Cardiology Letters, 2015 (vol. 24), issue 1
Original article
Influence of regulations on antihypertensives' utilization in Slovakia
Pšenková M, Mackovičová S, Marčišová M, Ondrušová M
Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(1):5-18 
Aim: The aim of this paper is to assess potential relationships between introduction of regulations in drug policy and the utilization of antihypertensives, health insurance companies' expenditures and financial participation of patients. With regard to the persistent problem of low adherence to treatment, those relationships that might affect the adherence to treatment of patients were analyzed in particular. Methods: The IMS Data database was used as a basis for the assessment of utilization and cost of antihypertensives. In this database the utilization is expressed as DOT (days of treatment) and financial turnover (in €). In order to assess...
Review
Speckle tracking echocardiography and diagnosis of subclinical myocardial dysfunction past, present, future
Vachalcová M, Valočik G, Kurečko M
Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(1):19-24
Nowadays, there is an attempt to diagnose subclinical myocardial damage, so allowing early intervention and prevention of its progression to heart failure. Speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) appears to be a promising method of meeting these criteria and its prognostic value has been confirmed in several clinical trials. Two-dimensional myocardial deformation imaging has its limitations, and so with development of ultrasonic technique attention is drawn to the efficiency of three-dimensional STE. Analysis of the most recent parameters of 3D STE (principal strain analysis) facilitates evaluation of myocardial deformation and understanding of subclinical...
Case report
Varying left ventricular outflow obstruction due to atriovantricular dyssynchrony in a patient with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy
Honek J, Veselka J
Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(1):25-27
Alcohol septal ablation (ASA) is an established non-surgical treatment of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction in patients with highly symptomatic hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). The most frequent major complication associated with ASA is the mostly self-terminating complete heart block that occurs in 20-50% of patients and requires permanent pacemaker implantation in 9-20% of all ASA patients. We report a case of varying left ventricular outflow gradient due to transient complete heart block in a patient after ASA for HOCM. The hemodynamic study illustrated the importance of atrial systole for left ventricular filling in patients...