Cardiology in review
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Hypertension is a common chronic medical condition affecting over 65 million Americans. Uncontrolled hypertension can progress to a hypertensive crisis defined as a systolic blood pressure >180 mm Hg or a diastolic blood pressure >120 mm Hg. Hypertensive crisis can be further classified as a hypertensive urgency or hypertensive emergency depending on end-organ involvement including cardiac, renal, and neurologic injury. ⋯ Sodium nitroprusside should be used with caution because of its toxicity. The risk factors and prognosticators of a hypertensive crisis are still under recognized. Physicians should perform complete evaluations in patients who present with a hypertensive crisis to effectively reverse, intervene, and correct the underlying trigger, as well as improve long-term outcomes after the episode.
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Cardiology in review · Mar 2010
ReviewPulmonary arterial hypertension in connective tissue diseases.
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is an entity that is known to complicate connective tissue diseases (CTD). PAH in CTD is a very important diagnosis which greatly affects treatment and prognosis. The most commonly affected CTD is scleroderma, although lupus, inflammatory myopathies such as poly and dermatomyositis, and mixed CTD are also associated with PAH. ⋯ These differences are most notable in scleroderma. In this section we will discuss the features of PAH as they appear in CTDs, and in particular, scleroderma. The focus of this article is an approach to the diagnosis and treatment of PAH in CTD, and how this setting might differ from idiopathic and other forms of PAH.
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Cardiac troponin is the biomarker of choice for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. Recent consensus recommendations have adopted a concentration of troponin above the 99th percentile of a healthy population to diagnose myocardial infarction. ⋯ These assays have enormous potential in not only identifying more patients with acute myocardial infarction, and providing superior risk prediction in those so afflicted, in addition highly sensitive troponins assays may be useful for long-term risk assessment of the patient with coronary disease. In this article, we will review the clinical applications, novel concepts, challenges, and limitations of using highly sensitive troponins assays.
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Cardiology in review · Nov 2009
ReviewMitigating contrast-induced acute kidney injury associated with cardiac catheterization.
Contrast-induced nephropathy, also referred to as contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CIAKI), is among the most common causes of AKI, especially in patients with underlying chronic kidney disease. In addition to the increased cost engendered by the development of CIAKI, several studies have suggested the occurrence of AKI after cardiac procedures is associated with an increase in both morbidity and mortality. This increase in morbidity and mortality occurs after both intravenous and intra-arterial studies. This review focuses on relevant proposed pathophysiological mechanisms, risk factors, and current prophylactic strategies, which may reduce the incidence of CIAKI during cardiac angiographic imaging studies.
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Cardiology in review · Jul 2009
ReviewImpact of glycemic treatment choices on cardiovascular complications in type 2 diabetes.
As the diabetic population has significant morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD), much of its medical care focuses on CVD prevention and treatment. Some medications used to treat hyperglycemia may have beneficial effects on CV outcomes, others may have negative effects, while still others seem to have no direct effect. Although past epidemiological studies have shown a relationship between glycated hemoglobin levels and CV events in patients with type 2 diabetes, recent large randomized clinical trials (ACCORD, ADVANCE, and VADT) lasting 3.5 to 5.6 years have found that intensive glycemic control either has no impact on CV outcomes or even worsens them. ⋯ There is an emerging notion that tight glycemic control may be beneficial in primary prevention of CVD in younger patients with diabetes, but may become deleterious in older patients with established or subclinical CVD. Thus, while tight control may lessen microvascular disease, it may increase the risk of hypoglycemia and possibly of adverse CV events. In each patient, the goals of glycemic control need to be individualized based on age, overall prognosis, presence of macrovascular disease, and risk of hypoglycemia.