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The article presents a double-blind study on chronic heart failure (CHF) patients to determine the effects of carvedilol on plasma vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). It states that carvedilol or placebo were given randomly to patients, who were treated based on an uptitration schedule. Results show the benefits of beta-blockers in ischemic heart disease (IHD) and CHF. It concludes that CHF patients using carvedilol had increased VEGF.

Purpose: Currently, a multi-contrast protocol, including a combination of five MR-sequences is used as reference standard for morphologic imaging and quantitative measurements of the carotid artery vessel wall. The purpose of this study is to investigate the scan-rescan reproducibility together with intra- and inter-observer reproducibility of each of the five MR-sequences., Methods: Twenty healthy volunteers (55% male, mean age=26 years) underwent repeated MR-examinations (3T-Philips-MRI) of the left carotid artery vessel wall with five sequences; T1-TFE, T2-TSE, PD-TSE, T1-TSE and 3D TOF. A standard phased-array coil with two flexible elements of 14cm×17cm was used to obtain nine transverse imaging sections of the left carotid artery with identical in-plane resolution (0.46mm×0.46mm). Reproducibility analysis was performed in 3 slices of the common carotid artery for all sequences., Results: For, scan-rescan reproducibility, intra class correlation coefficients (ICC) were excellent for all sequences and ranged from 0.79 to 0.95. The intra-observer ICC ranged from 0.89 to 0.98 and the inter-observer ICC ranged from 0.84 to 0.96, for both lumen and vessel wall assessment., Conclusions: By high field MR imaging, vessel wall and lumen area of the carotid artery can be assessed with excellent scan-rescan, intra- and inter-observer reproducibility for all five sequences., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Three patients were referred with symptoms of acute coronary syndrome. The ECG results indicated ST-segment elevation. A 39-year-old man had normal coronary arteries and was eventually diagnosed with pericarditis and myocarditis. A 71-year-old woman had ST-segment elevation caused by mechanical pressure from a chest drain that was inserted for a pneumothorax. A 62-year-old man was admitted to the intensive care unit and was found to have ST-segment elevation related to sepsis and non-significant coronary artery disease. All 3 patients recovered following adequate treatment. Percutaneous coronary intervention is the first choice therapy for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). However, ST-segment elevation can also occur in patients with non-coronary disorders. Clinicians should be encouraged to scrutinise 'STEMI' as a referral diagnosis and check if there are signs of coronary mimicry, i.e. ECG changes due to a non-coronary underlying cause. The ECG changes should be considered in relation to the clinical data at presentation, rather than interpreted as a single diagnostic finding.