Femoral pseudoaneurysm in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST-elevation myocardial infarction: incidence, clinical course and risk factors.

AIM: Various peripheral vascular complications may be observed after cardiac catheterization. However, no data are available about femoral pseudoaneurysm (FPA) after urgent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We sought to determine the in-hospital incidence, clinical course and predictors of FPA in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary PCI. METHODS: Two thousand six hundred consecutive STEMI patients (mean age: 56.5 ± 11.7 years; 2158 men) undergoing primary PCI were retrospectively enrolled into this study. Patients were evaluated with Doppler ultrasonography following PCI and categorized into two groups according to whether FPA developed or not. All the parameters were compared between FPA and non-FPA groups. RESULTS: The incidence of FPA after primary PCI was determined to be 2.3%. The mean age was higher in the FPA group compared to the non-FPA group (mean age: 60.6 ± 11.6 vs. 56.5 ± 11.8, respectively, P=0.007). Furthermore, the FPA developing group experienced prolonged hospitalizations compared to the non-FPA group, but no differences in in-hospital or long term mortality were noticed. In the multivariate analysis of this study, female gender and age (>75 years), after primary PCI, were found to be independent predictors of FPA. CONCLUSION: High incidence of FPA was noticed in STEMI patients undergoing primary PCI, which prolonged in-hospital stay. Extra care must be given, especially to women and those who are >75 years of age, for this complication.

Variant alleles and genotypes of alcohol dehydrogenase 3 in a Turkish population.

Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) is a genetically polymorphic dimeric enzyme that is responsible for the metabolism of alcohol. ADH3 gene encodes for the gamma subunit of dimeric ADH and has an important role in the function of the enzyme. The aim of this study was to determine the frequencies of ADH3 alleles and genotypes in a healthy Turkish population sample. Genotypic assay was carried out in 102 unrelated volunteers. DNA samples were genotyped for the ADH3*2 allele. The ADH3*1 and ADH3*2 allele frequencies were determined as 0.66 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.57-0.75) and 0.34 (95% CI = 0.25-0.43), respectively. The genotype frequencies of ADH3*1/*1, *1/*2, and *2/*2 were 39% (95% CI = 30-49), 54% (95% CI = 44-64), and 7% (95% CI = 2-12), respectively. According to our results, the frequencies of variant ADH3 alleles and genotypes are similar to that in the other Caucasian populations.