• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.115-130
• /
• 2003

Reperfusion delay in patients with acute myocardial infarction leads to increased morbidity and mortality. We sought to measure the rates of reperfusion delay and to identify factors associated with reperfusion delay after arrival to hospitals. We included 360 patients who had acute myocardial infarction with ST-elevation or left bundle branch block on electrocardiogram and received reperfusion therapy from the three participating academic medical centers from 1997 to 2000. Through retrospective chart review, we collected data about time to reperfusion therapy, patient and hospital factors potentially associated with reperfusion delay. Factors independently associated with reperfusion delay were determined by logistic regression analysis. Median door­to­needle time was 60.0 minutes, and median door­to­balloon time was 102.5 minutes. According to recommendation of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Guidelines, 226 out of 264(85.6％) of thrombolytic patients and 43 out of 96(44.8％) percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty(PTCA) patients experienced reperfusion delay. The significant factors associated with delay were type of reperfusion therapy, patient factors including hypertension and delayed symptom onset to presentation(>4 hours), and hospital factors including nocturnal presentation(6pm∼8am), weekend, and an individual hospital. A significant proportion of patients experienced reperfusion delay. The identified predictors of reperfusion delay may help design a hospital system to reduce the delay in reperfusion therapy

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.630-640
• /
• 1988

We clinically evaluated 222 cases of ventricular septal defect which we experienced at Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Pusan National University Hospital between July 1981 and March 1988. These patients were occupied 46.2% of all congenital heart disease operated on its same period. Of 222 cases, 132 patients were male and 90 patients were female. Their age distribution ranged from 8 months to 34 years of age and their mean age was 10.3 years. Among these patients, 86 patients had associated cardiac anomalies, which were patent foramen ovale 43 cases[19.5%], Atrial septal defect 18 cases[8.1%], patent ductus arteriosus 8 cases[3.6%], aortic insufficiency 7 cases[3.2%], infundibular pulmonary stenosis 5 cases[2.3%] and etc. There was statistically significant correlationship between VSD size and Qp/Qs, Rp/Rs, Pp/Ps respectively. All cases were operated under cardiopulmonary bypass and 157 patients[70.7%] would be corrected through right atrial approach. 158 patients[71.2%] underwent closure of ventricular septal defect with primary closure and the remained patients[28.8%] with patch closure. In anatomical classification by Kirklin, type I constituted 23.4%, type II 73.4%, type III 0.5%, type I and type II 1.4%, and type II and type III 1.4%. Important postoperative EGG changes were noted in 57 cases[25.7%] and incomplete right bundle branch block was most common[12.6%]. 54 patients[24.3%] developed minor and major postoperative complications and 9 patients died of several complications and overall operative mortality was 4.1%.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.7-11
• /
• 2004

Purpose: We would evaluate the cardiovascular manifestations of the patients with acute organophosphate and carbamate poisoning in the emergency department. Methods: This was retrospectively studied with the review of patient's charts, included total 38 patients were admitted during the past two years in the emergency department of Yeungnam university hospital with the diagnosis of organophosphate or carbamate poisoning. Results: Cardiovascular complications were variously developed in many patients. Electrocardiographic findings were as follows; 4 ($10.5\%$) cardiac arrhythmias included 1 cardiac arrest caused by ventricular fibrillation, 14 ($36.8\%$) sinus tachycardias, 3 ($7.9\%$) sinus bradycardias, and 17 ($44.7\%$) normal sinus rhythms. Conduction disturbances were 23 ($60.5\%$) like as prolonged QTc, 4 ($10.5\%$) ST-T changes, 2 (5.3%) first degree AV block, and 3 ($7.9\%$) right bundle branch block were shown. Other cardiovascular complications were 22 ($57.9\%$) hypertensives, 4 ($10.5\%$) hypotensives, 15 ($39.5\%$) tachycardias, 2 ($5.3\%$) bradycardias, 18 ($47.4\%$) hypoxemics, 12 ($31.6\%$) metabolic acidosis, and 9 ($23.7\%$) pulmonary edemas. Sixteen patients ($42.1\%$) needed ventilatory support because of respiratory paralysis. No patients died in hospital and 36 ($94.7\%$) patients were alive-discharged. Conclusion: Cardiovascular complications are variously in patients with acute organophosphate and carbamate poisoning. Especially, some findings included ventricular arrhythmias, QTc prolongation, hypoxemia, acidosis, and blood pressure changes are known as major precipitating factors to increase the mortality. So, intensive support and aggressive treatment are needed in patients shown various cardiovascular manifestations in the emergency department.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.44-51
• /
• 1994

