Cardiology

Using a retrospective observational study design, we assessed whether all angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors had similar mortality rates after acute myocardial infarction in patients aged 65 years or older. Our results showed that mortality rates for enalapril, fosinopril, captopril, and quinapril were higher than that for ramipril. This suggests that there is no class effect for ACE inhibitors. Further research is needed to confirm the results of our study.

The problem of managing acute myocardial infarction (MI) in elderly patients, especially in those patients with left ventricular dysfunction, has multiple components, not the least of which is to decide which class of agents to use first (angiotensin-converting enzyme [ACE] inhibitors, diuretics, β blockers, etc) and whether to use these agents alone or in combination with 1 or more of the other classes of drugs.

We assessed whether there is a paradoxical increase in cardiovascular events with lower blood pressure values among patients with hypertension and coronary artery disease (CAD) who were enrolled in the International Verapamil-Trandolapril Study (INVEST). The relationship between systolic and diastolic pressure and the risk of primary outcome followed a J-curve pattern, with the relationship being relatively weak for systolic pressure but more significant for diastolic pressure. Our data indicate that excessive lowering of diastolic pressure in hypertensive patients with CAD should be avoided.

The manuscript by Messerli and colleagues, entitled "Dangers of aggressively lowering blood pressure in coronary artery disease," raises a controversial issue with important clinical implications—the J-shaped curve.

We performed a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in patients with coronary artery disease and normal systolic left ventricular function. Angiotensin- converting enzyme inhibitor use was associated with modest benefits, which included a reduction in cardiovascular mortality, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and revascularization rates.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors have been shown to be beneficial in the management of multiple cardiovascular disease states.

Myths in medicine addresses two myths about smoking before surgery.

The key to heart attack survival is to quickly and accurately determine whether a patient has in fact suffered a heart attack. Current methods used to diagnose and confirm a heart attack can take too long.

Can any physician consider using intermittent inotropic therapy in patients with congestive heart failure?

Cardiac resynchronization treatment (CRT) has moved into the mainstream of patient care after several randomized studies have demonstrated improved quality of life, reversed remodeling, and decreased heart failure hospitalizations. More recently, 2 large studies have demonstrated a mortality benefit of CRT independent of implantable cardioverter defibrillator

The vital cell stress protein, heat shock protein (Hsp)60, has recently been found in the circulation of healthy subjects over an extremely large concentration range. We performed an analysis of subjects with diabetes to determine whether Hsp60 is associated with biochemical markers of cardiovascular disease. Results showed that high circulating levels of Hsp60 are associated with clinically manifest cardiovascular disease. Hsp60 has cytokine-like actions, which may be responsible for this association.

Circulating biomarkers have been used in cardiovascular medicine as predictors of incident or prevalent disease.

We assessed whether duration of nonischemic cardiomyopathy was related to the degree of benefit from implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) insertion. Subjects who had a recent diagnosis of nonischemic cardiomyopathy had at least a similar benefit from ICD insertion as did those with a remote diagnosis. These results indicate that ICD therapy should be considered in such patients as soon as they are diagnosed and once reversible causes of left ventricular dysfunction have been excluded.

This review presents a substudy analysis of the Defibrillators in Non-Ischemic Cardiomyopathy Treatment Evaluation (DEFINITE) trial, which examined the role of prophylactic implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implantation in patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy.

We assessed whether C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations predicted future risk of hypertension in a cohort of young adults. Results showed that CRP levels do not independently predict risk of incident hypertension after accounting for body mass index. Further research is needed in the area of inflammation and hypertension, with a special focus on the effect of obesity and age-related changes on this process.

Is hypertension an inflammatory disease?

This study evaluated whether exogenous insulin use to control blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes was associated with the development of hypertension by analyzing data obtained from a large national sample in Taiwan. Exogenous insulin use was shown to be a significant risk factor for hypertension development.

Insulin resistance has been linked to an increased risk of hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease.

We assessed the histologic features of 526 carotid plaques from consecutive patients undergoing endarterectomy for symptomatic carotid stenosis and found a high prevalence of coronary-type plaque instability, with strong correlations between macrophage infiltration and both cap rupture and time since stroke. Temporal trends were much weaker after a transient ischemic attack than after a stroke, with a tendency for plaque features to persist for a longer period, suggesting heterogeneity in the underlying pathological mechanisms.

This is the largest study of excised carotid plaques to date. All patients were symptomatic. Although not all plaques could be analyzed for each category (which excluded 94 plaques from cap analysis), this remains the largest histological study of its kind.

Diabetic cardiomyopathy is a clinical condition characterized by altered myocardial function in the absence of coronary artery disease, hypertension, and valvular or congenital heart disease. Patients with this condition exhibit changes in cardiac structure that may be attributed to the direct effect of diabetes mellitus. The author discusses the mechanisms, risk factors, screening, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cardiomyopathy in patients with diabetes.