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Archive for the ‘Cardiology – Clinical’ Category

Is septal branches of left anterior descending coronary artery immune to atherosclerosis ?

Posted in Cardiology - Clinical, Cardiology -Interventional -PCI, Cardiology -unresolved questions, cardiology- coronary care, tagged , , , on January 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »

                                         Coronary arteries are the major site for human atherosclerosis .CAD is considered the ultimate determinant of  cardio vascualr health of our global population.Coronary atherosclerosis has a predilection for proximal sites and branching points.Typically it occurs in leftmain, LAD ostium, LCX ostium, proximal LAD, diagonal origins, OMs RCA  and its branches .

4010940_766_gr1

Septal branches , even though divide very early  from the LAD , it  is  uncommon  to get affected by coronary atherosclerosis.  Even for an experienced   interventional cardiologist  , it  would be very rare to have  performed a  PCI for septal disease.

Why septal branches of LAD is rare to suffer from atherosclerosis ?

We don’t know the answer yet.

But , it is thought,septal branches are near perpendicular branches .The branching angle and incidence of atherosclerosis has a peculiar relationship.IAt any bifurcation  point , the atherosclerosis tend to occur ,  if the angle is more acute , and is  less common in abtuse angles .It is  almost rare  ,  if branching happens at   exact  90 degree angle or so !

The other reason for septal branches being immune to atherosclerosis is  , it runs within the muscle in its major course. The constant squeezing action(. . . and possibly bridging also)  makes it difficult for the  process of atherosclerosis to sustain and grow .

Can you still get a  septal CAD ?

Yes,  usually as  a component of bifurcation or trifurcation lesion. Some times a diagonal and septal are very close together and  atherosclerosis involves  both ostia.

What is  the implication for the  cardiologist to perform  a PCI with stenting in a septal branch of LAD  ?

PCI and stenting in the septal branches are more prone for crushing and fracture   as it is constantly exposed to the mechanical effects of muscle contraction.

Any other significance for septal branches of LAD ?

  • Isolated septal myocardial infarction can occur.This could be even a embolic manifestation.
  • Septal branches of LAD are potential target for therapeutic embolisation (By injecting alcohol)  in patients  with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy(HOCM) .This manover aims to produce a controlled septal myocardial infarction and thus paralysing the left ventricular outflow tract and reduce the dynamic LVOT gradient. This form of treatment, was glorified till recently now considered experimental !

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Land mark concepts in cardiology : Biochemical diagnosis of aortic dissection

Posted in cardiac surgery, Cardiology - Clinical, Cardiology -Interventional -PCI, cardiology -Therapeutics, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on January 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »

                                       Aortic dissection is a complex cardiac problem and a  killer disease .Even though it is a fancier to make a  diagnosis  of aortic dissection in any intractable chest (or back )pain   the  most common error  committed by physicians is failure to recognise it  .

Is it possible to diagnose or atleast suspect aortic dissection  by a rapid screening biochemical test ?

Yes,  it seems so, 

  1. D Dimer , a product released consequent to  intravascular thrombosis is elevated  by >500ng in most of the patients with dissection.
  2. Aortic smooth muscle heavy chain estimation is the other option.

aortic-dissection-d-dimer

Read this original article by Patrick Ohlmaan

Click on the link

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/530783_print   Courtesy Medscape

 What happens once a diagnosis of aortic dissection is made ?

It is not a great achievement to make a diagnosis of aortic dissection.It is only, a  beginning of a long  and often   tedious decision making process . A real tough task , on hand for the cardiothoracic  surgeons. It is a team work , needs the interaction of cardiologists, radiologists and cardiac surgeons to bring an optimal outcome.

The major issues are

  1. Never try to  manage this problem in a small hospital or facility. Always send the patient to a teaching hospital ( of course , not all teaching hospital can  tackle  this   either , so enquire about their expertise ! )
  2. No credits for making a simple diagnosis of dissection.One has to exactly locate the entry point and exit points if any.
  3. Aortic root and arch  involvement  is of major importance in determining the modality of therapy.
  4. Debaky classification is not  of academic interest ! it has a purpose . Generally type A dissection(Proximal ) require emergency surgery
  5. Differentiating true lumen from false lumen is of critical importance , it needs a meticulous transesophageal echocardiogram.( Some times one may , never  be  sure which is true and which is false lumen  , funnily .in descending aortic  dissection it may never matter for the patient !) Self healing of many dissections with thrombus is possible. 
  6. Controlling hypertension with powerful parentral antihypertenive drugs (Labetalol . . . ideally )  is vital.
  7. Side branch  involvement (spiral dissections) especially arch vessels and renal arteries  make this entity much more complex
  8. Isolated distal dissections and some low risk proximal dissections  can indeed  be managed conservatively(Also called non surgical ! ) Some cardiologists or even institutions  hesitate to  put a aortic dissection with medical management .They feel it is inferior form of treatment . . . but realise , it is not  necessarily so !)