It is known that the normal His-Purkinje system provides for nearly synchronous activation of right (RV) and left (LV) ventricles. When His-Purkinje conduction is abnormal, the resulting sequence of ventricular contraction must be correspondingly abnormal. These abnormal mechanical consequences were difficult to demonstrate because of the complexity and the rapidity of it's events. To determine the relationship of the phase changes and the abnormalities of ventricular conduction, we performed phase image analysis of $^{99m}Tc$-RBC gated blood pool scintigrams in patients with intraventricular conduction disturbances (24 complete left bundle branch block (C-LBBB), 15 complete right bundle branch block (C-RBBB), 13 Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW), 10 controls). The results were as follows; 1) The ejection fraction (EF), peak ejection rate (PER), and peak filling rate (PFR) of LV in gated blood pool scintigraphy (GBPS) were significantly lower in patients with C-LBBB than in controls ($44.4{\pm}13.9%$ vs $69.9{\pm}4.2%,\;2.48{\pm}0.98$ vs $3.51{\pm}0.62,\;1.76{\pm}0.71$ vs $3.38{\pm}0.92$, respectively, p<0.05). 2) In the phase angle analysis of LV, Standard deviation (SD), width of half maximum of phase angle (FWHM), and range of phase angle were significantly increased in patients with C-LBBB than in controls ($20.6{\pm}18.1$ vs $8.6{\pm}1.8,\;22.5{\pm}9.2$ vs $16.0{\pm}3.9,\;95.7{\pm}31.7$ vs $51.3{\pm}5.4$, respectively, p<0.05). 3) There was no significant difference in EF, PER, PFR between patients with the Wolff-parkinson-White syndrome and controls. 4) Standard deviation and range of phase angle were significantly higher in patients with WPW syndrome than in controls ($10.6{\pm}2.6$ vs $8.6{\pm}1.8$, p<0.05, $69.8{\pm}11.7$ vs $51.3{\pm}5.4$, p<0.001, respectively), however, there was no difference between the two groups in full width of half maximum. 5) Phase image analysis revealed relatively uniform phase across the both ventricles in patients with normal conduction, but markedly delayed phase in the left ventricle of patients with LBBB. 6) In 13 cases of WPW syndrome, the site of preexcitation could be localized in 10 cases (77%) by phase image analysis. Therefore, it can be concluded that phase image analysis can provide an accurate noninvasive method to detect the mechanical consequences of a wide variety of abnormal electrical activation in ventricles.

• Korean Circulation Journal
• /
• v.52 no.12
• /
• pp.865-875
• /
• 2022

Background and Objectives: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an effective treatment for heart failure. However, in pediatric and congenital heart disease (CHD) patients, current adult indications cannot be directly applied because of heterogeneity in anatomy and diagnosis. Therefore, CRT responses and clinical outcomes in these patients were investigated to derive possible candidates for CRT. Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed 16 pediatric and CHD patients who underwent CRT implantation at a single center in early (0.7±0.2 year) and late (4.7±0.3 years) follow-up period after CRT. Results: The median age at CRT implantation was 2.5 (0.3-37.2) years, and median follow-up duration was 6.3 (0.1-13.6) years. Thirteen had non-transvenous CRT. Two had congenital complete atrioventricular (AV) block with previous right ventricular pacing, 5 had dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) with left bundle branch block, and 9 had CHD. The mean ejection fraction of the systemic ventricle increased from 28.1±10.0% to 44.3±21.0% (p=0.003) in early and 51.8±16.3% (p=0.012) in late outcome. The mean functional class improved from 3.1±0.9 to 1.8±1.1 after CRT (p=0.003). Twelve patients (75%) showed improvement in ventricular function or functional class after CRT. Proportion of responders differed between patients without CHD (2/2 patients with complete AV block and 5/5 with DCM, 100%) and those with CHD (5/9, 56%), although statistical significance was not reached (p=0.088). Conclusions: CRT improved ventricular function and functional status according to the underlying condition in pediatric and CHD patients. However, further large and longer-term studies are needed to establish the guideline for the patient selection of CRT in these patients.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.620-629
• /
• 1989

