Saturday, November 30, 2013

“She blew more smoke toward me, a lazy game of cancer catch.”

Cigarette smoking (CS) continues to be a major health hazard, and it contributes significantly to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Cigarette smoking impacts all phases of atherosclerosis 
from endothelial
 dysfunction to acute clinical events, the latter being largely thrombotic. Both active and passive (environmental) cigarette smoke exposure predispose to cardiovascular events. Whether there is a distinct direct dose-dependent correlation between cigarette smoke exposure and risk is debatable, as some recent experimental clinical studies have shown a non-linear relation to cigarette smoke exposure. The exact toxic components of cigarette smoke and the mechanisms involved in CS-related cardiovascular dysfunction are largely unknown, but CS increases inflammation, thrombosis, and oxidation of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Recent experimental and clinical data support the hypothesis that cigarette smoke exposure increases oxidative stress as a potential mechanism for initiating
cardiovascular dysfunction.


Thursday, November 7, 2013

Use of the Electrocardiogram in Acute Myocardial Infarction for Coronary Mapping


In 80% of cases, the culprit vessel in inferior myocardial infarction (MI) is the right coronary artery. The circumflex artery is the culprit vessel in all other cases, with the rare exception of a distally extending inferoapical “wraparound” left anterior descending artery, which is suggested when there is concomitant STsegment elevation in the precordial leads.
This Picture is worth thousand of words .