Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery

Acute coronary syndromes (ACS) account for nearly half of the deaths due to cardiovascular disease. Although case fatality rates are declining, it has continued to be the leading cause of mortality in the Philippines.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is a machine that provides extracorporeal circulation and gas exchange by using extrathoracic cannulation. Initially this machine has been used for patients with respiratory and heart failure.

In the normal, non-diseased state, the heart rate is controlled by the sinoatrial node, which is the origin of cardiac pacemaker activity. Pacemaker activity involves interplay between several ionic currents that influence spontaneous diastolic depolarisation of the sinoatrial node, which is the primary site of the effect of Ivabradine.

Cough syncope may result from various etiologies such as profound arterial hypotension, cerebral hypoperfusion secondary to the corresponding increase in intracranial pressure, pulmonary vasoconstriction and hypoxemia or even reflex cardiac arrhythmia.

Chest pain is a common presentation of patients at the Emergency Department.  The evaluation and clinical management of these patients are highly variable and is one of the biggest challenges of Emergency Physicians due to its diverse causes.

To determine the correlation of myocardial performance index with cardiac biomarker troponin among acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients. Secondly, to compare rates of mortality, length of hospital stay and need of revascularization among abnormal and normal troponin ACS patients with abnormal and normal myocardial performance index MPI.

Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) is an index of physiological significance of a coronary stenosis and is defined as the ratio of maximal blood flow in a stenotic artery to normal maximal flow. The severity of diastolic dysfunction may affect coronary blood flow, which may interfere with the coronary pressure as measured by the FFR.

Heart failure is a major public health problem and it is estimated that half of patients with this condition have preserved left ventricular (LV) systolic function and abnormal diastolic function. Observational studies have linked Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) with diastolic impairment of the LV.

To determine the factors associated with the occurrence of cancer chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy.

Management of ischemic heart disease (IHD) includes medical treatment, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). These procedures are invasive and are associated with serious complications. Extracorporeal cardiac shock wave therapy can provide an alternative and non-invasive treatment for IHD.

The distinction between ST-elevation and non-ST elevation infarction is widely accepted and employed as a guide to management.

Coronary artery disease remains to be a major public health concern worldwide, and because of this, coronary artery bypass graft surgery evolved to become one of the most important treatment modalities to address this concern. Local data is wanting with regards to the predictors of outcomes of this procedure, with most of the bases for the currently established guidelines coming from international studies.

Studies on coronary artery disease in women are few. This paper aims to determine clinical predictors of outcomes among Filipino women who underwent elective revascularization at St. Luke’s Medical Center.

Concomitant occurrence of abdominal aneurysm and colorectal cancer is a rare medical entity and requires a tailored treatment strategy for each patient.

Pseudoaneurysms are false aneurysm caused by a hematoma that forms outside the arterial wall and continues to communicate with the artery. It is usually cased by vascular injury from trauma or pancreatitis.

The spontaneous rupture of a uterine artery is a complication in pregnancy with a very low incidence rate and a very small number of reported cases. It occurs mostly during the third trimester.

To evaluate the accuracy of pulse oximetry vs ankle-brachial index (ABI) in detecting lower extremity arterial disease (LEAD) using arterial duplex scan as the reference test.

Aortic dissection typically presents as severe chest or back pain. However, as a great mimicker, it can also manifest with various clinical presentations.

Abernethy malformation is rare anomaly of the splanchnic venous system wherein the portomesen­teric blood drains into a systemic vein. It is also an extremely rare cause of chronic lower gastrointestinal bleeding.

For severe aortic stenosis, surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) remains the procedure of choice in relieving outflow obstruction. However, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has emerged as an acceptable treatment modality. Despite numerous research, its role in patients who are potential surgical candidates remains controversial.