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Andreas Zeiher

Publications and source records attributed to Andreas Zeiher.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

The consensus of the task force of the European Society of Cardiology concerning the clinical investigation of the use of autologous adult stem cells for repair of the heart.

A task force has been established by the European Society of Cardiology to investigate the role of progenitor/stem cell therapy in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. This article is the consensus of this group, of what clinical studies are needed in this field, and the challenges to be addressed in the translation of progenitor/stem cell biology to repair of the heart.

Adult Stem Cells↗

The 2002 European registry of cardiac catheter interventions.

OBJECTIVE: The tradition of yearly reports on cardiac catheter interventions in Europe has been initiated in 1992. This 11th report presents aggregated data on cardiac catheter procedures in 30 European countries in the year 2002. DESIGN AND SETTING: A detailed questionnaire addressing summary data of all cardiac interventions was mailed to presidents or delegates of the national societies of cardiology in Europe. The questionnaire was distributed to all institutions with cardiac catheterisation programs. All questionnaires were compiled in a national summary data sheet, then entered into a central database and subsequently analysed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Coronary angiography, PTCA, and stenting in absolute numbers and per million inhabitants in the participating countries and the whole of Europe. RESULTS: Overall, 1,901,932 coronary angiograms were reported. The population-adjusted rate of coronary angiograms amounted to an absolute mean of 3358 per 10(6) inhabitants, an increase of 7% compared with 2001. A total of 686,869 PTCA procedures were reported. The mean European number of PTCAs per 10(6) inhabitants increased by 10% from 1103 in 2001 to 1213 in 2002. Procedures with stenting increased by 17% from 508,999 to 593,906. The stenting rate was 86% compared with 82% in 2001. CONCLUSIONS: In pace with epidemiological demand and the need to catch-up from underuse in certain countries, a continuous and considerable growth of coronary interventions can be observed. It will take years to find out whether the announced change of paradigm in the treatment of multivessel disease in the wake of drug-eluting stents will come true.

Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary↗

High-density lipoprotein, but not low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels influence short-term prognosis after acute coronary syndrome: results from the MIRACL trial.

AIMS: Patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in the Myocardial Ischaemia Reduction with Aggressive Cholesterol Lowering (MIRACL) study had diminished cardiovascular events after 16 weeks of treatment of atorvastatin 80 mg daily. We determined whether plasma lipoproteins at baseline and then at 6 weeks after randomization predicted clinical outcome. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cox proportional hazards models were constructed to determine relations between lipoproteins and clinical endpoint events. Baseline LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) did not predict outcome. In contrast, baseline HDL-C predicted outcome with a hazard ratio of 0.986 per mg/dL increment in HDL-C, P<0.001, indicating 1.4% reduction in risk for each 1 mg/dL increase in HDL-C. Atorvastatin treatment profoundly lowered LDL-C, but had minimal effect on HDL-C. Neither Week 6 LDL-C nor absolute change of LDL-C from baseline by Week 6 had any significant impact on clinical endpoints occurring between Week 6 and Week 16 after randomization. CONCLUSION: Plasma HDL-C, but not LDL-C, measured in the initial stage of ACS predicts the risk of recurrent cardiovascular events over the ensuing 16 weeks. LDL-C reduction does not account for the clinical risk reduction with atorvastatin treatment after ACS. This finding may suggest that the clinical benefit of atorvastatin after ACS is mediated by qualitative changes in the LDL particle and/or by non-lipid (pleiotropic) effects of the drug.

Aged↗

Effects of atorvastatin on stroke in patients with unstable angina or non-Q-wave myocardial infarction: a Myocardial Ischemia Reduction with Aggressive Cholesterol Lowering (MIRACL) substudy.

BACKGROUND: This report describes the effect of intensive cholesterol lowering with atorvastatin on the incidence of nonfatal stroke, a secondary end point, in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of patients with unstable angina or non-Q-wave myocardial infarction. The primary end point, a composite of death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, resuscitated cardiac arrest, or recurrent symptomatic myocardial ischemia with objective evidence requiring emergency rehospitalization, was reduced from 17.4% in the placebo group to 14.8% in the atorvastatin group over the 16 weeks of the trial (P=0.048). METHODS AND RESULTS: Strokes were adjudicated by a blinded end-point committee using standard clinical and imaging criteria. The outcomes of nonfatal stroke and fatal plus nonfatal stroke were analyzed by time to first occurrence during the 16-week trial. Of 38 events (in 36 patients) adjudicated as fatal or nonfatal strokes, 3 were classified as hemorrhagic, one as embolic, and 29 as thrombotic or embolic; 5 could not be categorized. Nonfatal stroke occurred in 9 patients in the atorvastatin group and 22 in the placebo group (relative risk, 0.40; 95% confidence intervals, 0.19 to 0.88; P=0.02). Fatal or nonfatal stroke occurred in 12 atorvastatin patients and 24 placebo patients (relative risk, 0.49; 95% confidence intervals, 0.24 to 0.98; P=0.04). All 3 hemorrhagic strokes occurred in the placebo group. CONCLUSION: Intensive cholesterol lowering with atorvastatin over 16 weeks in patients with acute coronary syndromes reduced the overall stroke rate by half and did not cause hemorrhagic stroke. These findings need to be confirmed in future trials.

Acute Disease↗