Table of contents
February 2007 Volume 4 No 2
February's Special Supplement
This month's issue of Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine comes with a special supplement focusing on gene and stem cell therapy for heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases. Subscribers to the journal can view it now online.
Editorial
Viewpoint
The next frontier in cardiovascular developmental biology—an integrated approach to adult disease?
60Collaboration between clinicians and basic scientists is vital for effective bench-to-bedside research translations, but the interdependent nature of the two professions is currently underemphasized. Cardiovascular developmental biology in particular has important implications for our understanding of adult disease processes. Here Roger Markwald and Jonathan Butcher discuss key discoveries in developmental biology that have the potential to impact the diagnosis and treatment of adult cardiac disease, and appeal to clinicians and basic scientists alike to improve dialogue and learn from each other.
Research Highlights
Combined antithrombotic regimens confer a higher risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding
62Screening program reduces sudden cardiac death in young athletes
62Peripheral arterial disease raises mortality risk after percutaneous coronary intervention
63Prevention of vasovagal syncope with physical counterpressure maneuvers
63CT angiography for detection of coronary artery disease before cardiac valve surgery
64Incident statin use reduces the risk of death in patients with heart failure
65Drug therapy combined with an LVAD can reverse heart failure
65Clopidogrel benefits survivors of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction
66Aspirin discontinuation raises the risk of adverse events in patients with CAD
66Cardiac resynchronization therapy lowers mortality in advanced heart failure
67Practice Points
Should all patients with heart failure and left ventricular dysfunction receive combined CRT–ICD therapy?
68Does digoxin therapy affect outcome in patients with diastolic heart failure?
70Is quality of anticoagulation a 'wild card' in the treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation?
72Should all patients with suspected coronary artery disease undergo coronary angiography with 16-row MDCT?
74Reviews
Update on advances in atherothrombosis
78Over the past year there have been major advances in the rapidly evolving field of atherothrombosis study, in both basic and experimental research, and in clinical studies. In this Review, Javier Sanz, Pedro Moreno and Valentin Fuster provide an update of such advances for physicians and scientists with an interest in the study of atherothrombotic disease.
doi:10.1038/ncpcardio0774 | Full Text | PDF (521K)
Cardiac resynchronization therapy or atrio-biventricular pacing—what should it be called?
90Conceptually and in practice cardiac dyssynchrony is complex. In this Review, Cleland et al. discuss the results of atrio-biventricular pacing trials, and examine how this pacing can improve cardiac synchrony in many patients and whether cardiac resynchronization is indeed the mechanism by which atrio-biventricular pacing exerts its effects.
doi:10.1038/ncpcardio0794 | Full Text | PDF (338K)
Mechanisms of Disease: HDL metabolism as a target for novel therapies
102Despite aggressive lipid-lowering therapy, coronary heart disease event rates remain unacceptably high, indicating the need for additional therapeutic approaches. Notably, low HDL-cholesterol levels remain an independent risk factor for adverse coronary events even in patients with naturally low or therapeutically lowered LDL-cholesterol levels. Here, Daniel Rader examines the current status of the development of novel therapies aimed at raising HDL-cholesterol levels or improving the function of HDL.
doi:10.1038/ncpcardio0768 | Full Text | PDF (217K)
Case Study
KATP channel mutation confers risk for vein of Marshall adrenergic atrial fibrillation
110doi:10.1038/ncpcardio0792 | Full Text | PDF (765K)