 

What is the other bichemical marker for disscetion ?

The aortic smooth Muscle Myosin Heavy Chain was proposed as a useful marker for diagnoisng dissection.

Diagnostic Implications of Elevated Levels of Smooth-Muscle Myosin Heavy-Chain Protein in Acute Aortic Dissection: The Smooth Muscle Myosin Heavy Chain Study  Toru Suzuki, MD; Hirohisa Katoh, PhD; Yasuhiro Tsuchio, MD;  Annals of internal medicine 3 October 2000 | Volume 133 Issue 7 | Pages 537-541

 The abstract from annlas of internal medicine follows Readers from India can get the full text article free

  1. http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/abstract/133/7/537 
  2. http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/133/7/537
  

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The art of unlearning cardiology : ACC/AHA 2009 revascularisation guidelines -It is 135 pages of simple commonsense !

Posted in bio ethics, Cardiology - Clinical, cardiology -Therapeutics, cardiology- coronary care, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Contrary to popular belief ,great things happen only rarely in medicine . It takes  only  few  months of  training  or  workshops ,  for a  wrong or inappropriate concept  to  percolate  our  brains !  But , it  would require,   decades  of  time , energy  and  efforts  ,  for  correcting  that  wrongly  assimilated concept  in medicine !

Interventional cardiologists are  among the  rare breed of physicians,   who always believe in evidence !  But ,  the quality of  the  evidence  is rarely questioned  !  30 years of PCI  & 20 years of stenting has failed  our  common senses ! Fortunately , today,  we have 135 pages of new evidence ( Not really new , old evidence interpreted with  sound logic !)

Hats off to ACC and associates for bringing out this much belated appropriateness guidelines for the interventional cardiologists.

ACCF/SCAI/STS/AATS/AHA/ASNC 2009 Appropriateness Criteria for Coronary Revascularization

A Report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation Appropriateness

Criteria Task Force, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions,

Society of Thoracic Surgeons, American Association for Thoracic Surgery,

American Heart Association, and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology

Endorsed by the American Society of Echocardiography, the Heart Failure Society of America, and the

Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography

Click here to get guidelines

http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/CIRCULATIONAHA.108.191768v1.pdf

If you don’t have time to read the entire document (135 pages  )

Just remember only one point

Common sense,  more  often  prevails  over  evidence ,  in medicine . Apply it  , frequently  in your patients .They will reep the benefits !

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Why is angina pectoris silent in diabetes mellitus ?

Posted in Cardiology - Clinical, Cardiology -Interventional -PCI, cardiology -Therapeutics, Cardiology -unresolved questions, cardiology- coronary care, Infrequently asked questions in cardiology (iFAQs), tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 1, 2009| 1 Comment »

Anginal pain is a type of visceral pain.It is carried by type  C  unmylinated  nerve fibres.The perception of angina is a complex process.It is a combination of visceral and cutaneous referral pain.

How often is angina silent in diabetes mellitus ?

Presence of  diabetes per se does not make an angina silent. In fact,  if  one takes 100 patients with diabetes  , if angina occur in them , it is more often  , manifest than silent. So , only few of  the  diabetic patients who develop diabetic autonomic neuropathy fail to have angina.The exact incidence is not known.It could be around 20%.

If angina can be silent in diabteics , can they have anginal equivalents ?

This again is not answered in literature. Among the anginal equivalents , the most common is  dyspnea , which  can occur in diabetics.But now , we know dyspnea also needs thoracic nerve signals  from the intercostal muscle spindle and colgi organs.This can also be impaired in diabetics.

Can silent and mainfest episodes occur in a same  patient  ?

Yes.

