Background Presence of diastolic dysfunction in patients with history of myocardial infarction represents a marker of adverse outcomes. However, its role in acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is not fully elucidated. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) allows quantitative measurement of volumetric changes that occur during diastole and form basis for calculation of different p...

In the present study, we investigated the effects of histidine and vitamin C (alone or in combination) treatments against isoproterenol (a β-adrenergic receptor agonist)-induced acute myocardial infarction in rats. We used propranolol (a β-adrenergic receptor blocker) to compare the results. Rats were given intraperitoneal injections of histidine (40 mg kg-1) and vitamin C (40 mg kg<...

BACKGROUND In nondiabetic patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction, acute hyperglycemia is associated with adverse outcome. Whether this association is due merely to hyperglycemia as an acute stress response or whether longer-term glycometabolic derangements are also involved is uncertain. It was our aim to determine the association between both acute and chronic hyperglycemia (...

AIMS Brief episode(s) of ischaemia may increase cardiac tolerance to a subsequent major ischaemic insult ('preconditioning'). Nitrates can pharmacologically mimic ischaemic preconditioning in animals. In this study, we investigated whether antecedent nitrate therapy affords protection toward acute ischaemic events using data from the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events. METHODS AND RESUL...

BACKGROUND The role of inflammation in all stages of atherosclerotic disease is increasingly recognized especially in last few years. The chronic inflammatory process can develop to an acute clinical event by the induction of plaque rupture and therefore cause acute coronary syndrome. Creactive protein is a strong predictor of clinical outcome in coronary artery disease and inflammation has bee...

OBJECTIVES Five drug classes have been shown to improve the prognosis of acute myocardial infarction in clinical trials: aspirin, beta-blockers, statins, renin angiotensin system (RAS) blockers and thienopyridines. We aimed to assess whether the benefits of combining these drugs (termed optimal medical therapy, OMT), will result in a reduction of mortality in clinical practice. DESIGN Nationw...

BACKGROUND Contemporary data remains limited regarding mortality and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) outcomes in patients undergoing PCI for different manifestations of coronary artery disease. OBJECTIVES We evaluated mortality and MACE outcomes in patients treated with PCI for STEMI (ST-elevation myocardial infarction), NSTEMI (non ST-elevation myocardial infarction) and stable angina th...

OBJECTIVES The effect of weekend versus weekday admission following acute coronary syndrome (ACS) on process of care and mortality remains controversial. This study aimed to investigate the 'weekend-effect' on outcomes using a multicentre dataset of patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST elevation myocardial infarction/unstable angina (NSTEMI/UA). DESIGN This retr...

We read with much interest the recently published paper by Timóteo et al.1 This study makes an important contribution to the expanding field of risk stratification in myocardial infarction (MI), which is the cornerstone for patient management. The authors developed a simple risk model from a large cohort of real-world MI patients, comprising common and easily accessible clinical variables, cons...