Summary Progress in the medical treatment of patients with heart failure with systolic dysfunction, cardiac resynchronization therapy, internal cardiac defibrillators and multidisciplinary management programmes has resulted in dramatic improvements in…
Summary Hypertension is becoming an important health problem in many countries. The ‘small baby syndrome hypothesis’ suggests that an inverse linear relationship exists between birth weight and later risk of…
Summary Background Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is an important indicator of left ventricular function and of the severity and prognosis of ischaemic heart disease. Assessment of regional function using…
Summary Aim To evaluate the evolution of surgical management in a large population of patients with Marfan syndrome. Methods This is a retrospective study of patients fulfilling the Ghent criteria…
Summary Background Data supporting epidemiological transition from a predominant burden of infectious diseases to one of chronic diseases in Africa result mostly from hospital surveys. Aim To estimate the cardiovascular…
Summary Background The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system is known to play an important role in the pathophysiology and development of heart failure. Several studies have reported the benefits of testosterone in heart…
Summary Background Coronary stents have evolved over time, from bare-metal stents to drug-eluting stents, and now to bioactive stents. Aims We sought to explore the immediate outcome of the titanium-nitride-oxide-coated…
New guidelines from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) on the management of cardiovascular diseases during pregnancy were published recently in the December 2011 issue of the European Heart Journal…
A 52-year-old woman was referred for surgical treatment of a symptomatic aortic stenosis. Her medical history included unexplored mild mental retardation. Physical examination revealed high blood pressure (140/87 mmHg) with…
An 86-year-old woman complained of gradually increasing dyspnoea (New York Heart Association stage III). Ten years previously she had surgical aortic valve replacement with a stented bioprosthesis (21 mm Carpentier-Edwards;…
