Prediction of servere angiographic coronary artery disease through multivariable probability scoring system based on clinical and exercise test data

This study included 120 patients [98 males and 22 females, their ages ranged from 24-70 years] with suspected coronary artery disease. All candidates were subjected to complete history taking and thorough clinical examination including blood cholesterol level, resting 12-lead surface ECG, exercise stress test and coronary angiography. The patients were randomly divided into a training set and a testing set. The training set included 95 patients [80 males and 15 females], which were divided into 2 groups according to the coronary angiographic result. Group I included patients with significant coronary artery disease defined as >70% narrowing in LAD, circumflex artery, right coronary artery or their major branches or 50% narrowing in the left main coronary artery. The test set included 25 patients [18 males and 7 females with an age ranged from 35-61 years, with a mean age of 48.2 +/- 8 years]. Group I and II were compared as regards the different clinical, exercise and hemodynamic variables and introduced those variables into a step-wise logistic regression analysis for the development of the pretest and post test equations for predicting the presence of CAD in the test set of patients. The study showed that the equation can discriminate the accuracy for the detection of patients with severe coronary artery disease in a given group. It can be used for detecting patients with high probability of coronary artery disease with accepted accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and predictive value compared with other equations. It may be helpful for the detection of patients with coronary artery disease and referring them to the appropriate level of investigation and treatment with superior sensitivity than that of the standard criteria of exercise stress test. So, it will be of a great help in referring the patient to the appropriate level of evaluation and treatment, which will result in selective resource use [only the high-risk patient to be referred to expensive and invasive procedures] and cost saving

Study of praziquantel and oxamniquine effects on left ventricular function [an echocardiographic study]

In order to evaluate the effects of praziquantel and oxamniquine on left ventricular function, a total of 100 non-cardiac patients with active schistosomiasis were studied. They were classified into: Praziquantel group [50 cases] and oxamniquine group [50 cases]. Two-dimensional echocardiography was done for each patient just before the study, four hours and one month after drug intake. Praziquantel has no deletorious effect on left ventricular function in patients without hepatosplenomegaly. While, it has a transient injurious effect on ESV and EF in those having hepatosplenomegaly. Oxamniquine has a reversible deleterious effect on left ventricular function manifested as abnormal ESV and EF in patients with or without hepatosplenomegaly