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Objective: Acute kidney injury (AKI), which is prevalent in ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients who have undergone primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), is associated with poor cardiovascular outcomes. As high pulse pressure (PP) is associated with adverse cardiovascular events, the present study's aim was to evaluate the relationship between fractional PP (PPf) and AKI in patients with STEMI who underwent primary PCI.Subjects and Methods: All laboratory findings as well as echocardiographic and angiographic data of 1,170 consecutive STEMI patients were retrospectively screened. PPf was calculated from the pressures invasively measured after sheath insertion and before performing coronary angiography.Results: From 1,170 eligible STEMI patients (mean age 56 years, 18.2% female), AKI developed in 143 (12.2%) patients. The PPf and pulsatility index were significantly higher in patients with AKI than those without (0.53 ± 0.10 vs. 0.61 ± 0.10, p < 0.001, and 0.80 ± 0.03 vs. 0.82 ± 0.03, p < 0.001, respectively). PPf was also found to be associated with AKI in univariable (OR 2.183, 95% CI 1.823-2.614, p< 0.001) and multivariable (OR 1.874, 95% CI 1.513-2.322, p < 0.001) analysis. In-hospital mortality was higher in patients with AKI than those without.Conclusion: Invasively measured PPf, which can be easily measured and has no additional cost in STEMI patients undergoing coronary intervention, is an independent predictor of AKI. In addition, PPf is superior to other blood pressure values and derivatives in AKI prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores include similar risk factors for the development of coronary artery disease (CAD), they may provide crucial information regarding the severity of coronary artery lesions and the risk of thromboembolism. To increase the likelihood of determining CAD severity, we formulated the CHA2DS2-VASc-HS score comprising hyperlipidemia and smoking in addition to the components of the CHA2DS2-VASc score and male instead of female gender. We aimed to investigate whether these 3 risk scores can be used to predict CAD severity. A total of 407 consecutive patients who underwent coronary angiography were enrolled in the study. Presence of >50% stenosis in a coronary artery was assessed as significant CAD. Of the patients, 87 had normal coronary angiograms and served as group 1. The remaining 320 patients with coronary stenosis were further classified into 2 groups according to CAD with stenosis of <50% or ‡50%: 123 patients with mild CAD as group 2 and 197 patients with severe CAD as group 3. The CHADS2, CHA2DS2-VASc, and CHA2DS2-VASc-HS scores were significantly different among the 3 groups. The CHADS2, CHA2DS2-VASc, and CHA2DS2-VASc-HS scores correlated significantly with the number of diseased vessels (r [ 0.406, p <0.001; r [ 0.308, p <0.001; and r [ 0.533, p <0.001, respectively) and the Gensini score (r[0.383, p <0.001; r[0.300, p <0.001; and r[0.500, p <0.001, respectively). The CHA2DS2-VASc-HS score was found to be the best scoring scheme to predict CAD severity in the area under the curve comparison of these scoring systems. For prediction of severe CAD, the cut-off value of CHA2DS2-VASc-HS score was >2 with a sensitivity of 85.2% and a specificity of 57.5% (area under the curve 0.802, 95% confidence interval 0.760 to 0.839, p <0.001). In conclusion, our findings suggest that the CHADS2, CHA2DS2-VASc, and especially CHA2DS2-VASc-HS scores could be considered predictive of the risk of severe CAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of a 72-year-old man who was treated for pericardial calcification of atrioventricular (AV) groove and constrictive physiology of tricuspid and mitral valve. Topics include the diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome, the interpretation of the patient's coronary angiography result, and the treatment through coronary artery by-pass graft surgery and pericardial resection.