A clinical analysis of 138 cases of ventricular septal defect operated on from 1983 to June 1988 at the department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, School of Medicine, Chung-nam National University was done. The following results were obtained. 1. The VSD were 27.6 % and 41.0 % respectively of 500 open heart surgery cases and 334 congenital heart disease. 2. The range of age when the VSD was repaired was 3 months to 45 years, the mean age was 10.4 years and the 53.6 % of patients were under 7 years. The sex ratio was 6:4 in males favor. 3. The two common symptoms were frequent upper respiratory infection and dyspnea whose frequency was 62.5 % and 58.7% respectively. 4. 52% of the patients was below 25 percentile of the standard body weight. 5. The most common chest PA findings were cardiomegaly and increased pulmonary vascularity. 6. On anatomical classification, perimembranous type was most common [65.5%], subpulmonary arterial type was 27.6 %, perimembranous plus subpulmonary arterial type was 3.4 % multiple VSD was 0.8 % and LV-RA defect was 2.6 %. 7. Associated cardiac anomalies were founded in 39 cases [35.5 %] and PDA and aortic valve prolapse were most common associated anomalies and extracardiac anomalies were founded in 6.7 % of patients. 8. Mean extracorporeal circulation time was 68 min. and mean aortic cross-clamping time was 42 min. 9. The postoperative complications developed in 26 % of patients and the most common one was minor wound infection. 10. Right bundle branch block developed in 54.8% of the patients who had right ventriculotomy, 40.0% of the patients who had right atriotomy and 10.5% of the patients who had pulmonary arteriotomy. 11. The overall operative mortality was 5.1 % and the operative mortality of the patients who body weigh under 10 Kg was 23.8%.

• Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.307-319
• /
• 2022

BACKGROUND: Current guidelines indicate electrical dyssynchrony as the major criteria for selecting patients for cardiac resynchronization therapy, and 25-35% of patients exhibit unfavorable responses to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). We aimed to evaluate different cardiac mechanical dyssynchrony parameters in heart failure patients using current echo-Doppler modalities and we analyzed their association with electrical dyssynchrony. METHODS: The study included 120 heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) who underwent assessments for left ventricular mechanical dyssynchrony (LVMD) and interventricular mechanical dyssynchrony (IVMD). RESULTS: Patients were classified according to QRS duration: group I with QRS < 120 ms, group II with QRS 120-149 ms, and group III with QRS ≥ 150 ms. Group III had significantly higher IVMD, LVMD indices, TS-SD speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) 12 segments (standard deviation of time to peak longitudinal strain speckle tracking echocardiography in 12 LV-segments), and LVMD score compared with group I and group II. Group II and group III were classified according to QRS morphology into left bundle branch block (LBBB) and non-LBBB subgroups. LVMD score, TS-SD 12 TDI, and TS-SD 12 STE had good correlations with QRS duration. CONCLUSIONS: HFrEF patients with wide QRS duration (> 150 ms) had more evident LVMD compared with patients with narrow or intermediate QRS. Those patients with intermediate QRS duration (120-150 ms) had substantial LVMD assessed by both TDI and 2D STE, regardless of QRS morphology. Subsequently, we suggest that LVMD indices might be employed as additive criteria to predict CRT response in that patient subgroup. Electrical and mechanical dyssynchrony were strongly correlated in HFrEF patients.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.221-227
• /
• 1986

Ventricular septal defect is most common congenital cardiac anomaly in Korea and worldwide. And its clinical spectrum is well known. The anatomic classification had been undertaken by several authors, but recently Dr. Soto and Anderson's classification is widely used instead of Dr. Kirklin's it. From April. 1984 to December 1986, 99 cases of ventricular septal defects had been taken surgical repair under direct vision using conventional cardiopulmonary bypass technique at Yeungnam university hospital. The clinical spectrum was similar to other hospital, and the postoperative mortality was 2%, The most common associated anomaly was patent foramen ovale, and the most common postoperative complication was incomplete or complete right bundle branch block. The rank of defects was as followings: 45 perimembranous inlet type, 21 doubly commited subarterial type, 17, perimembranous trabecular type, and 16 perimembranous outlet type. There was no muscular and mixed type.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.1180-1190
• /
• 1990