Once silent does not mean always silent, and similarly once angina is felt it  does not mean he is going to feel the next episode as well !

This  strongly reminds us medical science  is  much a complex  subject and what we know is very little in pain perception.

How is silent ischmia different from silent angina ?

There is considerable  overlap  between  silent ischemia and silent angina

The questions to be answered are 

Which is silent  ?  Is it the angina or is it the ischemia or both ?

Silent ischemia can occur in any individual ,  this is also called as silent CAD . When  ischemia occurs  but  fails  to generate pain it is silent ischemia .Undiagnosed  CAD in asymptomatic individuals is also called silent ischemia or CAD.In this population  Exercise stress testing detects  CAD which was otherwise silent and masked.These patients may develop angina during EST.

During exercise stress testing many times patient has significant ST depression  more than 2mm but still chest pain may not occur.These episodes may either be silent ischemia or  ngina. Many times the EST is terminated before angina is manifest .( Chest pain is the last to occur in the chain of events following ischemia- Concept of ischemic cascade )

What are the other situations where angina can be silent ?

  • Pain perception  and threshold  level is  high ,  so patient indeed has anginal  signals but fails to feel it .
  • Patients on  antianginal medication , fail to feel the angina.

  • Chronic betablocker therapy can exactly mimic  autonomic neuropathy

Is it a blessing for the patient  to have painless episodes of angina ? 

When their  ischemic colleagues , suffer a lot with chest pain it is tempting to think these diabetic patients  are blessed!

Scientifically , this could be true in at least in  some  especially in a patients  who’s coronary anatomy is known  and devoid of any critical proximal lesions. For example a small PDA  lesion can produce  severe angina  , but may be silent  in diabetic and be comfortable .This lesion is  insignificant other wise * !

It should  also be recalled , pain relief has been an important goal for treatment  of CAD .In olden days,  thoracic sympathectomy was done for angina . In fact ,  even in  CABG  , one of the the  mechanisms  for  angina  relief  is attributed  to cardiac denervation.

Caution: Even a small  episode of ischemia can trigger an electrical event .But it is rare.

 How common is silent infarct (STEMI) in diabetic patients ?

In a simple questionnaire we asked the diabetic patients in our CCU how they felt their pain during MI.Most felt it normally as do other non diabetic .  Diabetes  does not make  all anginal episodes  silent. Severe episodes of ischemia may be painful while less severe episodes may be painless. Diabetic autonomic neuropathy  is a  least recognized and  poorly understood complication of diabetes.Diabetes , involves  the vasanervorum of the autonomic nerves.

 The other mechanisms postulated in diabetic neuropathy are

  • Reduction in neurotrophic growth factors.
  • deficiency of essential fatty acids .
  • Reduced endoneurial blood flow and
  • Nerve hypoxia .

Is diabetic autonomic neuropathy treatable ?

Very difficult problem indeed.Controlling diabetes may partially correct  the neural dysfunction.Many add on neuro vitamins and aminoacids are having a good market !

If you successfully treat diabetic autonomic neuropathy will my patient  start feeling the  hitherto silent episodes of angina ?

We don’t know.Logic would answer ” YES”

What is the ultimate effect of cardiac autonomic neuropathy.

Cardiac denervation.  The manifestations  are

  • Tachycardia, exercise intolerance
  • Orthostatic hypotension

 

Silent Myocardial Infarction : A complete list

 

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Top ten inventions and concepts in cardiology

Posted in Cardiology - Clinical, Cardiology - Electrophysiology -Pacemaker, cardiology-ethics, Hemodynamics, Top ten in cardiology, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 24, 2008| 1 Comment »

 Selected on the basis of ,  impact  on survival , relief of  human suffering index and also innovation

10.Percuateneous interventions

9.  Electrocardiography

8 . Hemodynamics of cardiovascular system

7.Fruesemide

6.Thrombolysis

5.Pacemakers

4.Defibrillation

3.Heparin

2.Prosthetic valves

1.Coronary care units

 

Waiting list

Concept of vascular biology

Statins

RF ablation

Nitric oxide

Total Artifitial heart

Echocardiography

 

Ten least important concepts and  inventions in cardiology

Selected based on duplication of research, futile scientific concepts and   of course impact on survival

10.Low molecular weight heparins

9.Cardiac resynchronisation

8.Rotablator

7.Multi  chamber pacing

6.Newer ARBs

5.C reactive protein

4.Three dimensional echocardiography

3.

