Circulation journal : official journal of the Japanese Circulation Society
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Rate control and quality of life in patients with permanent atrial fibrillation: the Quality of Life and Atrial Fibrillation (QOLAF) Study.
The present study aimed to determine whether quality of life (QOL) in permanent atrial fibrillation (AF) patients would be improved by monotherapy with beta-blocker (BB) or calcium antagonist (CAA) as compared with digitalis. ⋯ These results indicate that CAA is preferable to digitalis when monotherapy is selected for short-term improvement of QOL and exercise tolerance in patients with permanent AF.
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In non-thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, endothelin (ET)-1 levels are increased and correlate with the hemodynamic severity of the disease. Whether such correlations exist in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is unknown, nor whether ET-1 levels correlate with hemodynamic outcome after pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA). ⋯ ET-1 levels in CTEPH closely correlated with the hemodynamic and clinical severity of disease in a large cohort of patients. Preoperative ET-1 levels may be useful for better identification of patients at risk for persistent pulmonary hypertension after PEA.