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Aim The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that diabetes modifies the risk of mortality in acute heart failure patients, especially in patients with impaired LVEF, and that impaired LVEF in turn modifies the risk of mortality in diabetic patients. Methods and results We studied 2121 patients with acute heart failure admitted at two centres in Singapore from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2009. The date of the last follow-up was 31 December 2011, with a median follow-up time (interquartile range) of 914 (442–1190) days. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios for all-cause mortality in patients with LVEF ≥50%, LVEF 30–49%, and LVEF 50% was not increased. Other clinical predictors of mortality were ageing, prior myocardial infarction, systolic blood pressure >140 mmHg, creatinine ≥250 µmol/L, haemoglobin

Impaired renal function and anaemia are common among patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). While both conditions are known independent risk factors for increased mortality, their interaction as risk factors for increased mortality in AMI is unclear.We studied 5395 subjects hospitalized for AMI between January 2000 and December 2005. An estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR)60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) was defined as impaired GFR and GFR ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) was defined as preserved GFR. Anaemia was defined as13 g/dL (males) and12 g/dL (females). The odds ratio (OR) for one-year mortality and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated by logistic regression.We identified 758 (14%) patients with impaired GFR and anaemia, 1105 (20.5%) patients with impaired GFR without anaemia, 465 (8.6%) patients with preserved GFR and anaemia, and 3012 (55.8%) patients with preserved GFR without anaemia; one-year mortality rates were 56.5%, 41.8%, 31.8% and 10.3% respectively in these 4 groups. Among patients with impaired GFR, anaemia was associated with an adjusted OR of 1.47 (95% CI=1.17-1.85) for one-year mortality, while among patients with preserved GFR, anaemia was associated with a higher adjusted OR of 2.07 (95% CI=1.54-2.76) for one-year mortality, interaction P0.001.The combination of impaired GFR and anaemia confers greater than five-fold increased risk of mortality after AMI. The differential effect of anaemia among patients with impaired and preserved GFR on mortality suggests that in patients with preserved GFR anaemia confers a greater relative hazard than in patients with impaired renal function.

Young patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) have a more favorable prognosis than older patients with MI. However, there are limited data comparing the prognosis of young patients with MI with young population controls. Comparison with an age-matched background population could unmask residual mortality risk in young patients with MI that would otherwise not be apparent when merely comparing the mortality risk of young and older patients with MI. We studied 15,151 patients with AMI from 2000 to 2005, of which 601 patients were ≤40 years (young MI). The relative survival ratio (RSR) was calculated as the ratio of the observed survival of patients with MI divided by the expected survival, estimated from the background population (n = 3,771,700) matched for age, gender, and follow-up year. An RSR of 1.0 indicates poorer or better survival, respectively, than the background population. The 12-year all-cause and cardiovascular mortality of young versus older patients was 12.8% versus 50.7% (p

We conducted a randomized feasibility pilot study comparing combined fibrinolysis with immediate rescue angioplasty vs. primary angioplasty with adjunctive abciximab in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Seventy patients with ST segment elevation AMI of ≤ 6 hr were randomized to either 50 mg of alteplase and abciximab (n = 34) or primary angioplasty with adjunctive abciximab (n = 36). Coronary angiography was performed at 60 min in the combined lytic group and TIMI 3 flow was present in 65% of patients as compared to 25% (P = 0.001) in the primary angioplasty group prior to intervention. Treatment success, defined as TIMI 3 flow, was achieved in 83% of patients in the primary angioplasty group (P = 0.075 compared to 65% in combined lytic group before rescue angioplasty). There was no difference in overall treatment success between primary angioplasty and combined lytic group with rescue angioplasty (83% vs. 94%; P = NS). Major adverse cardiac events at 1 month were not significant (15% vs. 11%; P = NS), but there was a trend toward more events in the combined lytic group at 6 months (32% vs. 14%; P = 0.066), particularly in target vessel revascularization. In this feasibility pilot study, high rate of TIMI 3 flow was attained in patients with AMI with both combined fibrinolysis and primary angioplasty with adjunctive abciximab. A larger randomized trial is currently ongoing to compare these two strategies. Cathet Cardiovasc Intervent 2004;62:445–452. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Objective: To compare the early and late outcomes of primary percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) with fibrinolytic treatment among diabetic patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Design: Retrospective observational study with data obtained from prospective registries. Setting: Tertiary cardiovascular institution with 24 hour acute interventional facilities. Patients: 202 consecutive diabetic patients with AMI receiving reperfusion treatment within six hours of symptom onset. Interventions: Fibrinolytic treatment was administered to 99 patients, and 103 patients underwent primary PTCA. Most patients undergoing PTCA received adjunctive stenting (94.2%) and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibition (63.1%). Main outcome measures: Death, non-fatal reinfarction, and target vessel revascularisation at 30 days and one year were assessed. Results: Baseline characteristics were similar in these two treatment groups except that the proportion of patients with Killip class III or IV was considerably higher in those treated with PTCA (15.5% v 6.1%, p = 0.03) and time to treatment was significantly longer (103.7 v 68.0 minutes, p v 17.2%, p = 0.011) and target vessel revascularisation at one year (19.4% v 36.4%, p = 0.007) were lower. Death or reinfarction at one year was also reduced among those treated with PTCA (17.5% v 31.3%, p = 0.02), with an adjusted relative risk of 0.29 (95% confidence interval 0.15 to 0.57) compared with fibrinolysis. Conclusion: Among diabetic patients with AMI, primary PTCA was associated with reduced early and late adverse events compared with fibrinolytic treatment.

