Anatolian Journal of Cardiology最新文献

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) are prevalent cardiovascular conditions in East Asia, with a complex interrelationship. The directionality of the causal impact of AF on HF risk remains uncertain. This study employs Mendelian randomization (MR) to investigate the potential causal effect of AF on HF.

Methods: Utilizing summary data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) within the Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit open GWAS database, we analyzed 8180 AF cases and 28 612 controls, alongside 9413 HF cases and 203 040 controls, all of East Asian descent. We conducted MR analysis using the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method, complemented by various sensitivity analyses, including bidirectional MR to assess causality in the reverse direction.

Results: Genetically predicted AF was found to be causally associated with an increased risk of HF in East Asian populations (odds ratio = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.10-1.19, P <.001) as per the IVW method. These findings were consistent across multiple MR methods. Sensitivity analyses revealed no significant heterogeneity or pleiotropy. Notably, bidirectional MR analysis showed no causal effect of HF on the risk of developing AF.

Conclusions: The MR analysis supports a unidirectional causal relationship between AF and increased HF risk in East Asian individuals. The absence of a reverse causal effect reinforces the importance of maintaining sinus rhythm to mitigate HF risk. Further research is warranted to corroborate these findings and to explore their clinical implications in depth.

Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are a common finding in clinical practice, requiring a full diagnostic work-up in order to exclude an underlying cardiomyopathy. Still, in a substantial proportion of patients, these investigations do not identify any substrate, and the PVCs are labelled as idiopathic. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has proven in the last decades as the method of choice for the exploration of patients with cardiomyopathies, since it can identify subtle changes in the myocardial tissue and help with risk stratification. In patients with idiopathic PVCs and a high PVC burden, several studies report the presence of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) at CMR, which can offer additional diagnostic and prognostic benefits, as well as assistance in catheter ablation procedures, as the risk for adverse cardiac and risk for arrhythmic events events is higher compared to patients without scar. This paper focuses on the impact of the presence of LGE in patients with idiopathic PVCs, reviewing all the relevant studies published so far, including randomized controlled clinical trials, prospective or retrospective cohort studies, case series and case reports as well as systematic reviews.

Background: Radial angiography, preferred for its safety and comfort in percutaneous coronary interventions, occasionally leads to paresthesia-a tingling or numbing sensation in the hand. This study aimed to investigate the presence of nerve damage in patients experiencing paresthesia post-radial angiography through electrophysiological examination.

Methods: This prospective study involved 77 patients who developed hand paresthesia following radial angiography. Excluded were those with malignancy, pregnancy, pace-makers, or recent angiography. Nerve conduction studies were performed using the Neuropack MEB 9102K EMG device, assessing sensory and motor amplitudes, latencies, and velocities of median, ulnar, and radial nerves.

Results: The study included 77 patients (23 females, 54 males; average age 58.39 ± 10.44 years). In 11 diabetic patients, polyneuropathy was detected. For the remaining 66 patients, electrophysiological evaluations showed no significant pathological findings. Comparative analysis of both upper extremities revealed no significant differences in nerve conduction parameters between the side where angiography was performed and the other side. Despite paresthesia complaints, no electrophysiological evidence of nerve damage was found, suggesting that symptoms might be due to local irritation rather than direct nerve injury. This aligns with the safety profile of radial angiography and underscores the importance of distinguishing between transient paresthesia and serious nerve complications.

Conclusion: Paresthesia post-radial angiography, while clinically notable, is not typically associated with nerve damage. This study is significant as it is the first in the literature to demonstrate that radial angiography does not cause nerve damage.

Background: We aimed to investigate the clinical and angiographic characteristics of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) who survived this devastating earthquake and were admitted to our hospital in Antakya/Türkiye.

Methods: We retrospectively examined the impact of the earthquake on the occurrences of acute coronary syndromes in Antakya/Türkiye. All 248 consecutive patients with ACS, also survivors of the earthquake in Antakya, were enrolled as the earthquake group. The earthquake group was created from patients hospitalized between February and June in 2023 after the earthquake. In total, 209 consecutive ACS patients who were hospitalized in our cardiology clinic in similar months of 2022 named as the control group.

Results: Patients admitted before the earthquake were more hospitalized with multivessel disease compared to after the earthquake group (P <.001). Myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary artery disease (MINOCA) was the main reason for the significant increase rate of ACS after the earthquake. The earthquake patient group had lesser diabetes mellitus than the control group (P <.001). The risk of men suffering from ACS after an earthquake is approximately 2.1 times higher than women (P =.023). Those with a history of revascularization are approximately 1.8 times more likely to have ACS after an earthquake (P =.05). The risk of experiencing ACS after an earthquake is approximately 3.5 times higher for those with a family history than for those without (P <.001).

Conclusion: Effects of the devastating earthquake on the heart are the increase in MINOCA patients triggered by great sudden environmental stress and the decrease in diabetes due to worsening nutritional conditions, respectively.

Background: Superior vena cava (SVC) is atrial fibrillation (AF)'s most common non-pulmonary vein (PV) foci. Studies reported conflictory results when SVC isolation (SVCi) was combined with PVi and long-term outcomes were lacking. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of empirical SVCi as an adjunct to cryoballoon-based PV isolation (PVi) in persistent AF ablation.

Methods: A total of 40 consecutive persistent AF patients (60.6 ± 8.2 years, 52.5% females) who underwent SVCi in addition to PVi compared with a propensity score matched cohort of 40 persistent AF patients (58.6 ± 8.7 years, 50% female) in whom PVi-only was performed. Second-generation cryoballoon (CB2) was used in all procedures. Atrial tachyarrhythmia (ATa) recurrence was defined as the detection of AF, atrial flutter, or atrial tachycardia (≥30 s) after a 3-month blanking period.

Results: Pulmonary veins and SVC were successfully isolated in all patients. At a mean of 46.7 ± 7.8 months follow-up, 22 (55%) patients in the PVi-only group, and 27 (67.5%) patients in the PVi + SVCi group were free of ATa after the index procedure (P =.359). Phrenic nerve injury (PNI) was detected in 2 (5%) patients in the PVi-only group (during right PVi) and 2 (5%) patients in the PVi + SVCi group (during SVCi) (P = 1.00). Cox regression analysis revealed that early recurrence was the only predictor of recurrence (hazard ratio 4.88, 95% confidence interval 1.59-14.96; P =.005).

Conclusion: Long-term results of our small sample-sized study revealed that CB-based PVi + SVCi was associated with outcomes similar to the PVi-only strategy in patients with persistent AF. Although complication rates were similar between the groups, close follow-up of diaphragmatic movement is crucial to prevent PNI during SVCi.