Using Equivalent Doses of Medications to Convert Atrial Fibrillation
I was dismayed by the specifics of the comparison by Ulimoen et al of 4 drug regimens for the rate control of atrial fibrillation. This RATe Control in Atrial Fibrillation (RATAF)…
Forbidden Fruit: On the Analysis of Recurrent Events in Randomized Clinical Trials
The conventional analysis of a typical clinical trial focuses on the time to occurrence of the first among a composite set of alternative events such as death or nonfatal myocardial…
Dabigatran and Acute Coronary Syndromes
There has been considerable interest in the utility of newer oral anticoagulants for the secondary prevention of myocardial infarction (MI) and acute coronary syndromes (ACS). The direct thrombin inhibitor dabigatran has…
Remembering Sadao Otani
Pathology has played a major role in the history of medicine, but, currently, gross morphology is being eclipsed by 3-dimensional imaging. However, pathology is by no means a vestige of…
Stress-Induced Hyperviscosity in the Pathophysiology of Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC) is characterized by transient hypokinesis of the left ventricular apex or midventricular segments with coronary arteries without significant stenosis. It is often associated with emotional or physical…
Effect of Age, Gender, and Left Ventricular Diastolic Function on Left Atrial Volume Index in Adults Without Known Cardiovascular Disease or Risk Factors
There are limited data on reference values of left atrial volume indexes (LAVIs) in adults without known cardiovascular disease or risk factors, as well as their stratification by age, gender,…
Distribution, Determinants, and Normal Reference Values of Thoracic and Abdominal Aortic Diameters by Computed Tomography (from the Framingham Heart Study)
Current screening and detection of asymptomatic aortic aneurysms is based largely on uniform cut-point diameters. The aims of this study were to define normal aortic diameters in asymptomatic men and…
Connexin Expression Patterns in Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is an inheritable myocardial disease accounting for ventricular tachycardia and sudden death in the young and arising from areas of fibrofatty replacement of predominantly right…
A 43- to 54-Year Follow-Up of 1,000 Patients With Congenital Heart Disease
From 1952 to 1963, 1,000 consecutive children with congenital heart disease were evaluated by 1 of us (R.C.A.). Current information for 994 patients with 36,086 patient-years is available. Of these,…
Comparison of Late Results of Arterial Switch Versus Atrial Switch (Mustard Procedure) Operation for Transposition of the Great Arteries
Two decades after surgery for transposition of the great arteries, the clinical status, cardiac function, cardiorespiratory performance, and neurohormonal activity of patients who underwent either atrial switch (Mustard) operations or…