Comments welcome  and please contibute

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What is the purpose of declaration of conflict of interest in medical research ?

Posted in bio ethics, Cardiology - Clinical, cardiology -Therapeutics, cardiology-ethics, Cardiology-Land mark studies, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »

                                                 It is now mandatory for all  journals  to declare the  conflict  of interest by the authors  who are involved in medical research .The purpose apparently is to make all transactions or links  between the researchers and their funding agencies transparent .Even major journals  do not go beyond this . Some ensure it , to appear in the first page of  the article.

 What does the the journals tend to  convey to the reader by publishing the conflicts of interest ?

  •  Does it  mean the article in question  may have a bias or indeed have a bias  ?  and readers are warned  hereby !
  •  Do they send across a message  that the  article may not be really a genuine one and the judgement is left to the the consumers of the articles ?

How often a journal article is rejected purely on the basis of  conflicts of interest ?

Most of  journal articles are rejected  for poor methodology, statistical analysis and so forth .We don’t know how often a paper is rejected  due to a conflict issue per se.If this could happen ,bulk  of drug trials would face a torrid time from the editors.

Why , even the leading scientific  journals never indulge in grading the significance of the conflict ?

Here is an example .

accomplish

nejm1

The much hyped drug trial on Hypertension “ACCOMPLISH”  was published in the  world’s most prestigious medical journal recently .It  left  it to the readers to  have their  own assessment  on the conflict issue.

  The consequence of not , grading and investigating  about the conflicts could have  serious  global health  implications both financially and academically .

This study was designed, formulated, completed and published  with a single hidden aim of neutralising the land mark trial  of ALLHAT which recommended diuretics as a first line drug in HT.Apparently diuretics are very  cheap  , effective  generic drugs.

 Is it a scientific rule  that  the  latest evidence  ,  should always prevail over the older evidence ?

No. Science can never have such a rule ! The question is how good and genuine is the evidence.
Just because an evidence is current , it does not  attain a scientific sanctity !

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What do we mean by conservative management” ? Why it is often considered as an inferior form of treatment in Medicine ?

Posted in Cardiology - Clinical, Cardiology -Interventional -PCI, cardiology -Therapeutics, cardiology- coronary care, Infrequently asked questions in cardiology (iFAQs), tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 30, 2008| 3 Comments »

                                            The science of medicine has evolved over 2000 years since the stone age days.It has  currently reached  a glorious era with  cutting edge  scientifc  technology .Today  one can map the entire human genetic blue print and intervene in the  disease  even before they manifest .One can   keep dying people alive for years with multi organ transplantation. Modern medicine has taught us  how human sufferings can be prevented and life can be prolonged (with or without purpose !)

The term conservative management  conveys two different

meanings for medical professionals.

conservativ-3

For other group of physicians

 

conservative-4

                         

                             Ever since the days of  application of leech over the  head for treating migraine and a crude knife abdominotomy for emergency exit of babies from  pregnant mothers in distress  , healer’s   mind has always  perceived “something  has to be done  urgently when some body suffers”  this sort of  reaction is probably  inherited  and is related to  the primitive flight or fight response .

This may be true in  some of the emergencies but it is untrue in many of the non emergencies.

                                          Unfortunately ,  our mind  finds it difficult   to differentiate  between these  situations . With constant exposure to dramatic medical breakthroughs , modern day physician is made to believe   “Some thing  is always  better than nothing  when illness strikes. Human body is a wonderful machine which has it’s own service station ! in the form autoregulation  and the meticulous  homeostatic mechanisms. Only if the disease process overwhelms,  it needs intervention.( Typical example:In the routine viral fever , you don’t adminster Acyclovir or other antiviral  for all of them !) 

                                        The problem with early aggressive approach is,  it fails to give an oppurtunity  for the body’s natural defence forces  to respond. Further , we will  never ever know how the administered treatment is going to fare vis a viz the natural response.( With due respects to RCTs).   While the field of medicine   has  so much  evolved , our thought process,  especially  the  aspect of clinical  reasoning  has always been lagging behind .It is now considered  as inferior or even unscientific  treatment  if  some one follows a conservative approach to a problem even if  it  provides   same outcome of that of an invasive or aggressive approach ( The classical example is PCI for chronic stable angina The COURAGE study).

