Potential of mid-infrared spectroscopy to aid the triage of patients with acute chest pain.

A total of 1,429 serum samples from 389 consecutive patients with acute chest pain were analyzed with the goal to aid the rapid diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. To the best of our knowledge this is the largest and most comprehensive study on mid-infrared spectroscopy in cardiology. We were able to identify those signatures in the mid-infrared spectra of the samples, which were specific to either acute myocardial infarction or chest pain of other origin (angina pectoris, oesophagitis, etc). These characteristic spectral differences were used to distinguish between the cause of the donor's acute chest pain using robust linear discriminant analysis. A sensitivity of 88.5% and a specificity of 85.1% were achieved in a blind validation. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve amounts to 0.921, which is comparable to the performance of routine cardiac laboratory markers within the same study population. The biochemical interpretation of the spectral signatures points towards an important role of carbohydrates and potentially glycation. Our studies indicate that the "Diagnostic Pattern Recognition (DPR)" method presented here has the potential to aid the diagnostic procedure as early as within the first 6 hours after the onset of chest pain.

Randomized secondary prevention trial of azithromycin in patients with coronary artery disease: primary clinical results of the ACADEMIC study.

BACKGROUND: Chlamydia pneumoniae is associated with coronary artery disease (CAD), although its causal role is uncertain. A small preliminary study reported a >50% reduction in ischemic events by azithromycin, an antibiotic effective against C pneumoniae, in seropositive CAD patients. We tested this prospectively in a larger, randomized, double-blind study. METHODS AND RESULTS: CAD patients (n=302) seropositive to C pneumoniae (IgG titers >/=1:16) were randomized to placebo or azithromycin 500 mg/d for 3 days and then 500 mg/wk for 3 months. The primary clinical end point included cardiovascular death, resuscitated cardiac arrest, nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, unstable angina, and unplanned coronary revascularization at 2 years. Treatment groups were balanced, and azithromycin was generally well tolerated. During the trial, 47 first primary events occurred (cardiovascular death, 9; resuscitated cardiac arrest, 1; MI, 11; stroke, 3; unstable angina, 4; and unplanned coronary revascularization, 19), with 22 events in the azithromycin group and 25 in the placebo group. There was no significant difference in the 1 primary end point between the 2 groups (hazard ratio for azithromycin, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.51 to 1.61; P:=0.74). Events included 9 versus 7 occurring within 6 months and 13 versus 18 between 6 and 24 months in the azithromycin and placebo groups, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that antibiotic therapy with azithromycin is not associated with marked early reductions (>/=50%) in ischemic events as suggested by an initial published report. However, a clinically worthwhile benefit (ie, 20% to 30%) is still possible, although it may be delayed. Larger (several thousand patient), longer-term (>/=3 to 5 years) antibiotic studies are therefore indicated.

Cytomegalovirus seropositivity and C-reactive protein have independent and combined predictive value for mortality in patients with angiographically demonstrated coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND: The role of inflammation in coronary artery disease (CAD) is being increasingly recognized. Markers of inflammation (eg, C-reactive protein [CRP]) and infection (eg, seropositivity to Chlamydia pneumoniae, cytomegalovirus [CMV], and Helicobacter pylori) have been proposed as risk factors for CAD, but these associations require further evaluation. METHODS AND RESULTS: We prospectively tested whether CRP levels and IgG seropositivity to C pneumoniae, CMV, and H pylori are predictors of subsequent mortality in 985 consecutive patients with angiographically demonstrated CAD (stenosis >/=70%). Patients were followed for an average of 2.7 years (range 1.5 to 4.0 years). Patients averaged 65 years of age; 77% were men; and 110 (11.2%) died during follow-up. CRP levels were significantly elevated in nonsurvivors compared with survivors (mean CRP 3.1 mg/dL versus 1.5 mg/dL, P:=0.003). After controlling for all known baseline variables, the 2nd and 3rd tertiles of CRP compared with the 1st produced a Cox hazard ratio (HR) for mortality of 2.4 (P:=0.001). Of the 3 infectious markers tested, only seropositivity to CMV (HR=1.9, P:<0.05) was predictive of mortality. The majority of mortality risk associated with elevated CRP or CMV seropositivity occurred when both risk factors were present (P: for trend <0.0001). Other independent predictors of increased risk of mortality were age (HR=1.07 per year, P:<0.0001), left ventricular ejection fraction (HR=0.97 per percent, P:<0.0001), and diabetes mellitus (HR=1.7, P:=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: CMV seropositivity and elevated CRP, especially when in combination, are strong, independent predictors of mortality in patients with CAD. This suggests an interesting hypothesis that a chronic, smoldering infection (CMV) might have the capacity to accelerate the atherothrombotic process.

