Introduction. Oats are high in soluble fibers and effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). We assessed the effects of beta-glucan from oat bran on serum nitric oxide (NO) endothelial function in patients with hypercholesterolemia. Method. Sixty hypercholesterolemic patients were randomly divided to receive an experimental bread rich in beta-glucan from oat bran (intervention) or bread rich in wheat fiber (control) for four weeks. All subjects had the same diet for two-week baseline period and hypocaloric diet for four weeks of intervention. Serum NO concentration and flow-mediated dilation (FMD) were determined before and after the experiment. Results. Mean age of the participants was 51.1 ± 9.3 years and 65% (n = 39) were female. After intervention, serum NO concentration increased by 50.2 ± 19.8 μmol/lit in the intervention group (P = 0.017), but no change was observed in the control group (17.5 ± 27.5 μmol/lit; P = 0.530). No change of FMD was observed in the intervention (0.48 ± 0.78%; P = 0.546) or in the control group (0.59 ± 0.92%; P = 0.533). Conclusion. Consumption of oat bread for four weeks increases serum NO concentration but has no effect on FMD. Further studies are warranted in this regard.

Background:Lifestyle modification is an essential factor in the promotion of health in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). One of the interventions to promote lifestyle is interactive follow-up, which, according to the traditional methods, requires spending significant amount of time and cost. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effectiveness of interactive text message follow-up on health promoting lifestyle of patients with ACS.Materials and Methods:This was a randomized controlled trial among 100 patients suffering from ACS during October–February 2016. The participants were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Collection of data on lifestyle was performed before, 3, and 4 months after the beginning of the intervention using Walker's Health Promoting lifestyle questionnaire. Six messages were sent to the intervention groups each week, and participants asked the questions by sending text message, each week 1 message were sent to the control group for 12 weeks. The statistical analysis of data was performed using independent t-test, Chi-square, Mann–Whitney U test, and repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA).Results:Before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the mean score of lifestyle of the two groups, however, 3 months and 4 months after the beginning of the intervention, the mean score of lifestyle in the intervention group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.001).Conclusion:The interactive text message follow-up is effective in promoting the lifestyle of patients with ACS and can be considered in the planning of follow-up of patients with ACS.

The long QT syndrome (LQTs), T-wave alternans (TWA), and ventricular tachyarrhythmia (VT) are some of the common cardiac diseases which cause sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the world. [1,2] Many studies have been developed to detect an abnormal sinus ECG based on the features of ECG signal. Most of these articles use QRS complex to indentify the arrhythmia of the heart. One of the traditional methods has been performed by Jain [3] that digitized and represented each ECG lead by its z-domain modes to enhance the discrimination of the subtle changes in P, QRS, and T sections, the derivatives of the waves are employed for extraction of the modes. Lin et al. [4] used linear prediction to extract features from QRS complexes. Osowski et al. [5] applied fuzzy neural network to ECG beat recognition and classification and the features drawn from the higher order statistics have been proposed in the study. Also Engin [6] performed similar method and used autoregressive model coefficients, higher-order cumulant, and wavelet transform variances as features to enhance the performance. Jekova et al. [7] implemented four different classifiers based on 26 morphological features

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Background:The objective of the present study was to assess the major immediate outcomes of eptifibatide therapy during intracoronary stent implantation.Materials and Methods:In an interventional study, patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were randomized into either the eptifibatide (n = 100) or the control (n = 107) group. In each group, demographic and clinical characteristics such as cardiac death, stent thrombosis (ST), myocardial infarction (MI), rates of target lesion and vessel revascularization, cerebral vascular accident (CVA), and emergency coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) were recorded.Results:The overall rates of major adverse events such as mortality, Stent thrombosis (ST), Myocardial Infarction (MI), target lesion revascularization (TLR), target vessel revascularization (TVR), CVA, and emergency CABG within 24 h after stent implantation were low and comparable between the two groups; P > 0.05 considered significant for all comparisons.Conclusion:There were no statistical differences between the clinical outcomes of groups administered with single-dose intracoronary eptifibatide and control groups among patients undergoing PCI during stent implantation.

In the current study, inflammation as measured by IL-6 and E-selectin was not found to play an important role in progression of ischemic heart disease from stable angina to unstable angina or myocardial infarction, which is contrary to previous studies.

Background: Psychological factors are important both as predisposing to and precipitating coronary artery diseases (CAD). These factors can also be a consequence of CAD, which may create a vicious circle. This paper presents a study on myocardial infarction (MI) patients, considering the relationship between perceived locus of control,social support and illness perception. Materials and Methods: 241 consecutive MI patients from Isfahan, Iran, participated in this study in 2016-17. Comprehensive questionnaires along with a medical interview were used to collect demographic and cardiological data during the first week of hospitalization. 3 to 4 months later information concerning perceived social support, perceived locus of control, and illness perception was collected at participants' houses. The data were analyzed by structural equation modeling to verify the interrelationships between the investigated variables. Results: The mean age of participants (83% of males) was 54.53±9.76 years. The participants with better illness perception regarding MI may have had better perceived social support and/or may had less chance locus of control and were more prone to be diagnosed as Diabetic. A positive correlation was found between powerful others locus of control and chance locus of control. Discussion: Our findings indicate a significant relationship between illness perception, perceived social support and perceived locus of control in MI patients. Conclusion: This study findings provide an overview of some of the psychological factors in MI patients. Consideration of these important factors could help physicians to provide better post MI care .

Background:The present study tries to compare the unintended outcomes of the Catania stent versus Xience stent in patients undergoing angioplasty.Materials and Methods:In a three month, follow-up, double-blinded, randomized controlled trial, 83 patients undergoing angioplasty, who met the inclusion criteria were entered into the study. After randomization 43 patients were treated with the Xience stent and 40 patients with the Catania stent. Stent-related outcomes such as Cardiac and Non-Cardiovascular Death, Myocardial Infarction (MI), Target Lesion Revascularization (TLR), Stent Thrombosis (ST), Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG), Peripheral vasculopathy, and Cerebral Vascular Accident (CVA) were compared between the groups.Results:There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence rate of complications and clinical outcomes between the two treatment groups (P > 0.05). The incidence of MI, TLR, CABG operation, peripheral vasculopathy, or CVA was not observed in any patient and there was no statistically difference in mortality (4.7% vs. 2.5%; P = 0.527) and stent thrombosis (2.3% vs. 2.5%; P = 0.735).Conclusion:All in all, the present study could not find the significant differences between the Catania stent and Xience stent in terms of clinical outcomes during the follow-up period.