The other major issue is the hazards of unwarrnted  invesitigations , drugs and procedures

Classical example:No one knows how much morbidity or mortality the routine Swan ganz catheter  caused when it was rampantly used for over two decades to monitor central venous pressure .It is estimated  that in modern medicine  there are at least  few  drugs or devices  in each speciality waiting  for the same fate  as that of  the swan ganz catheter.

No body knows when it will be exposed .Our EBM will take it’s own time . . .Till that time humanity need to suffer.

This thinking is not new  The concept  “First do no harm is over 2000 years old”

hippocrates-primum-non-nocere

Questions in search of answers

 Does law of conservation of energy applicable to human body and medicine  ? 

 Can we defy death with modern medicine ?

Final message

  • Conservative management is still  a great medical concept  in many situations  and one should not allow it to die  by the whims and fancies of the modern scientific forces.
  • Whatever you do on the patent’s body  do it ,  only if it is going to helpful for him /her. If you are unsure  Whether a given  treatment  is going to help or not ask this question to an expert .
  • The widely prevailing  dogma  of aggression is always better than  non aggression  has absolutely no evidence.
  • So approach a clinical issue disease by disease ,  individual by individual.
  • Now , in this era  high tech  medicine  ,  It is lot more tougher to choose a conservative path as the pressure to do more and more  looms  larger ! It is easier to follow the crowd  than a path of your own .
  • Always remember it needs a  stronger  mind to  act according to our conscience !

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What is intracoronary and intracerebral hypertension ?

Posted in Cardiology - Clinical, cardiology -Therapeutics, cardiology- coronary care, Infrequently asked questions in cardiology (iFAQs), tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 14, 2008| Leave a Comment »

                    circulatory                                                                            A normally  functioning  circulatory system is vital for our survival . We have about 6000 ml of  blood, circulating  all over the  body in an  approximate time of 15-20 seconds.The pressure at which this blood moves across the body is called the blood pressure . Hypertension  or simply , high blood pressure is an undesirable  hemodynamic disturbance  in human circulatory system.Systemic hypertension is the most common type of hypertension. The blood pressure is primarily  dependent  on the status of the blood vessel(vascular resistance)  and cardiac contractility. This regulation is under  many neural and hormonal factors.Further  the blood pressure varies depending  upon the blood vessel calibre, and the local milieu.There is a progressive drop in blood pressure from major arteries to the small arteries .The pressure drop is maximum  across the arterioles to reach the venules .The venous circulation has the lowest pressure, it ends up at right atrium with a mean pressure of 0- 5mmhg.

Importance of regional variation of blood pressure.

It should be realised  ,  each organ has it’s own regulated blood pressure.The brain  perfuses by the  intracerebral pressure .The lungs decide how much should be the pulmonary arterial pressure.The kidney not only controls it’s own pressure but also  has a major regulatory role in  systemic pressure by rennin angiotensin system.The examples are numerous, portal system has it’s unique pressure controlling hepatic hemodynamics. The  retinal blood vessels regulate  intra ocular pressure. While the human  circulatory system has a wide variation of blood pressure  across the breadth and length of vascular system,  it is ironical a single snap shot BP with a brachial cuff is used  to define the normality and if it is normal every thing is thought to be  hunky dory !

 

 

It is widely acknowledged now , aging of humanity  is nothing but aging of our vascular system

                                    So we should have new parameters to assess individual organ’s vascular health as well as the currently popular systemic vascular health.The single important factor that determine coronary endothelial damage is the intra coronary pressure.It is never taken into account in any of the cardivascular mortality studies. This is the prime reason for  the widely prevalent conflict in the cardiology literature , namely : Controlling systemic  blood pressure has poor correlation with  cardiovascular outcome. Many of the so called normotensive individuals  have serious hemodynamic injury in their  coronary arteries.This was made apparent in the  ASCOT LLA  study , in which patients with  near normal blood pressure also benefited from statin therapy , implying  endothelial damage could occur at any level of systemic blood pressure.

What is the normal intracoronary pressure  ? When do you diagnose intracoonary hypertension?

The normal intracoronary pressure is around 40mmhg . Intra coronary hypertension as a clinical entity  is yet to be  recognised . There is no defintion available for intracoronary HT  , intracerebral hypertension as well. 

