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Balloon Angioplasty for Coronary Artery Disease
Placement of stent in coronary artery using balloon angioplasty. More »
Changes in Cardiovascular Risk Factors by Hysterectomy Status with and without Oophorectomy: Study of Women’s Health across the Nation
Angina.com eInterview with Karen A. Matthews, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry
Professor of Epidemiology, Psychology, & Clinical and Translational Science
Director, Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine Research Training Program
Director, Pittsburgh Mind-Body Center
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Angina.com: In laymen’s terms summarize the findings of this study.
Dr. Matthews: Study of Women’s Health across the Nation (SWAN) asked the question: Does hysterectomy with or without oophorectomy (sometimes called a surgical menopause) lead to greater increases in cardiovascular risk factors in mid-life women relative to natural menopause? The answer is no: SWAN found that women had similar or smaller changes in cardiovascular risk factors after hysterectomy with or without bilateral oophorectomy as had women after a natural menopause.
Renal dysfunction and long-term risk of heart failure after coronary artery bypass grafting
Angina.com eInterview with: Martin J. Holzmann, MD, PhD
Departments of Emergency Medicine
Karolinska University Hospital
Karolinska Institutet
Stockholm, Sweden
Angina.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Holzmann: In a nationwide cohort of 29,602 patients who underwent a first coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in Sweden between 2000 and 2008 we studied the impact of renal dysfunction on the risk of new-onset heart failure. In total 20% of the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 mL/min. During 4.5 years of follow-up there were 1,690 (5,7%) new cases of heart failure. Already a small reduction in eGFR (45-60 mL/min) was associated with a 53% increased risk of heart failure during follow-up. Patient with moderately (30-45 mL/min) and severely (15-30 mL/min) reduced eGFR had a more than two-fold increased risk of new-onset heart failure during follow-up.
Cardiovascular risk score, cognitive decline, and dementia in older mexican americans: the role of sex and education.
Angina.com eInterview with: Adina Zeki Al Hazzouri, PhD
Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics School of Medicine,
University of California San Francisco
185 Berry Street, Lobby 5, Suite 5700
San Francisco, CA 94107.
Angina.com: Tell us about the key findings from your recent article in JAHA.
Answer: We found that a summary cardiovascular risk score, predicting the 10-year probability of cardiovascular disease, is associated with cognitive decline and dementia incidence in elderly Mexican Americans. The associations were more significant in women than men.
Angina.com: What are the major implications of this work?
Answer: Men and women in our cohort, the Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging (SALSA), showed higher CVD risk scores than reported among other non-Hispanic white population studies. Given the demographic shift in our aging population, there is a growing need to develop a risk score that predicts dementia risk that could be easily implemented by primary care physicians.
Long‐term Outcomes of Catheter Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation: A Systematic Review and Meta‐analysis
Angina.com: eInterview with:
Dr. Anand Ganesan MBBS (Hons.) PhD FRACP CCEP
Michel Mirowski Fellow, Heart Rhythm Society
Electrophysiology & Postdoctoral Fellow
Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders | University of Adelaide| Royal Adelaide Hospital
www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/anand.ganesan
Professor Prash Sanders
Knapman Chair of Cardiology Research
Royal Adelaide Hospital
Angina.com: What are the main findings of the study?
The study is a meta-analysis of the long-term outcomes of catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF). The principal outcome of the study is that freedom from atrial arrhythmia can be achieved in the majority of patients (~80%), but typically this may require multiple ablation procedures.
Associations of job strain and lifestyle risk factors with risk of coronary artery disease: a meta-analysis of individual participant data
Angina.com eInterview with Professor Mika Kivimäki
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
University College London, London, UK
Angina.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Kivimäki: This is a collaborative study pooling individual-level data from 7 cohorts comprising 102 128 men and women who were free of existing coronary artery disease at baseline. We used questionnaires to measure job strain (yes v. no) and 4 lifestyle risk factors: current smoking, physical inactivity, heavy drinking and obesity. We grouped participants into 3 lifestyle categories: healthy (no lifestyle risk factors), moderately unhealthy (1 risk factor) and unhealthy (2-4 risk factors). Our primary outcome was incident coronary artery disease, defined as first nonfatal myocardial infarction or cardiac-related death.
We found that the risk of coronary artery disease was highest among participants who reported job strain and an unhealthy lifestyle. The 10-year incidence of coronary artery disease among participants with job strain and a healthy lifestyle was 50% lower than the incidence among those with job strain and an unhealthy lifestyle. These findings suggest that a healthy lifestyle may substantially reduce disease risk among people with job strain.
Sleeping altitude and sudden cardiac death
Angina.com Interview with:
Martin Burtscher, MD, PhD
University of Innsbruck, Austria
Benjamin D. Levine, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and Cardiology
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Angina.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Response: The main finding is the observation that sleeping at moderate altitude before exercising at altitude may reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in susceptible subjects, i.e. males over 34 years with history of coronary artery disease and/or prior infarction performing unaccustomed physical activity at altitude.
Antiplatelet therapy at the time of coronary artery bypass grafting: a multicentre cohort study
Angina.com eInterview with Dr. Michael Kremke
Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care
Aarhus University Hospital,
Skejby, Brendstrupgårdsvej 100,
8200 Aarhus N, Denmark.
Angina.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Kremke: We analyzed data from a clinical database, which gathers data of all patients undergoing cardiac surgery at the three university hospitals in Western Denmark. We studied patients who underwent coronary bypass surgery in the years 2006-2011 and allocated them to different groups, depending on whether they had received platelet inhibitors, i.e. aspirin or clopidogrel, during the five days preceding surgery. We then compared how many patients experienced bleeding complications after surgery
Association Between Physician Follow-Up and Outcomes of Care After Chest Pain Assessment in High-Risk Patients
Angina.com eInterview with Dr. Andrew Czarnecki MD, FRCPC
Interventional Cardiology Fellow
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
University of Toronto
Angina.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Czarnecki: The main findings are:
- Only 17 percent of high risk chest pain patients seen in the emergency room were evaluated by cardiologists within a month; 58 percent saw a primary care physician alone, and 25 percent had no physician follow-up within 30 days.
- -Patients who followed up with a cardiologist within 30 days were 21 percent less likely to have a heart attack or die within one year, compared with patients who failed to seek additional care within that time.
- Patients treated by cardiologists received more testing, procedures and medication within 100 days of their ER discharge and had the best health outcomes.
