Aim:The aim of study was to: 1) examine the relationship between ABO blood groups and extent of coronary atherosclerosis in patients with chronic coronary artery disease (CAD), 2) compare ABO blood groups distribution in CAD patients and general population, 3) examine possible differences in traditional risk factors frequency in CAD patients with different ABO blood groups.Materials and methods:In the 646 chronic CAD patients (72.4% males) coronary angiograms were scored by quantitative assessment using multiple angiographic scoring system, Traditional risk factors were self reported or measured by standard methods. ABO blood distribution of patients was compared with group of 651 healthy blood donors (74.6% males).Results:Among all ABO blood group patients there was no significant difference between the extent of coronary atherosclerosis with regard to all the three scoring systems: number of affected coronary arteries (P = 0.857), Gensini score (P = 0.818), and number of segments narrowed > 50% (P = 0.781). There was no significant difference in ABO blood group distribution between CAD patients and healthy blood donors. Among CAD patients, men with blood group AB were significantly younger than their pairs with non-AB blood groups (P = 0.008). Among CAD patients with AB blood group, males < 50 yrs were significantly overrepresented when compared with the non-AB groups (P = 0.003).Conclusions:No association between ABO blood groups and the extent of coronary atherosclerosis in Croatian CAD patients is observed. Observation that AB blood group might possibly identify Croatian males at risk to develop the premature CAD has to be tested in larger cohort of patients.

IL-6 level is increased in patients with SSc and significantly correlates with LV diastolic dysfunction, NT-proBNP and EUSTAR score. These results support the role of IL-6 in the development of cardiac disease in SSc patients.

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A 24-year-old woman with a history of hydatid disease of the lung and brain, which was treated surgically and medically with albendazole, was admitted because of syncope. Echocardiography demonstrated a mass in the anterolateral papillary muscle and chordae tendineae. Despite negative serologic tests for Echinococcus granulosus, cytology and histology of the surgically removed mass confirmed hydatid disease. The patient was discharged and treated further with albendazole and praziquantel.

Despite advances in diagnosis, imaging methods, and medical and surgical interventions, prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) remains an extremely serious and potentially fatal complication of heart valve surgery. Characteristic changes of PVE are more difficult to detect by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) than those involving the native valve. We reviewed advances in transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in the diagnosis of PVE. Three-dimensional (3D) TEE is becoming an increasingly available imaging method combined with two-dimensional TEE. It contributes to faster and more accurate diagnosis of PVE, assessment of PVE-related complications, monitoring effectiveness of antibiotic treatment, and determining optimal time for surgery, sometimes even before or without previous TTE. In this article, we present advances in the treatment of patients with mitral PVE due to 3D TEE application.

Isolated left ventricular noncompaction (IVNC) is a congenital cardiomyopathy characterized by a loosened spongy myocardium. Recognition of this condition is extremely important because of its high mortality and morbidity due to progressive heart failure, thromboembolic events, and ventricular arrhythmias. However, IVNC is commonly misdiagnosed because of the lack of knowledge about this rare disorder. We report 2 patients with the characteristic echocardiographic presentation for IVNC. Echocardiography is the procedure of choice to confirm the diagnosis and perform follow-up in patients with IVNC; therefore, it is important to make echocardiographers more familiar with this condition.

Author`s ReplyTo the Editor,We would like to thank the authors of the letter for their interest and criticism about our study published in February issue of The Anatolian Journal of Cardiology 2014; 14: 55-60 (1). The relation between ABO blood groups and coronary artery disease is known for many years. But, there are no adequate information about the causes of relation between ABO blood groups and coronary artery diseases. In our study, we tried to discuss the relation between ABO blood groups and the development of coronary artery diseases, also we discussed the mechanism of coagulation attributing vWF and lipid metabolism of ABO blood groups (1). The author summarized the relation between blood groups and CAD in different races (2-5) and wanted our explanation of what might be the causes of variations between our study and the other studies. First of all, it is known that risk factors in the development of coronary artery diseases are different in different races. These differences are claimed to be both genetic and environmental reasons. We think that the variations between these studies and our study as well as these studies each other could be related to both genetic and environmental reasons. Secondly, authors wanted to learn the relation between lipid levels and ABO blood groups. We have re-analyzed our data and HDL (41±12 vs. 40±14), LDL (93±37 vs. 87±36), TG (135±128 vs. 129±131) did not differ between 0 and non 0 groups. However, Chen et al. (3) determined a significant relation between ABO blood groups and lipid levels as noted by the authors. We can list the possible causes of these differences: Both studies were conducted in different races (Turkish vs Chinese), while there were more than 6 thousand patients in the Chen et al. (3) study, there were about 500 patients in our study. In addition in our study 15-20% patients had a history of statin use. All these reasons may explain the differences between the two studies.

DBT is a reliable, inexpensive and fast test for the detection of WCH in primary care.