It’s still a  long way to  go , for the cardiology and neurology  community to assess non invasively  intracoronary pressures and  intra cerebral arterial pressure to prevent  coronary events ant strokes.

Final message

Simple risk prediction using brachial cuff blood pressure is a grossly unscientific method (Sorry, i really mean it ) to assess one’s vascular health.There has been  few attempts like vascular endothelial health assessment by fore arm blood  flow , central aortic pressure (Instead of brachial cuff pressure) as an  index for risk predictment and  assessment for hypertension is suggested.

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Can stable angina occur at rest ?

Posted in Cardiology - Clinical, Cardiology -Interventional -PCI, cardiology -Therapeutics, cardiology- coronary care, Infrequently asked questions in cardiology (iFAQs), tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 11, 2008| 1 Comment »

                                        Angina pectoris , classically occur on exertion and gets relieved on rest .This is called typical chronic stable angina as described by Heberden (CSA ) .  Unstable angina(UA), the term originally described by Noble O Fowler in early 1970s. ( Also being referred as  intermediate coronary syndrome , preinfarction angina etc).The definition for unstable angina has evolved  over the years  and currently  refers to .

 1.All new onset angina of any degree* Some include severe angina only ! New onset angina of very mild degree on exertion could be the onset of the first episode of  stable  angina. 

 2.Rest angina of more than >30 mts not relieved by taking sublingual nitroglycerine.

 3.All Post MI angina

 4.Any angina in patients who have been stented by PCI.

How to recognise a patient  who is shifting from  stable angina to  UA ? 
UA is  to be suspected when  a patient develops. 
5.More frequent episodes than usual
6.Angina occurring at lesser level of exertion than before 
7.Angina radiating to new site ( Example : Chest pain radiating  to jaw rather than to the usual left arm or vice versa)

Why the first episode of angina is given a special status and often considered critica ?

Angina is the  clinical expression of   myocardial ischemia.The course of  the  first  episode of angina , can not be predicted.It could be a the beginning of a chronic disease process, or it could be a progressive coronary occlusion as in unstable angina /NSTMEI , or the onset of even a STEMI.
In contrast a patient with chronic stable angina  has a predictable chest pain , at a particular level of exertion, radiation to same site, same character, and the patient knows for sure the pain  would promptly dissappear  when he takes rest or nitroglycerine  tablets.

What is the underlying pathology in UA ?  

Generally it is very rare for  a stable plaque to produce a  serious episode of unstable angina .It  requires  an unstable plaque* to  precipitate an unstable angina !
Unstable plaque refers to any plaque which is eroded, fissured, ruptured or  hanging  eccentrically ,  with
an active thrombus.

What is the significance of post PCI angina?

It is an irony, any angina following PCI is to be considered unstable as sudden occlusion of stent is quiet common.This is a paradox of sorts as one would wonder in a patient  with CSA who undergoes PCI with stenting  of left anterior descending coronary artery  (LAD)  all his subsequent episodes of angina  will be labelled as UA  even if a stable angina occur in his other coronary artery.And these patients would go for early invasive approach and potentially inappropriate interventions even if they are at low risk !

Is all angina at rest can be termed as unstable angina ?

No, but many times ,  rather most of the times  cardiologist believe all rest angina to be unstable.

What are the situations where stable angina can occur at rest?

An episode of angina during mental stress, or post prandial* state are very common in patients with CSA. This gets relieved after the stress. Some times  patients with CSA during episodes of fever may get angina at rest .These are considered variants of stable angina.
Post prandial angina , may be considered by some as unstable

How often a diagnostic confusion occur between CSA and UA ?

Generally, this issue is rarely addressed in cardiology literature , for the  simple reason it is never considered an  issue at all !
According to Canadian cardiovascular society grade 4 stable angina  is almost similar to unstable angina , as it denotes angina occurs with minimal effort or even at rest. In fact CCSC grade 4 should be termed as UA.

Can ECG be useful to identify stable angina from unstable angina ?

                                    ECG will some times  come to our rescue when one is confused between stable and unstable angina even though resting ST depression can occur in both stable and unstable angina . Statistically , if ST depression is noted during an episode of angina it is more likely to be UA rather than CSA. . Apart  from ECG , Troponin T or I levels may be elevated in some of the patients with unstable angina. Rarely stable angina can also show elevated troponin.

