Heart International

Atherosclerosis occurs as a result of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) deposits oxidation. Endothelial dysfunction is an early process of atherosclerosis. Restoring endothelial lining back to normal by endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) is critical for slowing or reversing vascular disease progression. Oxidative stress from hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is increased in dyslipidemia so that antioxidant agent is required to prevent destruction of blood vessels.

This study aims to report Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide peptide (PsP) effects in atherogenic process by measuring H₂O₂ level, IL-10 level, and EPC number in blood serum, and also intima-media thickness of aorta in dyslipidemia Wistar rat model by giving them a hypercholesterol diet (HCD).

The study was an experimental in vivo post-test with control group design. Thirty-five Wistar rats (Rattus norwegicus) were divided into five groups (normal diet group, HCD group, and hypercholesterol groups that received 50 mg/kg, 150 mg/kg, and 300 mg/kg bodyweight PsP).

Each treatment group showed significant results for the administration of PsP using the one-way analysis of variance test (p<0.050) for the reduction of H₂O₂ (p = 0.003), levels of IL-10 (p = 0.027), number of EPC in the blood serum (p = 0.011), and the intima-media thickness of the aorta (p = 0.000). PsP from G. lucidum is a potent antioxidant and may prevent atherogenesis process in patients with dyslipidemia.

The optimum doses of PsP in this study is 300 mg/kg bodyweight. Further studies are required to determine the antioxidant effects of PsP G. lucidum and its benefits in the management of dyslipidemia.

Noninvasive ischemia testing (NIST) is recommended for most patients suspected to have stable coronary artery disease (CAD) before invasive coronary angiography (ICA). We sought to assess the diagnostic predictive ability of NIST over clinical risk profiling in a contemporary sample of patients undergoing the currently recommended diagnostic triage strategy.

From 2006 to 2011, 2,600 consecutive patients without known CAD undergoing elective ICA in a single tertiary-care center were retrospectively identified and the prevalence of obstructive CAD determined. To understand the incremental value of frequently used clinical parameters in predicting obstructive CAD, receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted for six sequential models starting with Framingham risk score and then progressively adding multiple clinical factors and finally NIST results.

At ICA 1,268 patients (48.8%) had obstructive CAD. The vast majority (85%) were classified in an intermediate clinical pretest probability of CAD and NIST prior to ICA was used in 86% of the cohort. The most powerful correlate of obstructive CAD was the presence of severe angina (odds ratio (OR) = 9.1; 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.3-19.1). Accordingly, the incorporation of NIST in a sequential model had no significant effect on the predictive ability over that achieved by clinical and symptomatic status model (C-statistic 0.754; 95% CI 0.732-0.776, p = 0.28).

Less than half the patients with suspect stable obstructive CAD referred to a tertiary-level center for elective ICA had the diagnosis confirmed. In this clinical setting, the results of NIST may not have the power to change the discriminative ability over clinical judgment alone.

This is a validation study comparing the European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation (EuroSCORE) II with the previous additive (AES) and logistic EuroSCORE (LES) and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons' (STS) risk prediction algorithm, for patients undergoing valve replacement with or without bypass in Pakistan.

Clinical data of 576 patients undergoing valve replacement surgery between 2006 and 2013 were retrospectively collected and individual expected risks of death were calculated by all four risk prediction algorithms. Performance of these risk algorithms was evaluated in terms of discrimination and calibration.

There were 28 deaths (4.8%) among 576 patients, which was lower than the predicted mortality of 5.16%, 6.96% and 4.94% by AES, LES and EuroSCORE II but was higher than 2.13% predicted by STS scoring system. For single and double valve replacement procedures, EuroSCORE II was the best predictor of mortality with highest Hosmer and Lemmeshow test (H-L) p value (0.346 to 0.689) and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (0.637 to 0.898). For valve plus concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients actual mortality was 1.88%. STS calculator came out to be the best predictor of mortality for this subgroup with H-L p value (0.480 to 0.884) and ROC (0.657 to 0.775).

For Pakistani population EuroSCORE II is an accurate predictor for individual operative risk in patients undergoing isolated valve surgery, whereas STS performs better in the valve plus CABG group.

Normal left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery as determined by coronary angiography is considered not only to reflect normal angiography but also to correlate with normal anatomy and function. However, subjects who undergo coronary angiography may differ from those who do not need to have invasive evaluation even if their functional noninvasive studies like dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) were normal.

