Multislice computed tomographic coronary angiography (MSCT) can accurately detect the presence of atherosclerosis noninvasively. However, a discrepancy has been observed between MSCT and noninvasive functional imaging. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the correlation between MSCT and invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) in men with known coronary artery disease. Thirty-three p...

Though rare, anomalous coronary artery disease is a well-known cause of myocardial ischemia and sudden death among children and young adults. The projectional nature of conventional x-ray angiography often leads to difficulty in the definition of anomalous vessels. Studies have now documented the high accuracy of coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) for the noninvasive detection and de...

We describe the clinical case of a 70-year-old woman with complete atrioventricular block that after administration of intravenous adrenaline, developed electrocardiographic changes suggestive of acute coronary syndrome, together with apical dyskinesia of the left ventricle. After ruling out the existence of coronary lesions, and after total recovery of the echocardiographic alterations in segm...

OBJECTIVE To assess the immediate postoperative period of patients undergoing myocardial revascularization without extracorporeal circulation with different types of grafts. METHODS One hundred and twelve patients, 89 (79.5%) of whom were males, were revascularized without extracorporeal circulation. Their ages ranged from 39 to 85 years. The criteria for indicating myocardial revascularizati...

Coronary heart disease has been one of the main threats to human health. Coronary angiography is taken as the gold standard for the assessment of coronary artery disease. However, sometimes the images are difficult to visually interpret because of the crossing and overlapping of vessels in the angiogram. Also due to the low contrast of the image between the backdrop and the small blood vessels,...

We report on a patient with transient atrioventricular block and ST-segment elevation mimicking the ECG of myocardial infarction during transseptal puncture for radiofrequency catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation. Symptoms and EGG findings resolved spontaneously. A neurally-mediated mechanism, activated by the mechanical effects of the transseptal puncture on the interatrial septum and lead...

Background: Acute inferior ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is medical emergency entailing immediate intervention to restore blood flow and mitigate damage. Primary percutaneous coronary (PCI) has replaced thrombolytic therapy as preferred treatment strategy for having superior outcomes. Objectives: To develop a risk stratification model incorporating the identified predictors estimat...

BACKGROUND The ability to image the coronary arteries noninvasively would represent an advance in patient care. We have developed a magnetic resonance (MR) angiographic technique that allows the acquisition of complete images of coronary flow within a single breath-hold. By this method, the feasibility of noninvasive MR coronary angiography was evaluated in 25 subjects, including 19 healthy adu...

OBJECTIVES The MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) is a population-based study of 6,814 men and women. We sought to analyze the relationship between the extent of coronary artery calcium (CAC) at baseline and the severity of coronary stenoses in clinically indicated coronary angiography studies during follow-up. BACKGROUND CAC is an established predictor of major cardiovascular event...