In patients with systemic hypertension and LVH or cardiomyopathy resting ST depression may not indicate UA 

So differentiation between, stable and unstable angina even though appear simple and  straight forward, it requires a diligent appraisal of history , physical examination (Aortic stenosis /HCM  may cause stable angina)  and ECG, enzyme evaluation.

Final message

In any coronary care unit ,  admissions with initial diagnosis of  ACS/UA/NSTEMI , subsequently turn out to be simple stable coronary artery disese . This error happens because the chest pain  or ECG changes  are aggravated by non cardiac factors like a mental stress or a post operative stress  or fever etc.
There could  be another school of thought, that is to err on the side of  safety, and manage all  rest angina as UA  .But the hazards of unwarranted therapy might exceed the risks of leaving these patients alone.
In this context ,there is a need for a new definition for unstable angina .
One ideal version could be . . .
  • Any angina , of any degree  which is caused  mainly by the supply side defect (By a acute thrombotic /disruptive plaque   occluding the  coronary lumen  with a imminent danger of myocardial infarction is to termed as real UA.
  •  All post MI and post PCI angina are unstable angina
  •  Rest angina which occurs due to increased demand situations need not be  labelled  as unstable angina for the simple reason  there is neither an active plaque nor a  fresh thrombus likely  in these patients. They rarely develop  recurrent angina or MI . The mechanism of angina at rest here is most often due to a tachycardia and resultant increase in MVO2 .(myocardial oxygen consumption) .Currently they are called as secondary unstable angina.In fact , anti thrombotic drugs are misused in these situations as they satisfy the criteria of UA/NSTEMI.

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Systemic hypertension: The untold story !

Posted in Cardiology - Clinical, Cardiology-Land mark studies, Infrequently asked questions in cardiology (iFAQs), tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »

 

Is it true , once a patient is labelled as a hypertensive he remains  hypertensive life long ? Is it possible to withdraw antihypertensive drugs  permanently ?

  • Systemic  hypertension is the most common clinical entity and it forms the bulk of the physician consultations world over.
  • The anti hypertensive drugs are  one of the most commonly  prescribed medication  by the medical professionals .
  •  It is estimated , the major chunk of  revenue to pharma industry is contributed by antihypertensive  drugs.
  •  SHT , is being maintained  as a  major , global cardiovascular risk factor , by  periodically refixing the target blood pressure  to lower levels  by various committees.
  • The terminology of pre hypertension for blood pressure between 120-140 was hugely controversial    and some societies refused  to accept this entity.

Is there a case for withdrawal of anti hypertensive agents  among our patients ?

Yes , in fact there is a strong case for it.

While on the one hand there is a sustained effort ( By whom !)  to increase the drug usage , very early in the course of hypertension , there is also a silent progress in our knowledge ,  regarding withdrawl of anti hypertensive agents in all those undeserving patients .

It is estimated 42% *of the so called hypertensives especially elderly can be successfully weaned of anti hypertensive drugs with out any adverse effect.( Mark R Nelson BMJ. 2002 October 12; 325(7368): 815.)

What are the situations where we can successfully with draw anti hypertensive drugs?

  • The most common group of patients  are the ones, where  the anti hypertensive drugs are  started prematurely , with out giving an option for non drug life style  approach.These patients and their physicians continue to believe , anti HT drugs are sacred and essential !
  • There is another  major group of patients who have had a temporary  elevation of BP due to a stressful environment.These patients  get drugs permanently for a temporary problem . These patients need  to be reassessed.
  • Some of the elderly  patients,  with the onset of  age  related autonomic dysfunction ,these  drugs are poorly tolerated and  even have  disastrous effects .In this population  it is desirable , to wean off the anti HT drugs  and switched over to life style  medication whenever possible.

Final message

Essential or primary hypertension is not a permanent  disease, in bulk of our population. It reflects the  state of  the  blood pressure on a day to day basis  and is a continuous variable. All patients who have been labelled as hypertensives( Either by us or others) should be constantly reviewed  and considered for withdrawal of the drugs if possible.

* Note this rule does not apply in all secondary hypertensions, during  emergencies, uncontrolled hyper tension with co existing CAD /diabetes /dyslipidemias etc .

Please refer to these forgotten Landmark articles

Does Withdrawl of Anti hypertensive Medication 

Increase the Risk of Cardiovascular Events?

