Objective : The objective of this study was to analyses the major risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD) for patients with ischemic heart disease in Kerala. Design : A cross-sectional study among patients with established CAD admitted in the Department of Cardiology during the month of June-Dec 2012. Setting : Study was carried out in a tertiary cardiac center in Kerala. Participants: A total of 496 patients who were admitted in the Cardiology department between June 2012 and December 2012 with acute coronary syndrome or coronary angiographic or Electrocardiography evidence of ischemic heart disease. Risk factors studied were the conventional risk factors for coronary artery disease - hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, body mass index (BMI), smoking, and family history of coronary artery disease. Data are collected from the patients, old medical records, Clinical Examination and Laboratory results of the patients were analyzed for the study. Results: From the study, it was seen that in Keralites-irrespective of gender, diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance (79%) and dyslipidemia (71%) are the major risk factor for Coronary artery disease. Hypertension (39%) and cigarette smoking (24%) were not seen to be a major risk factors for coronary artery disease as only a minority of the study population had hypertension or gives a history of cigarette smoking. 57% of the study population had a family history of coronary artery disease. Among the studied population, 55% of females are with increased BMI, whereas only 16% of males with CAD were with BMI above 30. Conclusion: Among South Indian population irrespective of gender, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia are the major Risk factor for Coronary artery disease. So early detection of diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia and proper treatment of both, before developing the end organ damage, play a vital role for the prevention of coronary artery disease.

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The mural endocarditis is a rare cause of intracardiac masses, which is difficult to diagnose and usually requires surgery to prevent embolization and intracardiac complications. We herein present an unusual case of right ventricular mural endocarditis in a patient with rheumatic heart disease, in which presence of multiple mural vegetations was visualized on two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography and better delineated with three-dimensional echocardiography. There was complete resolution of vegetations with antibiotic therapy.

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Aims and Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the occurrence of sleep disordered breathing/obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction (MI) in a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: All consecutive patients with a recent MI, presenting to the hospital for a period of over 1 year, were administered with a well-designed questionnaire and subjected to polysomnography (PSG) after obtaining a written informed consent. Results: A total of 55 patients were screened with the questionnaire and 44 patients were subjected to PSG. Of the 55 patients 42 (76.4%) were snorers and 14 (25.5%) were insomniacs. OSA was diagnosed in 12 (28.6%) of the 44 patients. There was no significant difference in the presence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus or hypercholesterolemia among the patients diagnosed with OSA and those without OSA. Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of previously undiagnosed OSA in patients admitted to the hospital with acute MI as compared to the general population. OSA is under-recognized in India. Early recognition of undiagnosed OSA in this population of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), and treatment of the same would help in reducing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This study reinforces the need for the routine screening of MI/CAD patients for the presence of OSA.

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Coronary angiography underestimates or overestimates lesion severity, but still remains the cornerstone in the decision making for revascularization for an overwhelming majority of interventional cardiologists. Guidelines recommend and endorse non invasive functional evaluation ought to precede revascularization. In real world practice, this is adopted in less than 50% of patients who go on to have some form of revascularization. Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is the ratio of maximal blood flow in a stenotic coronary relative to maximal flow in the same vessel, were it normal. Being independent of changes in heart rate, BP or prior infarction; and take into account the contribution of collateral blood flow. It is a majorly specific index with a reasonably high sensitivity (88%), specificity (100%), positive predictive value (100%), and overall accuracy (93%). Whilst FFR provides objective determination of ischemia and helps select appropriate candidates for revascularization (for both CABG and PCI) in to cath lab itself before intervention, whereas intravascular ultrasound/optical coherence tomography guidance in PCI can secure the procedure by optimizing stent expansion. Functional angioplasty simply is incorporating both intravascular ultrasound and FFR into our daily Intervention practices.

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