Minerva cardioangiologica
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Minerva cardioangiologica · Feb 2009
ReviewUpdate on the management of atherosclerotic renal artery disease.
Typically involving the renal artery ostium or proximal segment of the renal artery, atherosclerosis is the major cause of renal artery stenosis. While commonly without direct clinical consequences, the presence of renal artery atherosclerosis is associated with atherosclerotic disease in other vascular beds and in some subjects may give rise to systemic hypertension, progressive renal dysfunction and/or heart failure. ⋯ The role for concomitant renal artery revascularization remains unclear and the decision should be individualized depending on patient preferences, co-morbidities, institutional expertise, and carefully weighed risks and benefits. Ongoing trials including CORAL and ASTRAL will hopefully provide critical evidence for or against this additive invasive strategy.
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Minerva cardioangiologica · Dec 2008
ReviewPrevention of thromboembolic complications in patients with atrial fibrillation.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major arrhythmia in clinical practice, and its frequency rises rapidly from the sixth decade onward. Its most serious clinical consequence is ischemic stroke. Patients with AF have a five-fold increased risk of stroke compared to those in sinus rhythm. ⋯ Inconvenience of monitoring and frequent dose adjustments, together with fear of major hemorrhage associated with oral anticoagulants, contribute to this underuse. In particular, conventional intensity of anticoagulation increases the risk of intracranial hemorrhage, and patients with advanced age are more prone to cerebral bleeding than younger patients. Up to date, the efficacy of aspirin, an antiplatelet agent, for stroke prevention in AF patients is less clear and remains controversial and alternative pharmacological treatment options have failed to demonstrate their superiority over vitamin K antagonists.
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Minerva cardioangiologica · Aug 2008
ReviewVolatile anesthetics for periprocedural cardiac protection. A review.
All volatile anesthetics have cardiac depressant effects that decrease myocardial oxygen demand and may, therefore, have a beneficial role on the myocardial oxygen balance during ischemia. Recently, experimental evidence has clearly demonstrated that in addition to these indirect protective effects, volatile anesthetic agents also have direct protective properties against ischemic myocardial damage. ⋯ Multicenter, randomized clinical trials had previously demonstrated that the use of desflurane can reduce the postoperative release of cardiac troponin I, the need for inotropic support, and the number of patients requiring prolonged hospitalization, following coronary artery bypass graft surgery, either with and without cardiopulmonary bypass. Evidence in non-coronary surgical settings is contradictory and will be reviewed in this paper together with the mechanism of cardiac protection by volatile agents.
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Minerva cardioangiologica · Feb 2008
Editorial ReviewTowards defining the role of drug eluting stents.
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Minerva cardioangiologica · Oct 2007
ReviewEmergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for the care of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).
There is general consensus that emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the preferred treatment for patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), so long as it can be delivered in a timely fashion, by an experienced' operator and cardiac catheterization laboratory (CCL) team. STEMI is both a functional and structural issue. Although it has been recognized since the work of pioneering cardiologists and surgeons in Spokane, Washington, that approximately 88% of patients presenting within 6 hours of onset of STEMI have an occluded coronary artery, it is the pathophysiology of myocardial necrosis, and the varied consequences of necrosis that characterize STEMI. ⋯ The clinical and angiographic heterogeneity of STEMI patients and the array of available therapeutic approaches make it impossible to obtain specific randomized trial direction for many of the clinical decisions in an individual emergency PCI for STEMI. There are a range of reasonable/ appropriate therapeutic choices for a given emergent PCI performed by multiple experienced and competent operators. The treatment of STEMI, and high-risk non-STEMI, patients, by means of emergent PCI, is among the most challenging and rewarding arenas in contemporary medicine.