Cardiology News / Recent Literature Review / First Quarter 2015
Keywords:
cardiology, news, literature reviewAbstract
HRS Meeting: Boston, 13-16/5/2015
EuroPCR: Paris, 19-22/5/2015
EHRA Europace-CardioStim: Milan, 21-24/6/2015
ESC Congress: London, 29/8-2/9/2015
TCT Meeting 2015: San Francisco, 11-15/10/2015
HCS Congress: Thessaloniki, 29-31/10/2015
AHA Scientific Sessions: Orlando, 7-11/11/2015
Low-Level Transcutaneous Electrical Vagus Nerve Stimulation (LLTS) Suppresses Atrial Fibrillation
Patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) were randomized to 1 hour of 20 Hz LLTS (n= 20) or sham control (n= 20) by attaching a flat metal clip onto the tragus in the right ear. AF was induced by burst atrial pacing at baseline and after 1 hour of LLTS or sham treatment. Blood samples from the coronary sinus and the femoral vein were collected at those time points and analyzed for inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor alpha and C-reactive protein. Pacing-induced AF duration decreased significantly by 6.3 ± 1.9 min compared with baseline in the LLTS but not in the control group (p=0.002). AF cycle length increased significantly from baseline by 28.8 ± 6.5 ms in the LLTS but not in the control group (p= 0.0002). Femoral vein but not coronary sinus tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and C-reactive protein levels decreased significantly only in the LLTS group. The authors concluded that LLTS suppresses AF and decreases inflammatory cytokines in patients with paroxysmal AF, supporting a role of neuromodulation to treat AF (Stavrakis S et al, J Am Coll Cardiol 2015;65:867-875).
Among Patients with Early Repolarization Syndrome, Programmed Stimulation Does not Predict Future Arrhythmic Events
In a multicenter study, 81 patients, aged 36+13 years, with early repolarization (ER) syndrome and aborted sudden death due to ventricular fibrillation (VF) underwent an electrophysiology study (EPS). VF was inducible in only 18 of 81 (22%) patients. During follow-up of 7.0 ± 4.9 years, 6 of 18 (33%) patients with inducible VF, and 21 of 63 (33%) noninducible patients experienced VF recurrences (p= NS). VF storm occurred in 3 inducible and 4 noninducible patients. VF inducibility was not associated with maximum J-wave amplitude or J-wave distribution (inferior, odds ratio -OR: 0.96; lateral, OR: 1.57; inferior and lateral, OR: 0.83; all p = NS), which have previously been shown to predict outcome in patients with an ER pattern. The authors concluded that EPS did not enhance risk stratification in ER syndrome (Mahida S et al, J Am Coll Cardiol 2015;65:151-159)... (excerpt)
Downloads
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
a. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
