF) patients without concomitant atrial fibrillation (AF), but not in HF patients with concomitant AF. We aimed to investigate associations between β-blocker treatment and cardiovascular outcome and mortality in AF patients with and without HF. METHODS AND RESULTS Three nationwide regist...