Search

Background: Rehospitalizations with acute coronary syndromes (ACSs) have declined over the last years, but there is a remaining need for potential further reduction of rehospitalization after ACS to determine the most predominant predictors that can guide strategies to reduce re-hospitalizations burden. Aim: This multi-center study aimed to evaluate the demographic, clinical characteristics, and medications of rehospitalized patients who suffered a new cardiac event in 12 months after admission due to ACS. Material and Methods: Patients age >18 years who have been hospitalized between November 1 2017, and April 1 2018, for ACS within12 months before the readmission for a new acute coronary event were enrolled. Results: The present study included a total of 628 (65.9% from Turkey) consecutive patients rehospitalized with ACS (ST-elevation myocardial infarction [STEMI], 23.0%; ACS without ST-elevation [NSTE-ACS], 76.9%) from 15 different countries. The majority of the rehospitalized patients were men (67.9%), and the mean age was 63.1 ± 12.53 years. 406 (64.6%) had typical, 209 (33.2%) of patients had atypical chest pain and 13 (2.07%) had not any chest pain complaint during readmission. 304 (48.41%) of patients were discharged from hospital earlier than 3 days and 107 (17.04%) of patients stayed more than 7 days. The subcategories of first index diagnosis were 227 (36.1%) STEMI; 401 (63.8%) NSTE-ACS. The mean time from index discharge to rehospitalization was 189.25 ± 118 days. 248 (39.4%) patients were re-hospitalized more than once after index discharge. The most common risk factors were diabetes mellitus (471, 75.0%). 175 (27.87%) of patients stopped taking medication before re-hospitalization. Most of the patients (69.4%) had multivessel disease. Conclusion: Several factors identify patients at higher risk of rehospitalization with ACS. Understanding and preventing these causes can prevent rehospitalization and improve their outcome.

Objective: Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is a heart valve anomaly that affects a considerable segment of the population. Studies of patients with isolated MVP have shown that aortic distensibility decreased as the aortic diameter increased. The aim of this study was to compare evaluations of aortic distensibility in MVP patients using both applanation tonometry and the conventional echocardiographic examination. Methods: A total of 36 consecutive patients with MVP (16 male and 20 female) and 23 healthy controls (11 male and 12 female) were included in this study. The difference in aortic diameter and distensibility was examined using echocardiography and pulse wave velocity (PWV) was measured with applanation tonometry. Results: According to the echocardiographic measurements, the aortic distensibility was lower in the MVP patients than in the control group (6.2+-4.0 cm².dyn⁻¹.10⁻⁶ vs. 10.0+-5.2 cm². dyn⁻¹.10⁻⁶; p=0.02). The PWV measured with applanation tonometry was significantly higher in the MVP patients than in the control group (9.0+-2.4 m/s vs. 7.2+-1.4 m/s; p=0.006). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that aortic distensibility was reduced in patients with isolated MVP compared with a healthy control group. There was a moderate negative correlation between the results of both methods.

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of polypharmacy, inappropriate drug use, and drug-drug interactions (DDIs) in elderly patients presenting at outpatient cardiology clinics in Turkey. Methods: The EPIC (Epidemiology of Polypharmacy and Potential Drug-Drug Interactions in Elderly Cardiac Outpatients) study will be an observational, real-world, multicenter study conducted to evaluate DDIs and polypharmacy in elderly cardiac outpatients. All consecutive patients (aged ≥65 years) admitted to outpatient cardiology clinics between July 30, 2018 and July 30, 2019 who provide written, informed consent will be enrolled. A total of approximately 5000 patients are to be enrolled in this non-interventional study. All of the data will be collected at one point in time and current clinical practice will be evaluated (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03370523). Results: Patient demographics, comorbid disease characteristics, laboratory test results, and details of medication use will be collected using self-reports and medical records. The severity of comorbid disease will be recorded and scored according to Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) and patients will be divided into 3 groups: mild, those with a CCI score of 1–2; moderate, those with a CCI score of 3–4; and severe, those with a CCI score of ≥5. Polypharmacy will be defined as the use of 5 or more medications at one time. DDIs will be determined using the Lexicomp Online drug interaction screening tool and potentially inappropriate medications will be defined based on the 2015 update of the Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults. Severe drug interactions will be defined as those in category D or X. Conclusion: EPIC will be the first large-scale study in Turkey to evaluate polypharmacy, potentially inappropriate medications, and DDIs in elderly cardiac outpatients in a real-world clinical setting.

Background: We aimed to evaluate the role of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) in assessing severity of coronary artery disease by SYNTAX score (SS) II in a prospective study among ST elevation acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients. Methods: One thousand and six patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) who admitted for primary percutaneous intervention were included. The patients were divided into two groups according to SS II values (≤32 and >32). The independent predictors of high SS II were investigated, and the best cutoff value of BNP, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), peak troponin I, and hemoglobin level in predicting high SS II was determined.Results: There was a positive correlation between BNP, white blood cell, hs-CRP, fasting blood glucose, peak troponin I, and SS I. SS II and hemoglobin were negative, but other parameters were positively correlated. High SS II group independent predictors of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, multivessel disease, high Killip class, BNP, peak troponin I, hemoglobin, and hs-CRP levels were found in STEMI patients. The value of BNP >87.15 pg/ml with 59% sensitivity and 77% specificity (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.722 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.689–0.756], P < 0.001), hs-CRP >10.85 mg/dl with 64% sensitivity and 64% specificity (AUC: 0.685 [95% CI: 0.65–0.72], P < 0.001), peak troponin I >77.83 ng/mL with 68% sensitivity and 63% specificity (AUC: 0.704 [95% CI 0.67–0.738], P < 0.001), and hemoglobin >16.75 g/dL with 4% sensitivity and 97% specificity (AUC: 0.345 [95% CI: 0.309–0.382] P < 0.001) independently predicted high SS II group. Conclusion: Serum BNP level was independently associated with the severity of coronary atherosclerosis in patients with ACS together with multivessel disease, left ventricular ejection fraction, hs-CRP, and troponin. Therefore, BNP assessment gives additional prognostic information for early risk stratification of patients with ACS.

