BACKGROUND Only few studies specifically addressed the effect of timing of angiography and/or pre-treatment with a glycoprotein 2b/3a receptor blocker in patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndromes (ACS) who undergo invasive treatment. METHODS In a 2-year period, 220 patients with non-ST elevation ACS, were randomized to early angiography without tirofiban pre-treatment (Early str...

Acute coronary syndrome is a set of symptoms interpreted as being the result of cardiac ischemia. The subtypes of acute coronary syndrome, depending on the degree of cardiac ischemia, include unstable angina and two forms of myocardial infarction. Determination of serum cardiac markers plays a key role in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. Serum markers such as aspartate transaminase...

BACKGROUND Ischemic preconditioning (IPC) induced cardioprotection has been reported to be blunted in hyperlipidemic subjects. Dopamine, via its D2 receptor signaling, appears to mimic the signaling cascade involved in myocardial preconditioning and is also involved in the inhibition of hyperlipidemia induced mediators. The present study was designed to investigate the possible involvement of D...

OBJECTIVES Off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery is becoming increasingly popular although its effectiveness remains controversial. Our goal was to investigate the effectiveness of on-pump and off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery on early (30 days) and long-term (5 years) clinical outcome in two groups of patients selected using propensity scores. METHODS From November 1994 to December 2...

Cardiac troponins in blood are the most sensitive and specific biochemical markers of myocardial damage and are paramount for classification, risk stratification, and customized therapy in patients with acute coronary syndromes (1, 2). Despite the overt advantages, some important obstacles to troponin analysis and interpretation have remained, such as assay standardization, interference, preana...

background: acute myocardial infarction (ami) is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality. considering immense socioeconomic damages of growing ami in developing countries we estimated prognostic value of major risk factors of ami to predict probable in-hospital ami mortality. methods: in a cohort survey from june 2004 to march 2006, 1798 patients hospitalized with proven ami en...

Abstract Background Congenital heart disease is a leading cause of death in newborns and infants. The feasibility fetal cardiac surgery linked to extracorporeal circulation (ECC); therefore, cardioplegic solutions need be effective long-lasting. Methods Eighteen pregnant sheep were divided into an ECC-only group, St. Thomas’ Hospital solution (STH1) group (STH group), HTK preservation (Custodio...