© 2005 by BMJ Publishing Group & British Cardiac Society
Panel discussion
Towards an optimal care pathway for post-myocardial infarction heart failure
Abbreviations: ACE, angiotensin converting enzyme; ARB, angiotensin II receptor blocker; ATLAS, assessment of treatment with lisinopril and survival; BNP, B-type natriuretic peptide; CPAP, continuous positive airway pressure; CONSENSUS, cooperative North Scandinavian enalapril survival study; EPHESUS, eplerenone neurohormonal efficacy and survival study; GMS, General Medical Services; LVDD, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction; LVSD, left ventricular systolic dysfunction; MI, myocardial infarction; MINAP, Myocardial Infarction National Audit Project; NICE, National Institute for Clinical Excellence; NYHA, New York Heart Association; RALES, randomized aldactone evaluation study; TRACE, trandolapril cardiac evaluation
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Question: Regarding the timing of assessment of left ventricular function after myocardial infarction, many of the speakers have talked about the need to pick this up early and some have talked about the use of diuretics being a strong indicator for poor prognosis. What would be the best approach to identifying this high risk group of patients after myocardial infarction and when should we be doing this?
Professor Karl Swedberg: As we do not have a good surrogate for measuring left ventricular function in this context, we have to look at left ventricular function in all patients after MI using imaging such as echocardiography. We know that a high BNP level is associated with increased risk, however at present we are uncertain how to handle that in the context of treatment decisions. Hopefully, the routine measurement of BNP might be a tool for guiding care.
Professor Martin Cowie: But there
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
Topic Collections
-
Drugs: cardiovascular system
-
Acute coronary syndromes
-
Echocardiography
-
Clinical diagnostic tests
- Hypertension
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