Plasma homocysteine predicts mortality independently of traditional risk factors and C-reactive protein in patients with angiographically defined coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND: Plasma homocysteine (tHCY) has been associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). We tested whether tHCY also increases secondary risk, after initial CAD diagnosis, and whether it is independent of traditional risk factors, C-reactive protein (CRP), and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) genotype. METHODS AND RESULTS: Blood samples were collected from 1412 patients with severe angiographically defined CAD (stenosis >/=70%). Plasma tHCY was measured by fluorescence polarization immunoassay. The study cohort was evaluated for survival after a mean of 3.0+/-1.0 years of follow-up (minimum 1.5 years, maximum 5.0 years). The average age of the patients was 65+/-11 years, 77% were males, and 166 died during follow-up. Mortality was greater in patients with tHCY in tertile 3 than in tertiles 1 and 2 (mortality 15.7% versus 9.6%, P:=0.001 [log-rank test], hazard ratio [HR] 1.63). The relative hazard increased 16% for each 5-micromol/L increase in tHCY (P:<0.001). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, controlling for univariate clinical and laboratory predictors, elevated tHCY remained predictive of mortality (HR 1.64, P:=0.009), together with age (HR 1. 72 per 10-year increment, P:<0.0001), ejection fraction (HR 0.84 per 10% increment, P:=0.0001), diabetes (HR 1.98, P:=0.001), CRP (HR 1. 42 per tertile, P:=0.004), and hyperlipidemia. Homozygosity for the MTHFR variant was weakly predictive of tHCY levels but not mortality. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with angiographically defined CAD, tHCY is a significant predictor of mortality, independent of traditional risk factors, CRP, and MTHFR genotype. These findings increase interest in tHCY as a secondary risk marker and in secondary prevention trials (ie, with folate/B vitamins) to determine whether reduction in tHCY will reduce risk.

A common variant of the AMPD1 gene predicts improved cardiovascular survival in patients with coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVE: We tested whether a common AMPD1 gene variant is associated with improved cardiovascular (CV) survival in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). BACKGROUND: Reduced activity of adenosine monophosphate deaminase (AMPD) may increase production of adenosine, a cardioprotective agent. A common, nonsense, point variant of the AMPD1 gene (C34T) results in enzymatic inactivity and has been associated with prolonged survival in heart failure. METHODS: Blood was collected from 367 patients undergoing coronary angiography. Genotyping was done by polymerase chain reaction amplification and restriction enzyme digestion, resulting in allele-specific fragments. Coronary artery disease was defined as > or =70% stenosis of > or =1 coronary artery. Patients were followed prospectively for up to 4.8 years. Survival statistics compared hetero- (+/-) or homozygotic (-/-) carriers with noncarriers. RESULTS: Patients were 66 +/- 10 years old; 79% were men; 22.6% were heterozygous and 1.9% homozygous for the variant AMPD1(-) allele. During a mean of 3.5 +/- 1.0 years, 52 patients (14.2%) died, 37 (10.1%) of CV causes. Cardiovascular mortality was 4.4% (4/90) in AMPD1(-) allele carriers compared with 11.9% (33/277) in noncarriers (p = 0.046). In multiple variable regression analysis, only age (hazard ratio, 1.11/year, p < 0.001) and AMPD1(-) carriage (hazard ratio, 0.36, p = 0.053) were independent predictors of CV mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Carriage of a common variant of the AMPD1 gene was associated with improved CV survival in patients with angiographically documented CAD. The dysfunctional AMPD1(-) allele may lead to increased cardiac adenosine and increased cardioprotection during ischemic events. Adenosine monophosphate deaminase-1 genotyping should be further explored in CAD for prognostic, mechanistic and therapeutic insights.

Usefulness of in-hospital prescription of statin agents after angiographic diagnosis of coronary artery disease in improving continued compliance and reduced mortality.

