Prothrombin Gene G20210A Variant in Angiographically Documented Patients with Coronary Artery Stenosis.

Background: Studies on the association between the prothrombin G20210A variant and coronary artery disease (CAD) risk are inconclusive. This study aimed to investigate the possible association between the G20210A variant in the prothrombin gene and documented CAD and its severity. Methods: This study enrolled 1460 patients who were consecutively admitted for elective coronary angiography. Via the standard angiographic techniques, coronary angiographies were done and the presence and severity of CAD were determined through the clinical vessel score and the Gensini score. Prothrombin G20210A genotypes were identified using PCR-RFLP. Results: This cross-sectional study was performed on 953 men and 507 women at a mean age of 58.21±10.33 years. The median and the interquartile range for the Gensini score were not statistically significantly different between the wild (GG) and mutant (AA+GA) genotypes (P=0.440). The association between the G20210A polymorphism and the severity of CAD with respect to the vessel score also showed no significant linear trend of higher numbers of diseased vessels (P= 0.765 for the Mantel-Haenszel test of linear trend) in the AA+GA genotype as compared with the GG genotype. Conclusion: Our data failed to confirm the hypothesis that the G20210A variant mutation may be a significant determinant of CAD risk or its severity.

Development of a Simple Risk Score Model to Predict Renal Artery Stenosis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Renal artery stenosis (RAS) is a known cause of secondary hypertension and renal failure. Although renal artery angiography is the gold standard for diagnosing RAS, a simple method to estimate if patients will develop RAS is required. The aim of this retrospective study was to develop a simple risk score to predict significant RAS. METHODS: Four thousand one hundred seventy-seven patients who underwent renal angiography between 2002 and 2016 at Tehran Heart Center were included. Significant RAS was defined as narrowing of the renal artery by at least 70%. Multiple predictors of the RAS were determined using multivariable logistic regression with a backward elimination method. The scoring system obtained from the final model was presented as nomogram. The possible nonlinear effect of continuous variables was evaluated using restricted cubic splines. Overfitting of the final model was assessed applying the tenfold cross-validation method. Model performance was checked using calibration plot as well as Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit test, and area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve. RESULTS: The prevalence of RAS was 14.1%. Female sex (OR [95% CI]: 1.53 [1.26-1.85]), hypertension (OR [95% CI]: 1.38 [1.08-1.77]), estimated glomerular filtration rate (OR [95% CI]: 0.98 [0.97-0.98]), body mass index (OR [95% CI]: 0.97 [0.95-0.99]), and age (OR [95% CI]: 1.01 [1.00-1.02]) were determined as the multiple predictors of RAS. The area under the ROC curve of the final predictive model was 0.702 (95% CI: 0.679-0.725). CONCLUSION: This model assesses the risk of RAS using available information. This model can be used for both clinical and research purposes.

The effect of a high dose of atorvastatin on the occurrence of atrial fibrillation after coronary artery bypass grafting.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have suggested that statins reduce the incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after cardiac operations. Statin therapy at intensive doses, however, has yet to be thoroughly investigated. METHODS: We retrospectively studied 1,839 consecutive patients (1,177 men [73.2%]) who underwent isolated coronary artery bypass grafting and had no history of previous AF, pacemaker implantation, or antiarrhythmic medication. Data recorded included the atorvastatin dose during hospitalization, demographic, echocardiographic, and angiographic data, medical history, drug treatment, and procedural characteristics. Continuous telemonitoring during the first 72 postoperative hours assessed for AF, which was defined as episodes lasting more than 5 minutes. The dose-related effect of atorvastatin on postoperative AF was investigated by logistic analysis in 1,607 patients: 75 (4.7%) did not receive atorvastatin vs 1,047 (65.1%) and 485 (30.2%) who received 40 mg/d or 80 mg/d, respectively, for at least 3 days before the operation. RESULTS: The study population was a mean age of 60.6 ± 9.5 years. Multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that a lack of atorvastatin pretreatment along with older age, enlarged left atrium, and male sex, and not taking ß-blockers, tended to be associated with an increased risk of postoperative AF. There was no significant difference between the effect of a higher (80 mg/d) and a lower dose (40 mg/d) in reducing postoperative AF. CONCLUSIONS: Atorvastatin pretreatment significantly reduced the occurrence of AF after bypass grafting; nonetheless, the difference between the beneficial effects of intensive and routine atorvastatin treatments on postoperative AF was not significant.

Safety of older generations of gadolinium in mild-to-moderate renal failure.

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) is a rare disease that is mostly reported in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who have received gadolinium as a contrast in imaging techniques. The exact pathogenetic role of renal failure or gadolinium is not known. The aim of this study is to show whether mild-to-moderate renal failure is a risk for NSF as it is described in severe renal failure. In this cross-sectional study, we enrolled 164 patients with serum creatinine levels >1.5 mg/dL who were in different stages of CKD and had received gadolinium (gadopentetate). The average lag time between the gadolinium administration and the study was 4 months. The most prevalent skin symptom was itching (19%) and the least frequent was induration and papules (<1%). At the follow-up, all skin lesions were relieved. No patients had characteristic lesions of NSF. Twenty-five percent of patients had acute kidney injury at the time of gadolinium exposure. No patients had liver disease and only five were receiving erythropoietin. None of our patients were taking immunosuppressive agents, but all of them suffered from cardiovascular diseases. We conclude that in patients with mild-to-moderate renal failure, it seems that gadolinium is associated with no or very low risk for NSF. We did not find any NSF in patients with severe renal failure. However, because of the rarity of NSF, the low number of such patients in the study, and the high mortality, the use of gadolinium in these patients should be avoided.