The prevalence of overweight and obesity among Croatian hospitalized coronary heart disease patients.

The aim of this article was to investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity using selected anthropometric variables in a sample of hospitalized coronary heart disease (CHD) patients in Croatia (N = 1,298). Prevalence of overweight and obesity in surveyed patient population was high: 48.2% of participants were overweight and 28.6% were obese according to their body mass index; measured through waist-to-hip ratio 54.5% of participants were centrally obese. These data on prevalences of overweight, obesity and central obesity show that although there are some reassuring trends, there is still considerable amount of work to be done if the prevalence of this cardiovascular risk factor is to be reduced further among Croatian CHD patients. While the prevalence of obesity seems to be on the decline, the prevalence of overweight is rising, which may be just an early warning sign of an incoming wave of obesity epidemic in future years.

Duke Treadmill Score in prioritizing patients for coronary angiography: retrospective study of a Croatian regional hospital.

Aim of the study was to determine the potential of Duke Treadmill Score (DTS) in prioritizing patients for coronary angiography in a transitional country clinical setting. We analyzed 114patients with suspected stable coronary artery disease who underwent exercise treadmill testing, and coronary angiography in Slavonski Brod General Hospital. DTS was calculated from treadmill test as: exercise time--(5 x ST deviation in mm)--(4 x exercise angina). Regarding the score, patients were grouped into three groups of risk for coronary artery disease: low risk, medium risk, and high risk patients. All patients underwent coronary angiography, and were grouped in accordance to the severity of the coronary artery disease into three groups: insignificant, significant, or severe coronary artery disease. All patients scored as high risk DTS had significant or severe coronary artery disease. Medium and low risk DTS patients had insignificant coronary artery disease in 50%, and 90% of cases, respectively. Medium risk patients with significant or severe coronary artery disease were significantly older, and had more frequent history of typical chest pain with higher number of episodes per week (P<0.05), whereas there were no differences regarding gender or presence of risk factors. There were no significant differences among medium risk patients regarding the severity of coronary artery disease in exercise time or ST deviation. However, the presence of limiting exercise angina in medium risk patients was significantly more related with significant and severe coronary artery disease (P<0.05). High risk DTS result showed great potential in stratifying patients for immediate coronary angiography. This scoring system may be used in prioritizing patients for coronary angiography in a transitional clinical setting.

Pericardial effusion complicating swine origin influenzae A (H1N1) infection in a 50-year-old woman.

Acute pericarditis is a well-recognized but rare complication of numerous viral infections. We report a case of a 50-year-old woman with novel influenza A (H1N1) infection complicated by pericardial effusion. Resolution of both symptoms and pericardial effusion occurred after a treatment with oseltamivirin and ibuprofen. There were no signs of acute left or right ventricle dysfunction. Pericarditis and pericardial effusion are occasionally associated with influenza A infections. To our knowledge, this is a rare case of pericardial effusion associated with influenza A (H1N1) reported during the current novel influenza A (H1N1) pandemic that responded well to conservative management.

Embolism in retinal circulation after invasive cardiovascular procedures.

UNLABELLED: To determine the occurence of embolism in retinal circulation after invasive cardiovascular procedures and the risk of central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) and branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO). MATERIAL AND METHODS: During a 3 month period 153 patients (303 eyes)--101 male/52 female--who had undergone coronarography or stent implantation were examined before and 24 hours after the procedure. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was taken, visual field examination was done and fundoscopy was performed. Eyes with the opacities in the anterior segment (corneal leucoma, dense cataracts) were excluded from the study. Prior to invasive procedure none of the patients had embolism in the retinal circulation. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Embolism was found in 3 patients (male) who all had hyperlipidemia with normal blood pressure. Two of them had coronarography and one patient had stent implantation. One of the patients had a previous branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) that was treated with photocoagulation. They did not report any symptoms. BCVA was the same before and after the procedure. Two of the emboli were located in the first branch of the central retinal artery and one was located in the branch of cillioretinal artery. All of the emboli were transient after 48 hours. CONCLUSION: The study showed that invasive cardiovascular procedures do have the risk of developing transient embolism in retinal circulation. However, there have been reports of CRAO and BRAO after diagnostic cardiac procedures, therefore clinicians should be aware of this potential complication.