Primary percutaneous coronary intervention for cardio-cerebral infarction: a case report.

Background: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and acute ischemic stroke (AIS) are the leading causes of death globally. Cardio-cerebral infarction (CCI) is the rare occurrence of AMI and AIS, either simultaneously or one after the other. Treatment recommendations are not clear in case of the occurrence of AMI and AIS simultaneously, especially the strategy of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Case presentation: We report consecutive seven case series of patients with CCI who underwent primary PCI in our institute. Comorbidities, strategy of primary PCI, and outcomes were investigated. All patients presented with the chief complaints associated with stroke. Atrial fibrillation (AF) was complicated in five of CCI patients, and four of AF patients were not anticoagulated. The major causes of stroke were cardiogenic and/or hemodynamic in this case series. All patients showed total occlusion in the culprit lesion, and six patients had other diseased vessels. Thrombus aspiration was mainly chosen as the reperfusion strategy in PCI. However, only two patients were diagnosed as definitive coronary embolism, and stenting was needed in six patients due to severe atherosclerotic lesion in culprit coronary artery. Final thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) 3 flow was achieved only in four patients. Hemorrhagic complications occurred in three patients. Two patients died during in-hospital stay, and most had to be transferred for rehabilitation. Conclusions: CCI was a rare but fatal condition in patients who underwent primary PCI. Although CCI was associated with concomitant atrial fibrillation, organic coronary stenosis requiring stenting for revascularization was present in almost all the cases. Given the complexity of coronary artery lesions and high in-hospital mortality, further investigations are needed to determine the optimal treatment strategy.

Difficulty initiating sleep in patients with heart failure: Impact of left atrial pressure.

BACKGROUND: Patients with heart failure (HF) often complain of sleep discomfort. Previous reports described that difficulty initiating sleep increased the cardiovascular risk in the general population. However, the association between difficulty initiating sleep and cardiac function in patients with HF remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the associations between difficulty initiating sleep and clinical characteristics and cardiac function in patients with HF. METHODS: Eighty-seven patients with HF who underwent overnight polysomnography for suspected sleep-disordered breathing were included. Patients were divided into two groups of the longer sleep latency (SL) group (SL ≥14 min, n = 44) and the shorter SL group (SL <14 min, n = 43). The median value of SL was defined as the time from lights-off to falling asleep. We compared the patients' characteristics, laboratory data, and polysomnographic and echocardiographic indices between the two groups. RESULTS: The patients' median age was 67 years, and 85.1 % were men. There was lower beta blocker use [25 (56.8 %) vs. 34 (79.1 %), p = 0.046] and a higher peak mitral early filling velocity to mitral annular velocity ratio (E/e') [16.5 (14.2-21.7) vs. 13.7 (10.9-16.2), p = 0.005] in the longer SL group than in the shorter SL group. In multivariate logistic analysis, E/e' (odds ratio: 1.10, 95 % confidence interval: 1.01 to 1.19; p = 0.032) and systolic blood pressure before sleeping (odds ratio: 1.05, 95 % confidence interval: 1.00 to 1.10; p = 0.033) were significantly associated with a longer SL in patients with HF. CONCLUSIONS: Increased left atrial pressure suggested by increased E/e' and increased systolic blood pressure before sleeping is independently associated with difficulty initiating sleep in patients with HF. Management of these hemodynamic imbalances is required to improve difficulty initiating sleep in patients with HF.

Myocardial delayed enhancement on dual-energy computed tomography: The prevalence and related factors in patients with suspicion of coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to assess the prevalence of myocardial delayed enhancement (MDE) in patients with suspected obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), and to investigate factors related to the presence or absence of MDE. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 191 consecutive patients who underwent coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) with MDE imaging for clinical suspicion of CAD from December 2014 to December 2016. The presence of MDE on iodine-density images using dual-energy CT was assessed by two independent readers. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to determine factors associated with the presence of MDE. RESULTS: MDE was detected in 58 (30%) patients. Male gender, hypertension, prior heart failure (HF) hospitalization, and CCTA-detected CAD were independent factors related to the presence of MDE. When CCTA-detected CAD was excluded to narrow down the analysis to factors obtainable before CCTA, interventricular septum thickness (IVST) ≥12 mm was added as another independent factor. The combination of the following four factors: female gender, no history of hypertension, no history of prior HF hospitalization, and IVST < 12 mm demonstrated high specificity (98.3%) and positive predictive value (96.2%) for predicting the absence of MDE. CONCLUSIONS: Male gender, hypertension, prior HF hospitalization, and CAD were independently associated with the presence of MDE in patients with suspected CAD. The combination of female gender, no history of hypertension, no history of prior HF hospitalization, and IVST < 12 mm is likely to be a helpful predictor in discriminating patients without MDE before CCTA.