The TONE study

Source: The American Journal of Cardiology, Volume 82, Number 12, 15 December 1998 , pp. 1501-1508(8)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9874055

Conclusion of TONE study

The study shows that antihypertensive medication can be safely withdrawn in older persons without clinical evidence of cardiovascular disease who do not have diastolic pressure > or = 150/90 mm Hg at withdrawal, providing that good BP control can be maintained with nonpharmacologic therapy

 

Some of the references for successful withdrawl of antihypertenive drugs

1.Nelson, M; Reid, C; Krum, H; McNeil, J. A systematic review of predictors of maintenance of normotension after withdrawal of antihypertensive drugs. Am J Hypertens. 2001;14:98–105. [PubMed]
2.
Wing, LMH; Reid, CM; Ryan, P; Beilin, LJ; Brown, MA; Jennings, GLR, et al. Second Australian nationalbloodpressure study (ANBP2): Australian comparative outcome trial of ACE inhibitor- and diuretic-based treatment of hypertension in the elderly. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 1997;19:779–791.
3.
Lee, J. Odds ratio or relative risk for cross-sectional data. Int J Epidemiol. 1994;723:201–203. [PubMed]
4.
Lin, D; Wei, L. The robust inference for the Cox proportional hazards model. J Am Stat Assoc. 1989;84:1074–1079.
5.
Veterans Administration Cooperative Study Group on Antihypertensive Drugs. Return of elevated blood pressure after withdrawal of antihypertensive drugs. Circulation. 1975;51:1107–1113. [PubMed]
6.
Medical Research Council Working Party on the Management of Hypertension. Course of blood pressure in mild hypertensives after withdrawal of long term antihypertensive treatment. BMJ. 1986;293:988–992. [PubMed]
7.
Alderman, MH; Davis, TK; Gerber, LM; Robb, M. Antihypertensive drug therapy withdrawalin a general population. Arch Intern Med. 1986;146:1309–1311. [PubMed]
8.
Blaufox, MD; Langford, HG; Oberman, A; Hawkins, CM; Wassertheil-Smoller, S; Cutter, GR. Effect of dietary change on the return of hypertension after withdrawal of prolonged antihypertensive therapy (DISH). J Hypertension. 1984;2(suppl 3):179–181.
9.
Mitchell, A; Haynes, RB; Adsett, CA; Bellissimo, A; Wilczynski, N. The likelihood of remaining normotensive following antihypertensive drug withdrawal. J Gen Intern Med. 1989;4:221–225. [PubMed]
10.
Myers, MG; Reeves, RA; Oh, PI; Joyner, CD. Overtreatment of hypertension in the community? Am J Hypertens. 1996;9:419–425. [PubMed]
11.
Stamler, R; Stamler, J; Grimm, R; Gosch, F; Dyer, R; Berman, R, et al. Trial of control of hypertension by nutritional means: three year results. J Hypertens. 1984;2(suppl 3):167–170.
12.
Takata, Y; Yoshizumi, T; Ito, Y; Ueno, M; Tsukashima, A; Iwase, M, et al. Comparison of withdrawing antihypertensivetherapy between diuretics and angiotensinconverting enzyme inhibitors in essential hypertensives. Am Heart J. 1992;124:1574–1580. [PubMed]
13.
Whelton, PK; Appel, LJ; Espeland, MA; Applegate, WB; Ettinger, WH; Kostis, JB, et al. Sodium reduction and weight loss in the treatment of hypertension in older persons: a randomised controlled trial of nonpharmacological interventions in the elderly (TONE). JAMA. 1998;279:839–846. [PubMed]
14.
Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation Study Investigators. Effects of an angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor, ramipril, on death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, and stroke in high-risk patients. N Engl J Med. 2000;342:145–153. [PubMed]
15.
Howes, L; Krum, H. Withdrawing antihypertensive treatment. Curr Therapeutics. 1988;November:15–20.
16.
Fotherby, MD; Harper, GD; Potter, JF. General practitioners’ management of hypertension in elderly patients. BMJ. 1992;305:750–752. [PubMed]
17.
Jennings, GL; Reid, CM; Sudhir, K; Laufer, E; Korner, PI. Factors influencing the success of withdrawal of antihypertensive drug therapy. Blood Press Suppl. 1995;2:99–107. [PubMed]

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