Sex Differences in Clinical Outcomes of Patients with Stable Coronary Artery Disease after Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.

Potential sex-related differences in the periprocedural and long-term postprocedural outcomes of coronary angioplasty in patients with stable coronary artery disease have been studied thoroughly over the last few decades, to determine whether female sex should be regarded as an independent risk factor that affects clinical outcomes. Based on a significant number of observational studies and meta-analyses, sex has not yet emerged as an independent risk factor for either mortality or major cardiac and cerebrovascular events, despite the fact that in the early 1980s, for several reasons, female sex was associated with unfavourable outcomes. Therefore, it remains debatable whether the female sex should be considered as an independent risk factor for periprocedural and long-term bleeding events. The pharmacological and technological advancements that support current coronary angioplasty procedures, as well as the non-delayed treatment of coronary artery disease in females, have certainly lessened the outcome differences between the two sexes. However, females show fluctuations in blood coagulability through their lifetime and a higher prevalence of bleeding episodes associated with the antithrombotic treatment following transcatheter coronary reperfusion interventions. In conclusion, the clinical results of percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with stable coronary artery disease, during the periprocedural and long-term postprocedural periods, appear to show no significant differences between the two sexes, except for bleeding rates, which seem to be higher in females, a difference that mandates further systematic research.

Safety of smartwatches and their chargers in patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices.

AIMS: Cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) are susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI). Smartwatches and their chargers could be a possible source of EMI. We sought to assess whether the latest generation smartwatches and their chargers interfere with proper CIED function. METHODS AND RESULTS: We included consecutive CIED recipients in two centres. We tested two latest generation smartwatches (Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch) and their charging cables for potential EMI. The testing was performed under continuous electrocardiogram recording and real-time device telemetry, with nominal and 'worst-case' settings. In vitro magnetic field measurements were performed to assess the emissions from the tested devices, initially in contact with the probe and then at a distance of 10 cm and 20 cm. In total, 171 patients with CIEDs (71.3% pacemakers-28.7% implantable cardioverter-defibrillators) from five manufacturers were enrolled (63.2% males, 74.8 ± 11.4 years), resulting in 684 EMI tests. No EMI was identified in any patient either under nominal or 'worst-case scenario' programming. The peak magnetic flux density emitted by the smartwatches was similar to the background noise level (0.81 µT) even when in contact with the measuring probe. The respective values for the chargers were 4.696 µΤ and 4.299 µΤ for the Samsung and Apple chargers, respectively, which fell at the background noise level when placed at 20 cm and 10 cm, respectively. CONCLUSION: Two latest generation smartwatches and their chargers resulted in no EMI in CIED recipients. The absence of EMI in conjunction with the extremely low intensity of magnetic fields emitted by these devices support the safety of their use by CIED patients.

The electrocardiogram endeavour: from the Holter single-lead recordings to multilead wearable devices supported by computational machine learning algorithms.

This review aims to provide a comprehensive recapitulation of the evolution in the field of cardiac rhythm monitoring, shedding light in recent progress made in multilead ECG systems and wearable devices, with emphasis on the promising role of the artificial intelligence and computational techniques in the detection of cardiac abnormalities.