The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701).
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD) is a structural heart disease affecting young adults that leads to cardiac rhythm disorders including supraventricular and mostly ventricular arrhythmias. Sudden death may be the first presentation of the disease. Ablation techniques have been used for the treatment of ventricular tachycardia in cases resistant to drug therapy. Radiofrequency is appropriate as a first approach for ventricular tachycardia ablation in ARVD; however, its effectiveness is less than 40% at the first session. Fulguration is effective for ventricular tachy-cardia ablation and should be used in the same session after ineffective radiofrequency ablation. However, fulguration requires expertise, general anesthesia, and more than one session in half of all patients. Radiofrequency and fulguration plus other common forms of treatment including pacemakers and automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillators provides a clinical success rate of 81% to 93% in a series of 50 consecutive patients studied during 16 years. Earlier poor reputation of fulguration was the result of poorly understood technical problems concerning the physics and biophysics of the procedure under control with presently available methods. This in-depth study of a large population over a long time period demonstrates that fulguration should be rehabilitated.
Sixty-four thrombosed hemodialysis fistulas in 55 patients were treated by local low-dose infusion of urokinase, percutaneous angioplasty, and thromboaspiration. Lysis was initially successful in 38 cases (59%) without any negative side effects. At 1 year, 59% of these fistulas were still functional. When the procedures failed, surgery saved the vascular access in 17 cases. Local fibrinolysis combined with thromboaspiration and angioplasty provides a clinically useful means of access preservation.
Ten patients (44 y), 6 with the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, and none with hypertensive disease, underwent electrophysiological studies before and after intravenous infusion of a single dose of 1 mg rilmenidine administered over 15 min. The regimen produced a mean plasma rilmenidine concentration of 3.16 ng.ml-1 at the end of the infusion. There was no significant change in sinus cycle length, PR interval, QRS, QT duration or in PA, AH and HV intervals. Estimated sinoatrial conduction time and corrected sinus node recovery time did not significantly change. In one patient, however, an abnormal pause was noted after termination of rapid atrial pacing. The right atrial effective refractory period decreased from 209 to 194 ms. There was no significant change in the anterograde and retrograde block cycle length or in the refractoriness of the nodal, ventricular and accessory pathways. The cycle length of induced reciprocating tachycardia decreased slightly from 374 to 351 ms. No patient exhibited an abnormal response to the carotid sinus massage. The findings indicate that intravenous administration of 1 mg rilmenidine exerts modest effects on the electrophysiological parameters of the human heart.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.