Methods The study population consisted of 20 patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction treated by primary PCI. Cardiac MRI was performed within 10 days. The infarct size and the transmural extent of infarction (TEI) and mean TEI was quantified on delayed-enhancement images using 36 segments for each slices. AAR was quantified on T2-weighted images. Transmural infarction was defined...

In survivors of acute myocardial infarction (MI), the initial size of infarction is associated with long-term prognosis. This article addresses the role of contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging in determining the presence and extent of MI. Contrast-enhanced CMR is widely accepted as the reference method for imaging infarct size. The principles involved in contrast-enhanced ...

The aim of this study was to investigate whether coronary heart disease (CHD) is rising in India and assess the quality of the evidence. Thirty one studies were reviewed. The sample sizes of the studies varied from approximately 500 to 14,000, with response rates generally over 90%. Many did not fulfil basic requirements for epidemiological research and most studies were in or around Delhi. The...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Since the failure of a number of phase III trials of neuroprotection in ischemic stroke, the need for smaller phase II studies with MRI surrogates has emerged. There is, however, little information available about sample size requirements for such phase II trials and rarely enough patients in single studies to make robust estimates. We have formed an international collabo...

BACKGROUND The validity of conclusions from observational studies depends on decisions regarding design, analysis, data quality, and implementation. Through sensitivity analyses, we explored the impact of such decisions on balance control and risk estimates. METHODS Using as a template the Mini-Sentinel protocol for the active surveillance of acute myocardial infarction (MI) in association wi...

Experimental and clinical studies have shown that intracoronary transplantation of autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) has resulted in regenerated infarcted myocardium and improved left ventricular (LV) function. <span style="font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; f...

BACKGROUND Several studies have evaluated the impact on myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and overall mortality of perioperative beta-blocker use in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery (NCS). However, most studies did not have adequate sample size and statistical power and were therefore underpowered to adequately evaluate these endpoints. OBJECTIVE To conduct a meta-analysis to determin...

BACKGROUND If multiple Phase II randomized trials exist then meta-analysis is favorable to increase statistical power and summarize the existing evidence about an intervention's effect in order to help inform Phase III decisions. We consider some statistical issues for meta-analysis of Phase II trials for this purpose, as motivated by a real example involving nine Phase II trials of bolus throm...

Objective To provide brief guidance on how to design accrual monitoring activities in a clinical trial protocol. Setting Two completed clinical trials that did not achieve the planned sample size, the Cost of Strategies After Myocardial Infarction (COSTAMI) trial and the Biventricular Pacing After Cardiac Surgery (BiPACS) trial. Design A Bayesian monitoring tool, the constant accrual model,...

Complex diseases often aggregate within families and using the history of family members' disease can potentially increase the accuracy of the risk assessment and allow clinicians to better target on high risk individuals. However, available family risk scores do not reflect the age of disease onset, gender and family structures simultaneously. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach ...