International journal of cardiology
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Letter Case Reports
Asystole complicating acalculous cholecystitis, the "Cope's sign" revisited.
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Review Meta Analysis
Network meta-analysis for evidence synthesis: what is it and why is it posed to dominate cardiovascular decision making?
Clinical decision-making requires synthesis of an often complex evidence base. Novel tools have been developed building upon the historical approach of reviewing the literature focusing on a specific topic. Stemming from qualitative reviews, systematic reviews of randomized clinical trials, typically encompassing statistical pooling with pairwise meta-analysis, have been devised and are now considered one of the uppermost ladders in the hierarchy of clinical evidence. ⋯ These methods include adjusted indirect comparison meta-analysis, network meta-analysis, and mixed treatment comparison. While still the focus of intense research and debate, they represent a powerful tool for evidence synthesis and comparative effectiveness in cardiovascular research, and thus are likely to become increasingly popular and impactful in shaping research agenda and clinical practice. This is clearly highlighted by a number of recent landmark network meta-analyses on smoking cessation therapies, coronary stents, and management of patent foramen ovale in patients with history of cryptogenic stroke.
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Multicenter Study
The shock index predicts acute mortality outcomes in stroke.
Shock index (SI) (ratio between heart rate and systolic blood pressure) has been shown to be associated with poor mortality outcomes in trauma and pneumonia; however it has yet to be examined in stroke. We aimed to examine the relationship between SI and acute outcomes of inpatient, 3-day and 7-day mortality in stroke. Secondly, we aimed to compare SI and systolic blood pressure (SBP) alone in predicting above outcomes. ⋯ SI at extremely high and low values appeared to predict stroke mortality and appears to be particularly useful in predicting very early (3-day) mortality.