Despite well-documented clinical benefit of the use of statins in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and even mild lipid elevations, studies have documented the presence of a significant "treatment gap" between those patients in whom treatment is indicated and those patients who actually receive it. It has been proposed that a prescription for statin therapy given to indicated patients at the time of initial angiographic diagnosis of CAD has the potential to improve long-term medication compliance, but this requires further evaluation. We prospectively followed 600 patients with angiographically demonstrated CAD (diameter stenosis > or = 70%) who met the National Cholesterol Education Project (NCEP) guidelines for statin therapy for an average of 3.0 years (range 2.0 to 4.6). Patients were an average of 65 years of age, 78% were men, 77% presented initially with acute ischemic syndrome, and 64 (10.7%) died during follow-up. Overall, 105 patients (18%) were discharged from the initial hospitalization with a statin prescription. At long-term follow-up, the number of patients taking statins had increased to 47%. However, long-term statin compliance was significantly higher among patients initially discharged with a statin prescription than those who were not (77% vs 40%; p < 0.0001). Additionally, those patients discharged with a statin prescription had significantly reduced mortality rate at long-term follow-up (5.7% vs 11.7%; p = 0.05). Cox hazard regression analysis, controlling for all known clinical baseline variables, confirmed the absence of a prehospital discharge statin prescription to be an independent predictor of increased mortality (hazard ratio 2.4) with a statistical trend (p = 0.06). Thus, this study demonstrates that after angiographic diagnosis of CAD, prescription of appropriate statin therapy at the time of hospital discharge improves long-term statin compliance and may significantly enhance survival.

99Tcm-HMPAO single photon emission tomography in the diagnosis of cerebral barotrauma.

Cerebral barotrauma, or the neurological manifestation of the "bends", is a relatively common disease of divers and aviators. To date, however, no-one has succeeded in demonstrating a cerebral or spinal cord lesion in vivo following a decompression incident, despite the presence of definitive clinical signs and symptoms of central nervous system involvement. This paper describes the use of 99Tcm-labelled hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime (99Tcm-HMPAO) with single photon emission tomography in a study of three individuals involved in driving accidents. All three suffered cerebral barotrauma during decompression and all exhibited clinical signs and symptoms of dysbarism to a varying degree. Imaging was performed at time intervals ranging from 2 h to several days following the incidents. The results showed well defined cerebral ischaemic lesions in all three subjects. We conclude that 99Tcm-HMPAO imaging provides a significant advance in locating and demonstrating cerebral lesions following barotrauma and will contribute greatly to our understanding of the pathophysiological processes involved.

Functional imaging in the early diagnosis of dysbaric osteonecrosis.

Eight divers who developed permanent scintigraphic bone changes following dives to various depths took part in a study to determine the nature of these lesions. Only one of these divers had radiologically evident bone changes in his scintigraphic lesion. Dynamic scintigrams of the bones containing the lesions were obtained from all eight divers and functional images generated of both amplitude (osteoblastic activity) and accretion (microvasculature) rate constants. All had increased amplitude in the area of the scintigraphic lesion indicating continuing osteoblastic activity. Three divers showed a decreased accretion rate in the lesions, indicating impairment or absence of local microcirculation; one of these was the diver who showed radiological changes prior to the study and the other two subsequently developed radiologically evident osteonecrosis. It is concluded that functional images, generated from dynamic bone scintigrams, can successfully predict dysbaric osteonecrosis.

Failure to prevent decompression illness in rats by pretreatment with a soluble complement receptor.

Controversy exists over the role of complement activation in the natural history of decompression illness (DCI), and whether an individual's predisposition to DCI might be influenced by susceptibility to activation of complement by intravascular gas bubbles. Treatment with a soluble complement receptor (sCR-1), which neutralizes activated complement components, is known to be beneficial in other complement-dependent disease processes. This study investigated the effect of treating rats with sCR-1 or saline before decompression from a dive profile known to produce a high incidence of DCI. No statistical difference in the incidence of DCI was observed between the 27 rats treated with sCR-1 and 26 control rats treated with saline. The study was unable to confirm the previously reported observation in rats of a positive correlation between DCI incidence and increasing weight.

Complement activation during saturation diving.

