BACKGROUND It is still a challenge for the cardiac surgeons to achieve adequate revascularization for diffused coronary artery disease (CAD). Coronary endarterectomy (CE) offers an alternative choice of coronary artery reconstruction and revascularization. In this study, short-term result of CE combined with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) was discussed in the treatment for the diffused CAD...

OBJECTIVE  To measure the association between a surgeon's degree of specialization in a specific procedure and patient mortality. DESIGN  Retrospective analysis of Medicare data. SETTING  US patients aged 66 or older enrolled in traditional fee for service Medicare. PARTICIPANTS  25 152 US surgeons who performed one of eight procedures (carotid endarterectomy, coronary artery bypass graft...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The benefit of carotid endarterectomy is highly dependent on surgical risk. However, little data are available concerning factors affecting the risk of endarterectomy performed for asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis outside the setting of a randomized controlled trial. The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of potential preoperative risk factors on the freq...

endarterectomy (CEA) is superior to medical therapy in patients with severe carotid artery stenosis. Surgical endarterectomy, however, has several limitations. In the North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial (NASCET), the risk of stroke or death was 5.8% overall. In high risk patients with significant coronary artery disease, morbidity and mortality as high as 18% has been report...

Objectives. We sought to examine coronary arteries for the presence of viable bacteria of the fastidious species Chlamydia pneumoniae. Background. The respiratory pathogen C. pneumoniae has been implicated in the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease (CAD). Previous studies have demonstrated an antichlamydial seroresponse to be a cardiovascular risk factor and coronary atheromata to contain c...