Tag Archives: sudden death

Case A 45-year-old woman with no significant past medical history presented to our hospital in October 2015 with coryzal symptoms. She complained of a sore throat, malaise and described a brief loss of consciousness. She was assessed and found to be febrile with a temperature of 38.3 degrees Celsius. Physical examination and work-up with blood tests and chest X-ray (CXR) were unremarkable. The working diagnosis was that of a flu-like illness. The patient was given reassurances and advised bed rest, fluids and paracetamol. She was discharged from hospital and it was not until her notes were reviewed by a consultant physician that a suspicion o

Figure 1. Anteroposterior (AP) view, showing the hypoplastic left anterior descending (LAD) arising from right coronary cusp Introduction Coronary anomalies are congenital abnormalities in the coronary anatomy of the heart. They are found in approximately 1% of the population undergoing coronary angiography,1 and are often associated with other structural heart disease. Coronary artery anomalies are a cause of sudden death in the young athlete in the absence of additional heart abnormalities. The aim of this report is to revise this important but often neglected topic, its clinical implications, and to discuss a rare case that was recently en

ARBITER 6: niacin superior to ezetimibe for slowing atherosclerosis Use of extended-release niacin resulted in a significant benefit on atherosclerosis compared with ezetimibe in patients already taking statins in the ARBITER 6-HALTS trial. The trial, presented at the meeting by Dr Allen Taylor (Medstar Research Institute, Washington DC, US), compared two distinct lipid-modifying strategies in patients with known vascular disease already on statins who had LDL-cholesterol levels <100 mg/dL (2.56 mmol/L) and moderately low HDL-cholesterol levels (<50 mg/dL [1.28 mmol/L]). Among the 363 patients enrolled in the study, half were randomised