LAD velocities in subjects with normal angiography and those with normal DSE are equal.

A total of 244 subjects were evaluated, 78 had normal LAD by angiography and 166 had normal LAD by DSE. All had Doppler sampling of LAD velocities by transthoracic echocardiography.

Velocity was higher in the angiographic subgroup in diastole 41 ± 23 vs 33 ± 14 cm/s, p = 0.0078; systole 18 ± 14 vs 13 ± 7 cm/s, p = 0.012; diastolic integral 12.6 ± 5 vs 9.8 ± 3.8 cm, p = 3.15 × 10⁻⁵; systolic velocity integral 4 ± 2.9 vs 2.8 ± 1.9, p = 0.0014. While heart rate was similar in both groups, the product of diastolic velocity integral and heart rate of the LAD in the angiographic group was higher: 902 ± 450 vs 656 ± 394, p = 0.00599. Diastolic velocity deceleration time was similar in both groups. Coronary flow reserve defined as diastolic velocity ratio before and immediately after DSE correlated negatively with baseline velocity, r = −0.4.

Mode of defining normality of coronary artery affects velocity behavior of the vessel, reflecting functional differences possibly related to microvasculature and vasodilatation.

Research trials have shown improved short-term outcome with drug-eluting stents (DES) over bare metal stents (BMS) in saphenous vein graft (SVG) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), primarily by reducing target vessel revascularization (TVR) for in-stent restenosis. We compared the outcomes in patients undergoing SVG stent implantation treated with DES or BMS. In exploratory analyses we investigated the influence of stent generation and diameter.

Data were obtained from a prospective database of 657 patients who underwent PCI for SVG lesions between 2003 and 2011. A total of 344 patients had PCI with BMS and 313 with DES. Propensity scores were developed based on 15 observed baseline covariates in a logistic regression model with stent type as the dependent variable. The nearest-neighbour-matching algorithm with Greedy 5-1 Digit Matching was used to produce two patient cohorts of 313 patients each. We assessed major adverse cardiac events (MACE) out to a median of 3.3 years (interquartile range: 2.1-4.1). MACE was defined as all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction (MI), TVR and stroke.

There was a significant difference in MACE between the two groups in favour of DES (17.9% DES vs. 31.2% BMS group; p = 0.0017) over the 5-year follow-up period. MACE was driven by increased TVR in the BMS group. There was no difference in death, MI or stroke. Adjusted Cox analysis confirmed a decreased risk of MACE for DES compared with BMS 0.75 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.52-0.94), with no difference in the hazard of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio: 1.08; 95% CI: 0.77-1.68). However, when looking at stent diameters greater than 4 mm, no difference was seen in MACE rates between BMS and DES.

Overall in our cohort of patients who had PCI for SVG disease, DES use resulted in lower MACE rates compared with BMS over a 5-year follow-up period; however, for stent diameters over 4 mm no difference in MACE rates was seen.

Thrombolytic therapy with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) remains the only approved medication for acute ischemic stroke, but incurs significant bleeding risks. Therefore, approaches to combine lower doses of thrombolytic therapy with other effective drugs aim at improving efficacy and reducing bleeding rates. We examined the safety and therapeutic effects of various dosings of rtPA, either alone or combined with glycoprotein VI-Fc fusion protein (GPVI-Fc, Revacept) on experimental stroke in mice.

The effect of filament-induced intracerebral thrombus formation and embolization was investigated after a one-hour occlusion of the middle cerebral artery.

In accordance with previous studies, treatment with 10 mg/kg rtPA significantly improved functional outcome, cerebral infarct size and edema, but also resulted in markedly increased intracranial bleeding volumes. In contrast, low doses of rtPA (0.1 or 0.35 mg/kg body weight) did not change outcome parameters. However, addition of 1 mg/kg Revacept to 0.35 mg/kg rtPA led to improved reperfusion compared to rtPA alone. Moreover, these combined treatments resulted in improved grip strength, compared to the respective dose of rtPA alone. Infarct-surrounding edema improved after combined treatments, but not after respective single rtPA dosings. Intracranial bleeding volumes were below controls after all low-dose rtPA therapies, given either alone or combined with Revacept.