To determine clinical outcome and rates of target vessel revascularization (TVR) in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for STEMI who were treated with cobalt-chromium stents compared to stainless steel bare metal stents (BMS).The newer generation cobalt chromium stents were reported to achieve lower rates of TVR compared with conventional BMS.Consecutive STEMI cases admitted within 12 h of symptom onset and undergoing primary angioplasty and bare metal stent implantation 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2008 were identified. Primary outcomes were rates of clinically-driven TVR at six months as well as occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) either of all-cause death, repeat myocardial infarction or TVR at six months.1030 cases with 1175 lesions (84% males) and median age of 58 years underwent primary PCI for STEMI in our registry. Overall procedural success rate was 98%. Stainless steel stents were inserted in 65% of the culprit lesions (stainless steel, n = 766 versus cobalt chromium, n = 264). Primary outcomes of TVR (3.5% in the stainless steel group and 3.4% in the cobalt chromium group, P = 0.93) and MACE (8.4% in the stainless steel group and 5.3% in the cobalt chromium group, P = 0.11) after six months were no different between the two groups. However, there were more deaths at 30 days in the stainless steel group compared to the cobalt chromium group (3.5% versus 0.4%, HR 4.04 (1.03-3.88), P = 0.04).Both cobalt-chromium and stainless steel coronary stents were associated with similar and low risk of clinically-driven TVR.

Background: The use of DES results in lower risk of target vessel revascularization (TVR) compared to bare metal stents (BMS) following primary PCI for patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). However, BMS are more commonly implanted compared to DES due to concerns of poor compliance to dual antiplatelet therapy, risk of late stent thrombosis and increased cost. Newer generation BMS based on cobalt chromium alloy have thinner stent struts, better deliverability and potentially lower rates of TVR compared with conventional stainless steel BMS. Therefore we aim to determine the clinical outcome and rates of TVR in patients undergoing primary PCI for STEMI who were treated with cobaltchromium stents compared to stainless steel stents.

Although it is widely accepted that stenting confers favorable angiographic and clinical results in coronary arteries/=3.0 mm in diameter, the outcome of stent placement in smaller vessels remains largely unclear.We sought to specifically determine the early and long-term clinical outcomes in a large series of 197 consecutive patients who underwent stent placement in 207 vessels3.0 mm in diameter. Procedural success, accomplished in 97.3%, was accompanied by a significant reduction in lesion severity from 85% +/- 9% before to 3% +/- 7% diameter stenosis after the procedure (P =.0001) and a 0.5% incidence of subacute stent thrombosis. At 1 and 2 years of follow-up, survival rate without major target lesion-driven events was observed in 77.3% and 73.9% of patients, respectively. Repeat revascularization procedures accounted for most of these events; cardiac deaths (including those related to subacute stent thrombosis) and late (30 days) myocardial infarctions were infrequent (2.4% and 1.0%, respectively). The 6-month angiographic binary instent restenosis rate was 30.1%. On multivariate analysis, diabetes mellitus (P =. 0275), small baseline reference vessel size (P =.0300), and stent size/=2.7 mm (P =.0111) were independently associated with an increased instent restenosis rate.Optimal angiography-guided coronary stenting of vessels3.0 mm in diameter in association with the stringent use of a poststent combined aspirin-ticlopidine antiplatelet regimen confers a low risk of stent thrombosis, an acceptable incidence of angiographic instent restenosis, and a favorable long-term clinical outcome.

a categorical variable of low (10-14), moderate (15-21) and high (22-40) trait anger. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to determine the relative hazard of HF across categories of anger proneness. Results: High trait anger was associated with increased age-adjusted incidence of heart failure (Figure 1). During the median 14.5 years of follow-up, the age, gender, and race adjusted risk of incident HF among those with high as compared to low trait anger (Hazard Ratio, HR51.48 [95% CI 1.25, 1.76]) was attenuated in analyses adjusted for education and median household income (HR 5 1.39 [95% CI 1.16, 1.66]). Adjustment for depression further attenuated estimates to statistically non-significant levels. The average number of hospital readmissions post incident HF event increased from 4.7 for those with low or moderate anger to 5.9 for those with high anger (p!0.05). Conclusions: In this bi-racial cohort, anger proneness was associated with increased incidence of HF and an increased number of hospital readmissions among individuals with HF. This study suggests that evaluating personality traits is important for individuals at risk for HF and those with HF.