96 patients underwent cardiac valve replacement for valvular heart diseases consecutively between February 1986 to February 1990 in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery of Yeungnam University Hospital. The follow up period was between 6 months and 4.5 years postoperatively[mean 23.4$\pm$13.1 months]. 75 cases got mitral valve replacement, 6 cases, aortic valve replacement, 15 cases, double valve replacement. 30[31.2%] patients were male and 66[68.8%] were female and the age ranged from 14 to 66 years old. Early hospital death within 30 days postoperation were 5 patients[5.2%], consisting of by low cardiac output in 2, infective endocarditis in 1, multiple organ failure with sepsis in 1 patient. There was no late postoperative death. Most common early postoperative complication was wound disruption [8.7%] and then low cardiac output, pneumothorax, pleural effusion in order. Most common late postoperative complications were minor bleeding episodes[8.7%] related to anticoagulant therapy which were consisted of frequent epistaxis in 3, gum bleeding in 2, hemorrhagic gastritis in 1, hypermenorrhea in 1, hematoma in right arm in 1 patient. Valve-related complications included valve thrombosis [1.6%/ patient-year], valve failure due to pannus formation[1.1% /patient-year], prosthetic valve endocarditis[1, 1%o/patient-year] and minor anticoagulant hemorrhage[4.4% /patient-year]. 5 cases of reoperations were performed in 4 patients due to valve failure and all of them were in the mitral positions[2.7% /patient-year]. Cardiothoracic ratios in the chest X-ray decreased at the 6th month and 1st year postoperation in all patients. But in New York Heart Association[NYHA] functional class IV, no change in cardiothoracic ratio was found between 6 months and 1 year postoperation. In the echocardiogram, the size of the cardiac chambers decreased, but ejection fraction increased postoperatively in each functional class. In the electrocardiogram, decreases were found in the incidence of atrial fibrillation, left atrial enlargement, left ventricular hypertrophy with right bundle branch block increasing postoperatively in each functional class. The actuarial survival rate was 98.4% for all patients, 98.7% for mitral valve replacement, 83.8% for aortic valve replacement, and 80% for double valve replacement at the end of a 4.5 year follow up period. Meanwhile the actuarial freedom rate was 91.5% for prosthetic valve endocarditis, 91.6% for thromboembolism, 89.0% for prosthetic valve failure and 83.7% for minor anticoagulant hemorrhage. Preoperative NYHA class III and IV were 75% of all patients, but 95% of all patients were up graded to NYHA class I and II postoperatively.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
• /
• v.30 no.12
• /
• pp.1184-1189
• /
• 1997

Tetralogy of Falloff is the most common cyanotic congenital cardiac malformation. Between April 1984 and December 1993, we experinced with 39 cases of total correction for the tetralogy of Falloff at the department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Masan Samsung General Hospital. The results were as follows; There were 14 males and 25 females, and their ages ranged from 2 to 36 years, with an average age of 13.33 $\pm$7.40 years. There was type I VSD in 10 cases(25.6%), type II VSD in 19 cases(48.8%) and type 1+ II VSD in 10 cases(25.6%) Types of right ventricular outflow tract obstruction were valvar + infundibular stenosis in 19 cases(48.7%), valvar + infundibular + annular stenosis in 10 cases(25.6%), infundibular stenosis in 9 cases(23.1%)and pure valvar stenosis in 1 case(2.6%). Right ventricular outflow tract patch widening was necessary in 33 cases(84.6%) and a Iransannular patch including 2 cases of Monocusp-bearing outflow patch was used in 10 cases. n 36 hospital survivors, 23 patients were evaluated by 2 dimensional and doppler echocardiography. The most common complication was arrthymia, especially complete right bundle branch block, in 30 cases (76.9%). The operative mortality was 7.7%, and the cause of death was low cardiac output syndrome.