International Journal of Cardiovascular Practice
Volume:1 Issue: 1, Mar 2016

There have been incompatible evidences about the prognostic value of HbA1c on the adverse outcomes in acute coronary syndrome. Also, these data are so limited in nondiabetic patients with unstable angina.
In this cross-sectional study, HbA1c level of 231 nondiabetic patients admitted with unstable angina, was measured using high performance liquid affinity chromatography (HPLC) at admission. Then transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) was performed for evaluation of ejection fraction (EF) using Simpson method.
Our data revealed that HbA1c was significantly higher in patients with EF≤ 50% in comparison with EF>50% group (P value=0.01).
HbA1c may be a helpful prognostic marker in nondiabetic patients admitted in emergency department with diagnosis of unstable angina.

There are more than 18000 thalassemia patients in Iran. In a current study, a high rate of mortality in these patients due to heart failure, is shown. Main factors for evaluating this disorder in thalassemia patients were their electrocardiograms (EKGs) and Serum Ferritin Levels (SFLs).
We studied the cardiac function in 91 patients (73 major and 18 intermediate thalassemia patients) treated in Zafar Thalassemia Center, of whom 35 (38.45%) were male and 56 (61.55%) were female. The Factors in this study contains: EKGs, mean annual serum ferritin (at least, three SFL had been recorded in each patient treatment file in 2009), mean annual hemoglobin (Hb) levels and mean annual hematocrit (Hct) levels (average, 12 recorded hematocrit levels during 2009).
Our findings have shown that Q-T interval did not correlate with ferritin (r = 0.05, P > 0.05). In both patients with LVH and without LVH, there was no significant difference in SFL (P > 0.05). Although, the mean rate among the thalassemia patients was 85.34 ± 12.91, it did not correlate significantly with QRS duration and P-R Interval (r = -0.08, P > 0.05). In addition, ferritin did not correlate significantly with QRS duration and P-R Interval (r = 0.1, r = 0.05 and P > 0.05, P > 0.05). Furthermore, there was no difference in SFL in patients with normal cardiac axis and those with cardiac axis deviation.
There is no correlation between SFL and variations in EKG. Although EKG is an available method for checking cardiac function in thalassemic patients, especially in developing countries, physicians cannot rely on it for diagnosis or prognosis of cardiac failure in thalassemia patients. Therefore, other methods such as MRIT2* and Echocardiography are suggested to be used periodically in order to check the cardiac function in thalassemia patients.

Prognosis of the patients with beta blocker or calcium channel blocker induced AV block is not well known to date.
All patients with symptomatic second-degree or third-degree atrioventricular block (AV) referred to our institution during one year were recuited prospectively and classified in two groups based on drug consumption (beta blocker/calcium channel blocker versus none). They were followed for six months and then collected data was analyzed.
The study included 49 patients, 28 patients (age 60.1 ± 20, 19 male) did not use any beta blocker or calcium channel blocker (No- DU group) and other 21 patients (age 73.5 ± 10.4, 7 male) receivd beta blocker, calcium channel blocker or both at the time of AV block (DU group). No-DU group was significantly younger than DU group. The most common atrial rhythm in both groups was sinus. There was no significant difference in QRS wideness or ventricular rate. AV block regressed in 43% of the DU group after discontinuation of drug for five half-life, but, Mobitz type 2 or complete AV block occurred again during six months in 50% of them without consumption of the culprit drug.
More than two third of the patients who developed AV block on beta blocker and/or calcium channel blocker needed permanent pacemaker in six months of follow- up, so we concluded that the development of AV block was not as benign as it seems in these patients.

A few studies have focused on diagnostic performance of residents for controlling the patients with acute chest pain referring to chest pain units. We aimed to assess diagnostic performance of cardiology residents for controlling the patients with acute chest pain, considering invasive and non-invasive diagnostic modalities as the key standards to confirm or refuse diagnosis of unstable angina.
One hundred and twenty nine patients with chest pain or angina referring to chest pain unit of Modarres hospital between 2013 and 2014 were assessed. The patients were categorized into two subgroups. The first group included 23 patients who were discharged by the resident in initial evaluation because of ruling-out diagnosis of unstable angina, but were assessed non-invasively by exercise test or SPECT as key standards. The second group included 106 patients who were hospitalized and admitted to CCU by residents’ order and also were assessed invasively by coronary angiography or noninvasively by exercise test or SPECT.
Overall, of 129 patients, 23 were initially diagnosed not to be necessarily hospitalized and thus were discharged by resident’s order. Of those, assessing by SPECT indicated positive result in five of 19 patients and by exercise test indicated positive result in 1 of 4 patients yielding a sensitivity of 83.3%, a specificity of 17.6%, a PPV of 26.3%, a NPV of 75.0%, and an accuracy of 34.8% for assessing disease by resident. The remaining 106 patients were admitted to CCU ward in accordance with the resident’s order. Among those patients, 85 underwent coronary angiography with positive results in 53 patients. Also, SPECT was positive in 10 of 19 patients and exercise test was positive in one of two patients yielding a sensitivity of 95.3%, a specificity of 0.0%, a PPV of 59.2%, a NPV of 0.0%, and an accuracy of 57.5%.
For patients with suspicion to unstable angina, the decision of residents in chest pain units for discharging or admitting patients suspected to unstable angina is accompanied with high sensitivity but unacceptable specificity and thus using supplement diagnostic tools such as exercise test or SPECT can be very helpful for diagnosing unstable angina.

Pulmonary hypertension (PHT) is a common complication in β-thalassemia. We aimed to determine the prevalence of PHT and its main indicators in patients with β thalassemia Major (TM) and β-thalassemia Intermedia (TI), considering left ventricular function.
Pulmonary hypertension (PHT) is a common complication in β-thalassemia. We aimed to determine the prevalence of PHT and its main indicators in patients with β thalassemia Major (TM) and β-thalassemia Intermedia (TI), considering left ventricular function.
The overall prevalence of PHT in TM and TI group was estimated to be 35.2% and 29.3%, respectively; while reduced LVEF was evident in 22.7% and 10.1% of patients with TM and TI, respectively. No significant correlation was observed between mean PAP and LVEF in the patients with TI (Pearson coefficient = -0.096, P value = 0.345); while, an adverse association was revealed between mean PAP and LVEF in patients with TM (Pearson coefficient = -0.227, P value = 0.033). Upon univariate analysis, the only significant association was observed between LVEF and pulmonary hypertension among TM patients (P value = 0.001).Our results did not indicate that male gender and aging may affect the development of PHT.
According to our findings, a considerable proportion of patients with TM and TI may have PHT. We detected an adverse association between mean PAP and LVEF in patients with TM. Left ventricular function was reduced in patients with PHT among TM group.

Different types of supraventricular tachycardia have been reported in patients with history of surgical repair of Tetralogy of Fallot. This report presents appearance of focal atrial tachycardia during radiofrequency ablation of the cavotricuspid isthmus

ST elevation in aVR in conjunction with diffuse ST depression in precordial leads may indicate occlusion of very proximal portion of the left anterior descending artery. We present a 54-year old man, with crushing retrosternal pain and ST-segment elevation only in aVR lead and diffuse ST-segment depression in inferior, lateral and precordial leads. The patient was scheduled for emergent coronary angiography, which showed that left anterior descending (LAD) artery was cut off at very proximal portion and urgent CABG was performed for the patient.