International journal of cardiology
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Cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) provides the simultaneous evaluation of the aortic valve, myocardium, and coronary arteries. In particular, aortic valve calcium score (AVCS) can be accurately measured on the same scanning sequence used to measure coronary artery calcification, with no additional cost or radiation exposure. We sought to evaluate the prognostic value of CCTA measures, including AVCS, in asymptomatic aortic stenosis (AS). ⋯ In patients with asymptomatic AS, CCTA measures of valve area, coronary stenosis, and calcification severity provide independent and incremental prognostic value after accounting for the echocardiographic severity of stenosis.
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Acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with death, end-stage renal disease, and heart failure in patients with coronary heart disease. This study investigated the association between AKI and long-term risk of stroke. ⋯ The long-term risk of stroke is weakly associated with AKI after primary isolated CABG, but this association is attenuated and not significant when considering death as a competing risk.
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Inappropriate shocks resulting from atrial tachyarrhythmias are highly problematic for patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). We aimed to determine the effectiveness of catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) in preventing inappropriate shocks due to rapid AF in patients diagnosed with Brugada syndrome (BS) who were implanted with an ICD. ⋯ AF ablation in BS patients may be reasonable to prevent inappropriate ICD shocks resulting from rapid AF. However, ventricular extrastimuli just after the ablation had better be avoided in them.