JournalScan

Please visit the Heart website (www.heartjnl.com) for links to these articles–many to full text.

ISCHAEMIC HEART DISEASE

The panel decides that the UK under uses revascularisation . . .and this is bad for the patient: A panel of cardiologists, surgeons, epidemiologists, and others considered the evidence for revascularisation in multiple clinical scenarios. They then assessed clinical outcome based on whether the strategy that the panel would have chosen was applied retrospectively in a group of over 2500 patients undergoing angiography. They showed that revascularisation was underused, and that if the panel's decision was not followed, then the patients had more angina but also higher mortality.

 1 Hemingway H, Crook AM, Feder G, Banerjee S, Dawson JR, Magee P, Philpott S, Sanders J, Wood A, Timmis AD. Underuse of coronary revascularization procedures in patients considered appropriate candidates for revascularization. N Engl J Med 2001;344:645–54.

Your genes decide if moderate alcohol intake is really good for you: A polymorphism in the gene for alcohol dehydrogenase type 3 (ADH3) alters the rate of alcohol metabolism. Moderate drinkers who are homozygous for the slow oxidizing ADH3 allele have higher high density lipoprotein (HDL) concentrations and a substantially decreased risk of myocardial infarction.

 2 Hines LM, Stampfer MJ, Ma J, Gaziano JM, Ridker PM, Hankinson SE, Sacks F, Rimm EB, Hunter DJ. Genetic variation in alcohol dehydrogenase and the beneficial effect of moderate alcohol consumption on myocardial infarction. N Engl J Med 2001;344:549–55.

Non-invasive coronary angiography with CT scanning: Multi-slice computed tomography (CT) of coronary arteries was compared to conventional angiography in a range of coronary disorders. There were some problems in this small preliminary study—for example, with calcifications and stents—but 17 of 21 significant stenoses were identified correctly. Anomalous coronary anatomy could be visualised well. This technique …