A 56-year-old male patient was admitted to our clinic due to persistent fever despite the use of antibiotics for 2 weeks, chest pain, and presyncope. His medical history revealed that the patient underwent modified Bentall-De Bono procedure 2 months ago due to ascending aortic aneurysm and severe aortic insufficiency. Transthoracic apical 5 chamber view showed that mobile vegetation prolapsed into the left ventricular outflow tract during ventricular diastole and that mechanical prosthetic valve was superior to the aortic annulus. Transesophageal echocardiography revealed normal aortic mechanical prosthetic valve function; however, the valve was positioned more superior to the annular plane and a dense vegetation was observed. Moreover, a complete dehiscence of the prosthetic valve was attached to aortic annulus with a single stitch in an area between noncoronary sinus and left coronary sinus. Dense thrombus formation was observed in the perivalvular region. Many cases with prosthetic valve endocarditis and partial dehiscence as its complication have been reported in the literature. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no reported case of complete dehiscence secondary to infective endocarditis following complete ascending aortic graft and prosthetic aortic valve replacement (modified Bentall-De Bono procedure).

The Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) paradigm relies strongly on the segmentation concept, i.e., partitioning of an image into regions or objects that are then further analyzed. Segmentation is a critical step, for which a wide range of methods, parameters and input data are available. To reduce the sensitivity of the GEOBIA process to the segmentation step, here we consider that a set of segmentation maps can be derived from remote sensing data. Inspired by the ensemble paradigm that combines multiple weak classifiers to build a strong one, we propose a novel framework for combining multiple segmentation maps. The combination leads to a fine-grained partition of segments (super-pixels) that is built by intersecting individual input partitions, and each segment is assigned a segmentation confidence score that relates directly to the local consensus between the different segmentation maps. Furthermore, each input segmentation can be assigned some local or global quality score based on expert assessment or automatic analysis. These scores are then taken into account when computing the confidence map that results from the combination of the segmentation processes. This means the process is less affected by incorrect segmentation inputs either at the local scale of a region, or at the global scale of a map. In contrast to related works, the proposed framework is fully generic and does not rely on specific input data to drive the combination process. We assess its relevance through experiments conducted on ISPRS 2D Semantic Labeling. Results show that the confidence map provides valuable information that can be produced when combining segmentations, and fusion at the object level is competitive w.r.t. fusion at the pixel or decision level.

Unstable angina is common in ischemic heart diseases. Patients with unstable angina undergo coronary angiography to detect lesions that may require treatment. Coronary angiography can be performed through several ways of arterial access. Radial access is the most commonly used method. We report a 71 year old male patient who presented with chest pain due to unstabil angina pectoris. Coronary angiograhy was perfomed by a new technique, transpalmar access through superficial palmar branch of the ulnar artery. The patient was treated successfully with percutaneous coronary intervention of the left anterior descending artery. In our case, transpalmar approach was performed for the first time in Turkey.

Objectives: Aim of the present study was to investigate correlation between left atrial (LA) deformation parameters assessed using 2-dimensional (2D) speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) and complexity of coronary artery disease according to SYNTAX score (SXscore) in patients with stable coronary artery disease (SCAD). Study design: Total of 60 moderate-risk SCAD patients (40 men, 20 women) who underwent coronary angiography and 30 healthy controls were included. Measurements of conventional echocardiographic parameters as well as peak LA strain during ventricular systole (LA-RES), peak LA strain during atrial systole (LA-PUMP), peak LA strain rate during ventricular systole (LA-SRS), peak LA strain rate during early diastole (LA-SRE), and peak LA strain rate during atrial systole (LA-SRA) were obtained. Results: Patients were categorized into 2 groups: low SXscore of

Objective: Gender is an important feature in the management of atrial fibrillation (AF). This study investigated gender-related differences in patients with AF in Turkey. Methods: As a part of RAMSES (ReAl-life Multicenter Survey Evaluating Stroke prevention strategies in Turkey, NCT02344901) study, information of the patients with AF who successively applied to the hospital was analyzed. This cross-sectional, multicenter, nationwide observational study enrolled 6264 non-valvular AF (NVAF) outpatients (55.9% women) from Turkey. Results: Compared with men, women with NVAF were older (71 years [range: 65–78 years] vs. 70 years [range: 62–77 years]; p

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the role of leftsided mechanical parameters in postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Methods: Ninety patients with coronary artery disease and normal left ventricular (LV) function in sinus rhythm were enrolled in the study. Preoperative LV and left atrial (LA) mechanics were evaluated by two-dimensional (2D) speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE), including strain and rotation parameters, and volume indices. Patients were monitored in order to detect POAF during the postoperative period. Results: Twenty-three of 90 patients (25.6%) developed POAF. Age (p70 pg/ml, OR 22.377, CI 3.286–152.381, p