No abstract

Chronic cigarette smoking causes alterations in long-axis systolic and diastolic functions of right and left ventricles in healthy young subjects. These changes can be accurately detected with Doppler myocardial velocity and SR imaging.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in clinical practice, and there is an increasing trend in its prevalence in the general population. Recent studies have demonstrated increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in NAFLD. However, information on the mechanism of increased risk of AF in NAFLD is lacking. Impaired atrial conduction is an important factor in the pathophysiology of AF. We aimed to investigate atrial conduction properties in patients with NAFLD by tissue Doppler echocardiography. Fifty-nine ultrasound diagnosed NAFLD patients without clinical diagnosis of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, or cardiac disease and 22 normal subjects as controls were included in this study. Atrial conduction properties were assessed by electromechanical delay (EMD) derived from Doppler tissue echocardiography examination and P-wave dispersion (PWD) calculated from the 12-lead electrocardiogram. Inter-atrial and intra-atrial EMD intervals were significantly longer in NAFLD patients than in controls (inter-atrial EMD, 31.9 ± 8.5 ms vs. 23.4 ± 4.6 ms,p= 0.0001, and intra-atrial EMD, 14.3 ± 5.2 vs. 10.2 ± 4.0 ms,p= 0.001). Similarly, PWD was significantly higher in NAFLD patients compared with controls (49.2 ± 6.3 ms vs. 43.3 ± 4.2 ms,p= 0.0001). Maximum left atrial volume was also significantly higher in the NAFLD group than in controls (51 ± 11 mL vs. 34 ± 9 mL,p< 0.0001). This study demonstrated that atrial conduction is impaired in patients with NAFLD. Also, in a patient population of NAFLD without any clinical diagnosis of cardiac disease, diabetes, or hypertension, left atrial volume was increased compared with controls. These findings suggest impaired atrial conduction as a factor in increased risk of AF in NAFLD.

The presence and morphological characteristics of MB and its relation with atherosclerotic plaques in the involved coronary artery can be comprehensively analysed with 64-slice computed tomography coronary angiography. Atherosclerosis is a common finding in segments proximal to MB, but the prevalence of plaques in equivalent segments (proximal LAD in our study) is not higher than in patients under similar coronary artery disease risk and without MB. On the other hand, prevalence of atherosclerotic plaques at the distal LAD was significantly lower in our patients with MB on the middle LAD. Finally, we suggest that rather than causing proximal atherosclerosis, MB might have a more important role in the protection of distal segments of the bridged arteries from atherosclerosis.

In patients undergoing PCI, higher CRP levels at the time of the procedure are predictive for 10-year mortality and myocardial infarction. High-sensitivity CRP may be a useful biomarker to improve further risk assessment in patients undergoing PCI.