Prehospital diagnostics used to reduce time to treatment in patients with acute coronary syndromes.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S Dadkhah.
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Each year, acute myocardial infarctions (AMI) account for more than half a million deaths in the United States. Complicating treatment of AMI is the difficulty in accurately diagnosing the event, for patients have nondiagnostic electrocardiograms (ECG) more than 50% of the time. In this population, cardiac markers are essential to confirm the diagnosis. The new bedside cardiac markers, which use eight drops of whole blood and require 15 minutes to be read negative, make it possible to shorten time needed to diagnose AMI. One hundred twenty-seven consecutive patients presented to the emergency department complaining of atypical chest pain. All had ECGs that were nondiagnostic for myocardial infarction. Serial cardiac markers were performed: myoglobin, troponin I, rapid myoglobin, and rapid troponin I. One hundred eighteen patients with negative serial cardiac markers had exercise treadmill tests in the emergency department. Nine patients with positive serial cardiac markers received emergent primary angioplasty. Six of the nine patients were treated based on the positive results of the rapid bedside cardiac markers. A 100% correlation existed between the quantitative serum results and the rapid bedside markers. With the availability of rapid bedside assays, dependency on the laboratory can be minimized, since quantitative cardiac markers require at least 1 hour of turnaround time. Rapidly and correctly diagnosing AMIs in patients with ECGs nondiagnostic for AMI has always been a dilemma. Rapid bedside assays enable the physician to accurately diagnose myocardial infarction and safely decrease the time in evaluating chest pain, thus maximizing the benefits of early reperfusion.
The authors report a very unusual and unique case of pancardiac tuberculosis in a 25-year-old man who presented initially with atrial flutter with 1:1 conduction. Echocardiographic findings, computerized tomography images, and pathology specimens are presented. After initiation of antituberculous therapy, the patient converted to normal sinus rhythm.
Women with coronary artery disease are less likely to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery, and this may represent a potential referral bias in favor of men. A higher in-hospital mortality rate in women compared with men has been reported earlier. Accumulating evidence currently suggests, however, that variables other than gender, such as advanced age, late referral, angina classification, diabetes mellitus, concurrent medical conditions, the number of diseased vessels, the caliber of coronary arteries, and the decreased body surface area in women may have accounted for this difference. In fact, when these variables are taken into account, female gender is no longer a statistically significant predictor of operative mortality. Women appear to have comparable immediate and late survival rates. Recurrent angina, perioperative myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, incomplete revascularization, and early and late graft reocclusion following surgery are, however, more prevalent in women. Men and women show differences in recovery experiences after discharge following bypass surgery. When coronary bypass surgery is offered to women, the decision should be individualized, based on the patients' perioperative baseline clinical risk factors and coronary anatomy. Coronary artery bypass surgery should not be withheld in women who are considered to be appropriate candidates for fear of a reduced success rate.
This report concerns an apparently healthy woman who presented simultaneously with acute massive bilateral pulmonary embolism and mitral regurgitation, subsequently, a month later, resulting in pulmonary edema secondary to chordae rupture of the mitral valve. The authors believe that massive pulmonary embolism predisposed to chordal rupture in this case. It is suggested that increased awareness of ruptured chordae tendineae as a cause of mitral regurgitation and the prompt use of transesophageal echocardiography will facilitate the early recognition of this potentially fatal, but treatable, cause of mitral regurgitation in patients with pulmonary embolism.
Women with coronary artery disease are less likely to undergo percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) because of the potential referral bias in favor of men with coronary artery disease in the use of invasive diagnostic procedures and interventions. This difference may represent a sex bias in the delivery of medical care. The apparent sex difference in short-term success of PTCA seen in the early 1980s has not persisted in subsequent studies. The higher in-hospital mortality rate, if any, in women compared with men after PTCA is related more to the severity of their underlying disease rather than sex alone. In addition, women have a better long-term PTCA success rate. PTCA should not be withheld in women who are considered appropriate anatomic candidates for fear of reduced success or increased major complications.
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