NEW YORK (From Reuters Health) – Performing percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) in non-infarct-related coronary vessels along with primary PCI for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) appears to jeopardize patient survival, Canadian researchers reported online June 8 in the European Heart Journal. Despite guidelines to the contrary, some 10% of STEMI patients with multi-vessel coronary artery disease had non-culprit coronary interventions …
A poor heart leads to rapid aging of your brain
A new study published in CIRCULATION on Aug 2, 2010 has correlated diminished heart function with accelerated brain aging. By comparing MRIs of the heart and brain, the authors found that poor heart function is associated with diminished brain volumes, an indicator of aging, especially in younger patients. Likewise, patients with normal heart function had a significantly higher total brain …
APEX-AMI trial Analysis
Although 40-65% of patients admitted for treatment of an acute heart attack with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) have multiple blockages, current guidelines strongly suggest to limit the procedure to the blocked artery (the culprit vessel). PCI in “Non-culprit coronary arteries” is associated with a significantly increased risk of dying, as Armstrong and colleagues of the APEX-AMI trial recently published in …
More about Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting
While the buzz in treatment for Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is all about Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI) or “Stenting”, relatively little information about Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) is available. CABG, despite often being labeled as painful, expensive and risky, is in many ways the opposite: an efficient method of returning blood flow to the heart back to normal. Relatively …