In contrast to using the equally effective full dose of rtPA, intracranial bleeding was not increased by low-dose rtPA combined with Revacept. Therefore, addition of Revacept to low-dose rtPA does not incur safety risks, but improves efficacy of treatment.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a potentially deadly disease and significant efforts have been concentrated on improving hospital performance. A 30-day survival rate has become a key quality of care indicator. In Northern Norway, some patients undergoing AMI are directly transferred to the Regional Cardiac Intervention Center at the University Hospital of North Norway in Tromsø. Here, coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention is performed. Consequently, local hospitals may be bypassed in the treatment chain, generating differences in case mix, and making the treatment chain model difficult to interpret. We aimed to compare the treatment chain model with an alternative based on patients’ place of living.

Between 2013 and 2015, a total of 3,155 patients were registered in the Norwegian Patient Registry database. All patients were categorized according to their local hospital's catchment area. The method of Guo-Romano, with an indifference interval of 0.02, was used to test whether a hospital was an outlier or not. We adjusted for age, sex, comorbidity, and number of prior hospitalizations.

We revealed the 30-day AMI survival figure ranging between 88.0% and 93.5% (absolute difference 5.5%) using the hospital catchment method. The treatment chain rate ranged between 86.0% and 94.0% (absolute difference 8.0%). The latter figure is the one published as the National Quality of Care Measure in Norway. Local hospitals may get negative attention even though their catchment area is well served. We recommend the hospital catchment method as the first choice when measuring equality of care.

Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is recognized as a significant health risk. Specific and sensitive measures of CAN are needed for early identification and treatment to avoid complications, preferably in the preclinical state.

In this first of two articles, the patient cohort is described and two measures of autonomic function are reviewed: the traditional heart rate variability (HRV)-alone method and the newer parasympathetic and sympathetic (P&S) Method. These systems are then evaluated against known effects of the alpha/beta-adrenergic blocker, Carvedilol, and the selective beta-adrenergic blocker, Metoprolol, on P&S activity.

Serial autonomic nervous system test data from 147 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients from eight ambulatory clinics were analyzed. Patients were grouped according to whether a beta-blocker was (1) introduced, (2) discontinued or (3) continued without adjustment. Group 3 served as the control. HRV-alone parameters are computed according to standards. The P&S Method, which is a time–frequency analyses of concurrent respiratory activity and HRV, is elucidated, as developed at MIT and Harvard Medical School (1981).

The HRV-alone demonstrated that introducing either medication increased low frequency (msec²) and standard deviation of the beat-to-beat (N-N) interval (msec), as expected. The other HRV parameter responses were not consistent with expectations. Similar inconsistencies occurred when either medication was discontinued. The P&S Method demonstrated that introducing or discontinuing either agent decreased or increased sympathetic activity, respectively, according to expectations. With ongoing treatment, resting parasympathetic activity decreased with Metoprolol but increased with Carvedilol.

Autonomic assessment fidelity was significantly higher with the P&S Method as validated by comparison with previously known physiology of the cardiovascular system.

Administering optimal cardiovascular medication (OCM) to patients with hypertension (HBP) and ischemic heart disease (IHD) lowers cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

The main objective of this study was to compare in-hospital cardiac mortality among patients with HBP and/or IHD, treated or untreated with OCM, who developed a first episode of acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

The study was carried out retrospectively and included patients admitted with a first episode of ACS between 2013 and 2016. The patients were divided into three groups: those with HBP, IHD, and a history of HBP + IHD. Patients were then divided into two subgroups: subgroup A consisted of patients undergoing optimal anti-ischemic and/or antihypertensive therapy, while subgroup B consisted of patients without OCM.

This analysis comprised 1096 patients. Mean age was 64.3 ± 18 years. There were 581 patients in subgroup A – 53%, and 515 patients in subgroup B – 47%. Total cardiac mortality was 9.98%, different depending on the groups and subgroups studied: HBP group total – 7%, subgroup A – 5.1%, significantly lower compared to subgroup B – 9.4% (p = 0.05); IHD group total – 12.2%, subgroup A – 9.07%, significantly lower compared to subgroup B – 15.8% (p = 0.05); HBP + IHD group total – 14.35%, subgroup A – 9.9%, significantly lower compared to subgroup B – 18.8% (p = 0.05).

The lack of OCM in patients with HBP and/or IHD is correlated to a significant increase in in-hospital cardiac mortality among patients who develop a first-episode ACS.