Adrian W. Messerli

Tako-Tsubo–Like Transient Left Ventricular Dysfunction

A 68-year-old woman presented with mild chest pressure typical of myocardial ischemia. The initial ECG revealed normal sinus rhythm with ST-segment elevations in leads V2 through V5 (Figure 1). Troponin T level was 3.4 ng/mL (normal <0.01 ng/mL), and creatinine kinase level was 250 U/L (normal <220 U/L). The patient underwent emergency coronary angiography, which demonstrated minimal atherosclerotic disease. However, contrast left ventriculography demonstrated marked akinesis of the mid …

Relation of albumin/creatinine ratio to C-reactive protein and to the metabolic syndrome.

We hypothesized that the association of high sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) with urinary albumin excretion (UAE) is predominately mediated through its correlation with the metabolic syndrome. Serum CRP and urine albumin:creatinine ratios (ACR) from 720 preventive cardiology patients were analyzed to estimate age- and gender-adjusted relative risk of high CRP and metabolic syndrome for high ACR. These data demonstrate that CRP independently predicts the presence of UAE, a marker of endothelial dysfunction.