In patients with prosthetic valve thrombosis, intravenous slow infusion thrombolysis given in discrete, successive sessions guided by serial TEE and transthoracic echocardiography can be achieved with a low risk of complications and a high rate of success.

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he aim of treatment for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is to restore full antegrade blood flow in the infarct-related artery (IRA) and minimize ischemic damage to the myocardium. Thrombolytic therapy is an option, but primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the treatment of choice, based on lower rates of recurrent ischemia or infarction and good success rates in restoring antegrade blood flow in the IRA. 1,2 However, primary PCI is associated with a serious problem known as the no-reflow phenomenon (Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) flow ≤2), which occurs in 5-25% of cases. 3,4 Although PCI achieves full patency of epicardial arteries, patients who develop this phenomenon are at increased risk for left ventricular dysfunction, more progressive myocardial damage, and have higher rates of morbidity and mortality. 5,6 A number of studies have focused on the risk factors, but most of those investigators used nuclear imaging techniques, 7 myocardial contrast echocardiography, 8 Doppler flow measurements, 9 TIMI frame count method 10 or myocardial blush grade 11 to assess no-reflow phenomenon.Although these techniques have greater accuracy for detecting post-PCI suboptimal reperfusion, TIMI flow grade is the easiest and most commonly used method of evaluating primary PCI success. 12 The aim of this study was to identify simple clinical factors, angiographic findings and procedural features that predict no-reflow phenomenon in patients with AMI who undergo primary PCI. Methods Study PopulationThis prospective observational study was conducted in the Cardiology Department of Kartal Kosuyolu Yuksek Ihtisas Education and Research Hospital between January 2003 and February 2006. During this period, emergency cardiac catheterization was performed in 612 patients who (1) presented with AMI of ≤12 h duration or (2) were admitted between 12 and 24 h after onset with signs and symptoms of continuing ischemia. Exclusions were: patients treated conservatively for coronary artery spasm or ≤50% diameter stenosis of the culprit lesion with normal coronary blood flow; patients who required emergency surgical revascularization for severe left main coronary artery or Circ J 2008; 72: 716 -721 (Received May 15, 2007; revised manuscript received December 7, 2007; accepted December 25, 2007) Background The aim of the study was to identify clinical factors, angiographic findings, and procedural features that predict no-reflow phenomenon (Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) flow grade ≤2) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) who undergo primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods and Results A series of 382 consecutive patients with AMI underwent primary PCI within 12 h of symptom onset. Patients with ischemic symptoms continuing for more than 12 h were also included. Clinical, angiographic and procedural data were collected for each subject. Ninety-three (24.3%) of the patients developed no-reflow phenomenon, and their findings were compared with those of the reflow grou...

Both hICON and mICON bound to the neovascular endothelia of choroidal neovascularization with greater specificity than anti-von Willebrand antibody. Furthermore, mICON can selectively obliterate already established choroidal neovascularization, which suggests that it may be useful for immunotherapy in patients with exudative (wet) macular degeneration.

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Increased RV myocardium FDG accumulation indicates increased RV loading that correlates with prognostic markers in pulmonary hypertension including reduced exercise capacity, elevated BNP, and echo variables of tricuspid annular function. Moreover, identification of increased RV FDG accumulation predicts the presence but not the severity of elevated pulmonary systolic pressure.

This study investigated the value of Thiol/Disulfide homeostasis and ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) levels in discriminating diabetic cases with different stages of retinopathy and without retinopathy. In total, 122 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) were enrolled in this prospective cross-sectional study. These patients were separated into three subgroups: Group 1 included 42 patients with DM and no diabetic retinopathy (DR), Group 2 included 40 patients with DM having non-proliferative DR and the Group 3 had 40 patients with DM having proliferative DR. The native thiol, total thiol, and disulfide levels and disulfide-native thiol, disulfide-total thiol, and native thiol-total thiol ratios as well as the IMA levels were analyzed and compared among the groups. There were no statistically significant differences regarding the ages and genders of the patients between the groups. The native thiol level, the total thiol level and the native thiol-total thiol ratio showed a statistically significantly reduction, while the disulfide level, the disulfide-native thiol ratio, and the disulfide-total thiol ratio showed a statistically significantly elevation in the Group 3 compared with the Group 1 and Group 2. Additionally, the mean IMA levels were statistically significantly higher in Group 3 when compared to Group 1 and Group 2 (p = .003 and p = .014, respectively). In conclusion, both Thiol/Disulfide homeostasis parameters and IMA levels increase with the progression of DR. Thiol/Disuldife homeostasis balance and IMA levels may be used a biomarker to monitor the tissue ischemia in DM and to discriminate the different stages of DR, in the future.

Background: In inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) number of thromboembolic events are increased due to hypercoagulupathy and platelet activation. Increases in mean platelet volume (MPV) can lead to platelet activation, this leads to thromboembolic events and can cause acute coronary syndromes. In IBD patients, QT-dispersion and P-wave dispersion are predictors of ventricular arrhythmias and atrial fibrilation; MPV is accepted as a risk factor for acute coronary syndromes, we aimed at evaluating the correlations of these with the duration of disease, its localization and activity.Methods: The study group consisted of 69 IBD (Ulcerative colitis n: 54, Crohn's Disease n:15) patients and the control group included 38 healthy individuals. Disease activity was evaluated both endoscopically and clinically. Patients with existing cardiac conditions, those using QT prolonging medications and having systemic diseases, anemia and electrolyte imbalances were excluded from the study. QT-dispersion, P-wave dispersion and MPV values of both groups were compared with disease activity, its localization, duration of disease and the antibiotics used.Results: The P-wave dispersion values of the study group were significantly higher than those of the control group. Duration of the disease was not associated with QT-dispersion, and MPV levels. QT-dispersion, P-wave dispersion, MPV and platelet count levels were similar between the active and in mild ulcerative colitis patients. QT-dispersion levels were similar between IBD patients and the control group. No difference was observed between P-wave dispersion, QT-dispersion and MPV values; with regards to disease duration, disease activity, and localization in the study group (p>0.05).Conclusions: P-wave dispersion which is accepted as a risk factor for the development of atrial fibirilation was found to be high in our IBD patients. This demonstrates us that the risk of developing atrial fibrillation may be high in patients with IBD. No significant difference was found in the QT-dispersion, and in the MPV values when compared to the control group.