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Background: Ventricular tachycardia (VT) commonly occurs in patients with structural heart disease, either of ischemic or non-ischemic nature. Treatment options include various antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs). When AADs fail, radiofrequency (RF) catheter ablation is a valuable treatment option for patients with recurrent VT.1 This single-center ten-year retrospective study aimed to assess acute and chronic success rates of RF catheter ablation and to identify predictors of VT recurrence and patient survival. Patients and Methods: We analyzed all consecutive patients with structural heart disease who underwent RF catheter ablation of VT in our institution from 2011 to 2021. Data were collected from existing hospital electronic medical records. Results: A total of 72 patients (89% male, mean age 62 years, 28% with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, mean LVEF 35%) were included. Non-inducibility was achieved in 64.7% of cases. One year VT recurrence rate was 41.6%. Substrate ablation significantly reduced the frequency of ICD shocks (14% vs. 60%, p = 0.001). The overall one-year survival was 86%. In multivariate analysis, VT inducibility was an independent predictor of VT recurrence (p = 0.02; OR = 13.5; 95% CI = 1.46-124.7). Female gender was an independent negative risk factor for patient survival (p = 0.03; OR = 7.19; 95 % CI = 1.22-42.6). Conclusion: Our data show that RF catheter ablation of VT can be a feasible treatment option for patients with frequent AAD-refractory VTs with acceptable acute and chronic success rates, even in midvolume centers like ours. VT ablation can reduce the frequency of ICD shocks and improve patients’ quality of life. Institutional registry can help monitor and improve outcomes and provide valuable feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Most of the patients scheduled for cardiac surgery spend certain amount of time on the waiting list. Previous studies have shown that those patients have a risk of new major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) while awaiting surgery.1,2 The first goal of this study was to determine the frequency of occurrence of MACE in patients awaiting cardiac surgery after being invasively assessed at the Department of Cardiology of University Hospital "Merkur". Furthermore, we tried to find association of various clinical characteristics and higher degree of MACE. Patients and Methods: Data were collected from patients presented at out heart team meetings in the period from March 2013 to the end of 2016. Relevant clinical characteristics, of patients regarded as good cardiac surgery candidates, were gathered from central hospital system. Information regarding MACE were collected via telephone contact with a patient or its family and through examining medical documentation if it was available MACE was defined as either death, stroke, myocardial infarction or heart failure. Results: We gathered data from 333 patients. Mean followup time, defined as a time to surgery or to MACE, was 238.51 days (range 3 do 1269 days). There were 33 (9.9%) adverse events. From various clinical parameters that were tested only previous stroke (p=0.002; HR 1.77-13.23) and diabetes (p=0.036; HR 1.06-5.69) were independently associated with higher rate of MACE. Previous myocardial infarction showed a marginal association with higher rate of MACE (p=0.05; HR 0.99-6.37). None of the other relevant clinical data, including the data on the extent of the coronary disease or/and associated valvular pathology was found to be related to occurrence of MACE. Conclusion: In patients awaiting cardiac surgery one can expect adverse cardiovascular events to occur. Previous stroke, diabetes and to some extent previous myocardial infarction were found to be related to higher degree of such events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To assess whether the number of patients with a cardiac chief complaint and their characteristics differed be - tween before and after two major earthquakes that struck Croatia in 2020. Methods We collected data on all visits of patients with a cardiac chief complaint examined in the emergency departments of six hospitals nearest to the epicenters. Patients seen during the 7 days before the earthquake were compared with those seen on the day and during the 6 days after the earthquake. Results Patients seen after the earthquake were younger (68 [59-79] vs 72.5 [65-80]; P <0.001) and less frequently had cardiovascular disease (32.9% vs 42.8%; P <0.001). This group less frequently had the primary diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (15.6% vs 21.9%; P =0.005), heart failure (9.3% vs 19.4%; P <0.001), dysregulated hyper - tension (13.9% vs 19.4%; P =0.01), but more frequently had non-anginal chest discomfort (28.8% vs 18.0%; P <0.001). In a subgroup analysis of patients seen in hospitals located within 20 km from the epicenter, significantly more patients seen after the earthquake compared with those seen before the earthquake presented with AMI (14.5% vs 22.8%; P =0.028), acute elevation of blood pressure (10% vs 21.8%, P =0.001), and paroxysmal arrhythmias treated with electrocardioversion (0.9% vs 4.5%, P =0.022). Conclusion After two moderately strong earthquakes, hospitals within 20 km from the epicenter saw a significant increase in acute cardiac conditions such as elevated blood pressure, AMI, and cardioverted arrhythmias. Eventually, these earthquakes had no impact on the outcomes of the studied population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]