89 research outputs found
Statin therapy setting new standards in the management of dyslipidaemiathis ; based on a satellite symposium held on August 28, 2004, prior to the European Society of Cardiology congress 2004 in Munich, Germany
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Paced ventricular electrogram fractionation predicts sudden cardiac death in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
No full textAIMS: Paced electrogram fractionation analysis (PEFA) has been assessed for the prediction of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in a large-scale, prospective study of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). METHODS AND RESULTS: We determined the positive predictive value (PPV) of PEFA in relation to other risk factors for SCD and outcomes in 179 patients with HCM and no prior history of cardiac arrest. Patients were followed over a mean 4.3 years (range: 1.1-6.3 years). Thirteen patients had SCD-equivalent events: four of these patients died suddenly, three were resuscitated from ventricular fibrillation (VF), and six had implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) discharges in response to VF. PEFA identified nine of these patients and another 14 non-VF patients yielding a censored PPV of between 0.19 and 0.59 that was greater than the PPV that was the formal stopping point of the trial (0.18). Eighty per cent of patients were followed for 4 years or more. The PPV for the identification of SCD in this group was 0.38 (0.17-0.59). The use of two or more conventional markers to predict SCD identified five patients with SCD-equivalent events in the 4-year follow-up group and 42 other patients without events yielding a PPV of 0.106 (confidence limits 0.02-0.15). CONCLUSION: PEFA identifies HCM patients at risk of SCD with greater accuracy than non-invasive techniques and may have an important role in determining indications for ICD prescription
Reductions in cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory mortality following the national Irish smoking ban: Interrupted time-series analysis
No full textCopyright @ 2013 Stallings-Smith et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Background: Previous studies have shown decreases in cardiovascular mortality following the implementation of comprehensive smoking bans. It is not known whether cerebrovascular or respiratory mortality decreases post-ban. On March 29, 2004, the Republic of Ireland became the first country in the world to implement a national workplace smoking ban. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of this policy on all-cause and cause-specific, non-trauma mortality. Methods: A time-series epidemiologic assessment was conducted, utilizing Poisson regression to examine weekly age and gender-standardized rates for 215,878 non-trauma deaths in the Irish population, ages ≥35 years. The study period was from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2007, with a post-ban follow-up of 3.75 years. All models were adjusted for time trend, season, influenza, and smoking prevalence. Results: Following ban implementation, an immediate 13% decrease in all-cause mortality (RR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.76-0.99), a 26% reduction in ischemic heart disease (IHD) (RR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.63-0.88), a 32% reduction in stroke (RR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.54-0.85), and a 38% reduction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (RR: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.46-0.83) mortality was observed. Post-ban reductions in IHD, stroke, and COPD mortalities were seen in ages ≥65 years, but not in ages 35-64 years. COPD mortality reductions were found only in females (RR: 0.47; 95% CI: 0.32-0.70). Post-ban annual trend reductions were not detected for any smoking-related causes of death. Unadjusted estimates indicate that 3,726 (95% CI: 2,305-4,629) smoking-related deaths were likely prevented post-ban. Mortality decreases were primarily due to reductions in passive smoking. Conclusions: The national Irish smoking ban was associated with immediate reductions in early mortality. Importantly, post-ban risk differences did not change with a longer follow-up period. This study corroborates previous evidence for cardiovascular causes, and is the first to demonstrate reductions in cerebrovascular and respiratory causes
Victorian prose an anthology
No full text"This collection of Victorian nonfiction prose juxtaposes classic texts and canonical writers with more obscure writings and authors in order to illuminate important debates in nineteenth-century Britain - inviting modern readers to see the age anew." "With fifty-six substantial selections from many writers, Victorian Prose reaches beyond the standard work of Carlyle, Newman, Mill, Arnold, and Ruskin to uncover a range of lesser-known voices of the era. Women writers are given full attention - compositions by Mary Prince, Dinah M. Craik, Florence Nightingale, Frances P. Cobbe, and Lucie Duff Gordon are among the entries." "Excerpts cover such topics of the Victorian period as British imperialism, the crisis of religious faith, and gender inequities. On the issue of colonial expansion, opinions range from Benjamin Disraeli's celebration of empire-building as evidence of Britain's glory to David Livingstone's promoting commerce with Africa as a way to restrain the slave trade and make it unprofitable. Views on "the woman question" extend from John Stuart Mill's defense of women's rights to Mrs. Humphry Ward's opposition to women's franchise and Sarah Ellis's support for the domestic ideal."--BOOK JACKET
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