Copenhagen, March 16, 2012: Stroke survivors who love art have a significantly higher quality of life than those who do not, according to new research. Patients who have enjoyed the music, painting and theater recovered most of their stroke than patients who did not.

The research was presented at the annual spring meeting on cardiovascular nursing 12, March 16-17, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the Western world and the leading cause of disability in adults. More and more seniors who are currently racing and recovery. ”We know that every six seconds, there is a person affected by the stroke in the world,” said lead author Dr. Ercole Vellone, assistant professor ofnursing at the School of Nursing, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.”Identifying strategies to improve recovery from stroke and the quality of life for patients is a priority for the health care system and the art exhibition looks promising.”

For research (NPF 38), 192 stroke survivors (mean age 70 years) were asked if they liked or disliked the art (music, painting, theater). Quality of life was compared for patients interested in art (105) and patients are not interested in art(87).

Meghana Gadgil from the division of the General Internal Medicine from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine  have presented some evidence concerning the advantage to eat Mediterranean food with unsaturated fat contained in the olive oil, avocados, fish or nuts instead of pasta or white bread.   It is recommended according to the research presented that the Mediterranean diet contributes to minimize future heart risk factors. The team of Meghana has evaluated the OmniHeart which was use to study the cardiovascular effect s of three variants of diets on 164 patients with mild hypertension and with no died. It was then compared the ability to the patient blood to regulate blood sugar and maintains healthy insulin levels while on a carbohydrate-rich diet, a protein-rich diet and a diet rich in unsaturated fats. The objective of the study was to keep the patient at same weight as when they started the study. The interesting discovery was that the patient heart health was improving even before patients were losing weight.

In coromio today. For the first time a randomized trail called FAST was comparing the safety and efficacy of catheter ablation in comparison to surgical ablation.

The trial involved 124 patients with atrial fibrillation and that were refractory to antiarrhythmic drugs. The study evaluated two different ways to treat the patient.  The patient to be included in the study should have hypertension with left atrial dilatation between 40 to 44mm, should have had a negative catheter ablation procedure or a dilatation of the left atrial superior or equal to 45mm. Were excluded long standing persistent atrial fibrillation that was longer than one year period, prior stroke, cardiac surgery within the last three months, left atrial size superior to 65mm, important valvular disease, left ventricular EF inferior to 45%, transient ischaemic attack or prior attack.

The study concluded that Catheter ablation is less efficient than minimal invasive surgical ablation. The results will support patients and doctors when making the decision for optimum invasive treatment for atrial fibrillation.

A study STACCATO was performed to  compare transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation in comparaison to surgical aortic valve replacement on elderly patients. The study was made on 70 instead of 200 patients plan due to safety situation.  The primary end point was made of death, renal failure at 30 days and stroke.   The primary end point in the transapical TAVI arm results was one non-treatment  related death, two major strokes, one left coronary artery blockage and one patient with renal failure requiring dialysis. In the surgical arm, there was one case of perioperative major stroke. Other adverse events in the TAVI arm included a transient ischemic attack followed later with a major stroke, two perioperative cases of severe paravalvular leakage, one perioperative aortic rupture, one left main occlusion during balloon valvuloplasty, and one case of major bleeding.

The New England Journal of Medicine has publiched the results in 2011.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) reduce improves patient survival rate according to PARTNER trial cohort B results presented during the last TCT congress in 2011. The study was a pivotal with patient that can’t be operated due to severe aortic stenosis and which have been treat with Sapien transcatheter aortic valve. The study demonstrates on two year period that TAVI procedure indicates a mortality of 43% versus 67% with a standard therapy.

ST elavation acute coronary syndrome patients will have a greater therapy outcome when treat via radial access in comparison to femoral approach. These are the conclusions of a randomized study made between 2009 and 2011 in Italy  in four centers enrolling 1.001 STEMI patients.  Patients with acute acute coronary syndrome have a high mortality potential when associated with bleeding complications.  Nevertheless recent statics research proves that radial access approch will ameliorate the morbidity and the mortality. . In this multicentre, parallel group, prospective trial study the adverse clinical events was significantly lower  at 30 days when compared to the femoral group with a rate of 13.6% in the radial approach versus 21%  in the femoral one.

The study information Enrico Romagnoli presented at the AHA in 2011.

The use of drug eluting balloon will moderate scar artery tissue when in-stent restenosis patient case. In fact the balloon coating is biodegradable and will disintegrates within one day. The study was made on 26 women and 58 mens between 2009 and 2010 who were revascularized with a drug-eluting balloon. The drug used was pactlitaxed. This technic proved that that lession remained open at 93.4% after six to nine month period. It was noticed that the risk of bleeding was significantly lower with drug-eluting balloons because the balloon therapy proves according to another study the period of anticoagulation dosage. In fact patient treated with drug-eluting stents will be will receive during one year dual antiplacet treatment versus one month for patient that have been treated with drug-eluting balloon correction.

This research was presented at the AHA (American Heart Association) in 2011.

Authors: M. Zadura, F. Szigat and al.

FFR (Fractional Flow Reserve) and iFR (Instantaneous Wave- Free Ratio) are knowned  technolgies used to mesure the patient stenosis. Recent investigation indicates that results achieved by iFR has better results when compared to FFR since it is a cut down on time, cost, operation complexity of the procedure. Moreover it will eliminate the use of adenosine to stimulate hyperaemia indicates the results presented in San Francisco in the United States during the TCT (Transcatheter Cardiovasluar Therapeutics) exhibition.

The article published by Dr Sen an concludes “ Intracoronary resistance is naturally constant and minimized during the wave-free period. The instantaneous wave-free ratio calculated over this period produces a drug-free index of stenosis severity comparable to FFR. (Vasodilator Free Measure of Fractional Flow Reserve”

It is to note that This study was supported by the Volcano Corporation..

France

Former intern in the peripheral hospitals of Paris.

Thierry was a fellow in the Institute Hémodynamqiue Montreal Heart center.

From 1990 to 1995, he was working part-time in the  interventional cardiology clinic Hartman in Neuilly.

 
Between 1990 to 1995 Thierry was working part-time at the hospital of Pontoise in USIC and Interventional cardiology department. Since 1995 he works in the Cardiovascular Institute of Massy in the South Paris.