The physiologic status of the patient at presentation, mechanism of injury, and presence of a tamponade were significant prognostic factors in this series of penetrating cardiac injuries. Multiple-chamber injuries, especially with great vessel involvement, were associated with a high mortality rate. ED thoracotomies for gunshot wounds of the heart were uniformly fatal.

No abstract

Autologous skeletal cardiomyoplasty was able to attenuate left ventricular remodeling in sheep with end-stage ischemic heart failure.

This study reconfirms that doxorubicin, when given into the coronary arteries, induces cardiac dysfunction. It appears to be dose-dependent, but more importantly, in doses where the LV dysfunction yields overt heart failure; the mortality over 14 weeks is significant and likely unacceptable for most chronic heart failure studies.