scientists reported that a person's risk of a heart attack is doubled if he or she produces a particular version of FLAP, known more technically as 5-lipoxygenase activating protein. A troublesome variant of this protein boosts production of the inflammat
Dr. Noboru Ashida, Department of Geriatric Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, 54 Kawaramachi, Shogoin Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan. Voice +81-75-751-3465; fax: +81-75-751-3574; ash@kuhp.kyoto.u.ac.jp.
Statins have nonlipid mechanisms that modify endothelial function, inflammatory responses, plaque stability, and thrombus formation. Benefits extend to patients with normal lipid levels due to statins' pleiotropic effects.
Women and Heart Disease The Role of Diabetes and Hyperglycemia Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, MD; Elsa-Grace V. Giardina, MD; Anselm K. Gitt, MD; Uwe Gudat, MD; Helmut O. Steinberg, MD; Diethelm Tschoepe, MD Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:934-942.
Surgery does not deal with the basic molecular foundation of disease. It is a mechanical approach to a biologic problem. For those of us who are considered experts in the areas of coronary disease, what an embarrassment to admit that coronary artery disea
The morbidity, mortality, expense and transient benefits of a high technology approach toward the coronary disease epidemic, has failed. It is time to realize that the answer to a faulty lifestyle epidemic is not drugs and technology – it is lifestyle.
Modern cardiology has given up on curing heart disease. Its aggressive interventions-- coronary artery bypass graft, atherectomy, angioplasty, and stenting--do not reduce the frequency of new heart attacks or prolong survival except in small subsets of pa
An unreasonable gap exists between medical enthusiasm devoted to acute interventions and meager efforts devoted to secondary prevention. Rene C. Favaloro, MD, Pioneer of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery
elective PTCA of totally occluded coronary arteries is feasible but the primary success rate is lower (57%) than that associated with conventional lesions. The long-term clinical results following successful angioplasty are satisfactory (64%), but the inc
Our patient exemplified the challenges involved in a CTO, which included the length of the lesion, the lack of a proximal nipple, the presence of a side branch at the occlusion point, poor visualization of the distal vessel despite contralateral injection