In this study, the levels of activated complement fragments C3a and C5a were measured on 11 U.S. Navy divers as they performed a 28-day saturation dive to a pressure equivalent of 1,000 feet of seawater (fsw, 31.3 atm abs). Two subjects developed symptoms consistent with the high pressure nervous syndrome (HPNS) and three were treated for type I DCS (joint pain only). These events allowed us to test two hypotheses: a) alterations in C3a or C5a levels during compression are related to the occurrence of HPNS and b) increases in complement fragments are an indicator of decompression stress associated with type I DCS. There was no correlation between changes in C3a and C5a levels during compression and the diagnosis of HPNS. Our results suggest that an increase in C3a and C5a levels during saturation diving correlates with decompression stress and the clinical diagnosis of type I DCS.

Generating genetic risk scores from intermediate phenotypes for use in association studies of clinically significant endpoints.

While previous results of genetic association studies for common, complex diseases (eg., coronary artery disease, CAD) have been disappointing, examination of multiple related genes within a physiologic pathway may provide improved resolution. This paper describes a method of calculating a genetic risk score (GRS) for a clinical endpoint by integrating data from many candidate genes and multiple intermediate phenotypes (IPs). First, the association of all single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to an IP is determined and regression beta-coefficients are used to calculate an IP-specific GRS for each individual, repeating this analysis for every IP. Next, the IPs are assessed by a second regression as predictors of the clinical endpoint. Each IP's individual GRS is then weighted by the regression beta-coefficients from the second step, creating a single, composite GRS. As an example, 3,172 patients undergoing coronary angiography were evaluated for 3 SNPs from the cholesterol metabolism pathway. Although these data provide only a preliminary example, the GRS method detected significant differences in CAD by GRS group, whereas separate genotypes did not. These results illustrate the potential of the GRS methodology for multigenic risk evaluation and suggest that such approaches deserve further examination in common, complex diseases such as CAD.

Delayed cerebral edema complicating cerebral arterial gas embolism: case histories.

A disquieting and rarely described feature of the treatment of arterial gas embolism (AGE) is the high incidence of relapse following good to excellent initial responses to recompression therapy. This paper includes a discussion of the issues involved in the etiology and clinical approach to the specific problem of relapse and relates experience from selected clinical cases to a modified therapeutic approach that has been introduced into Royal Navy diving and submarine medicine practice. It illustrates how and why current treatment procedures have been expressly designed to minimize the incidence of relapse and to modify favorably the pathophysiological responses (particularly vasogenic cerebral edema) associated with cerebral AGE.

Decompression sickness or cold injury?

This paper reports two cases involving divers who presented with painful hands and were treated for decompression sickness. Although treatment was successful, their symptoms and diving history suggest non-freezing cold injury, the so-called immersion hand, rather than decompression sickness. For long exposures or cases where the diver may have inadequate insulation, thermal protection of hands is recommended even in water as warm as 16 degrees C.

Carbon monoxide poisoning: forgotten not gone!

Carbon monoxide causes one third of all poisoning deaths in Britain. In this paper a modern scheme for the assessment and management of victims of carbon monoxide poisoning is outlined, the importance of the direct cellular toxicity of carbon monoxide and the rationale behind hyperbaric oxygen therapy are discussed, and a list of currently available hyperbaric facilities is given.

Effects of treatment with dexamethasone on recovery from experimental cerebral arterial gas embolism.

Dexamethasone is often recommended as an adjunct to recompression in the treatment of serious central nervous system decompression accidents. We studied the effects of prophylactic and therapeutic administration of dexamethasone combined with hyperbaric treatment in anesthetized dogs that were subjected to carotid air embolism and a brief episode of arterial hypertension. To assess recovery we measured somatosensory evoked potential (SSEP) amplitude, intracranial pressure, brain water, and cerebral blood flow. Three groups were studied: pre-air treatment (dexamethasone 1 mg/kg 3-4 h before carotid air embolism, and 1 mg/kg immediately after air embolism); post-air treatment (2 mg/kg immediately after air embolism); and control (equivalent volumes of saline pre- and post-air). There was a slight improvement in SSEP early in the course of hyperbaric therapy in the pre-air treated group; the post-air group never differed from control. No differences in intracranial pressure or brain water were found among groups. No blood flows below those lethal to neurons occurred in treated animals but 4 of 7 control animals had low flows. Although prophylactic treatment with dexamethasone produces some improvement in recovery, we cannot confirm that dexamethasone is an effective adjunct to recompression when administered therapeutically.