Cardiology Letters, 2015 (vol. 24), issue 6

Comment on 2014 ESC Guidelines on the diagnosis and management of acute pulmonary embolism

Šimková I, Jurkovičová O, Gašpar Ľ

Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(6):417-424  

Treatment of hypertension in pregnancy: a 3-year retrospective study

Pokorná V, Pázmanová T, Kalužay J, Bobocká K, Ponťuch P

Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(6):425-429  

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess 1. the treatment (type of drugs, their doses, adherence to current ESH/ESC guidelines) in patients with hypertension in pregnancy; 2. the relationship between studied parameters (age, diabetes mellitus (DM), quantitative proteinuria, uric acid) and the treatment. Methods: 233 patients, median age 32 years (interquartile range 28-35), 16% with DM, admitted to the St. Cyril and Methodius Hospital due to hypertension in pregnancy from June 2011 to June 2014, were included. The treatment was evaluated until the day of delivery. In case of serial measurements of quantitative proteinuria and uric acid, the highest...

Markers of endothelial dysfunction as predictors of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia

Kolesárová E, Janičko M

Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(6):430-434  

Objective: To determine markers of endothelial dysfunction (ED) during pregnancy, identifying risk patients in terms of the development of gestational hypertension and possible development of cardiovascular (CV) disease in later life, and the evaluation of later cardiovascular risk in women with abortions in anamnesis. Materials and methods: A prospective cohort study was performed on 61 pregnant patients during the first trimester of pregnancy, with anamnesis of risk for developing gestational hypertension. While 11 patients had pre-existing arterial hypertension (AH), 10 pregnant women had developed gestational AH and 40 women did not have hypertensive...

The role of dexmedetomidine in the prevention of postoperative delirium in cardiac surgery patients

Bily B, Artemiou P, Sabol F, Bilecova-Rabajdova M, Kolarcik P, Torok P

Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(6):435-434  

Objective: Post cardiac surgery delirium is a severe complication. Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective shorter-acting intravenous alpha-2-agonist and has a protective effect on specific organs including the heart, brain, kidney and lungs. It was hypothesized that perioperative administration of dexmedetomidine would decrease the incidence of the postoperative delirium in cardiac surgery patients. Methods: This paper represents a prospective non-randomized clinical observational study. It is a single center study realized in a tertiary level of care facility from April 2013 to February 2014. Two consecutive groups of 250 consecutive patients took...

Emerging drugs for heart failure

Gonçalvesová E

Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(6):445-450  

Pharmacological treatment of heart failure has changed only very slightly during the last ten years. From the large number of drugs that were studied for the treatment of chronic heart failure only ivabradin has attained clinical use. Currently, there are tens of new molecules in various stages of development. Most is expected from the research on new drugs for the treatment of acute heart failure and heart failure with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction. For these patients or clinical situations we still do not have drugs that have scientifically been shown to be effective, particularly in terms of positive impact on patients' survival....

Intolerance of statin treatment

Murín J, Pernický M, Wawruch M

Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(6):451-457  

Statin intolerance is a clinical syndrome and a patient with it cannot be treated by statins. The article deals with adverse events of statin treatment, such as myalgia, myositis and rhabdomyolysis. It deals also with the pathophysiology of muscle toxicity with statin treatment: it also deals with their adverse events in the central nervous system and in other organ systems. The authors also present data about risk factors of statin intolerance (endogenous and exogenous); they elaborate diagnostic steps in statin intolerance and they also present treatment possibilities in these patients. They have summarized knowledge about this problem in clinical...

2014 ESC Guidelines on the diagnosis and management of acute pulmonary embolism

The Task Force for the Diagnosis and Management of Acute Pulmonary Embolism of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)

Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(6):458-494