Cardiac Solutions Medical Centre

18/01/2025

It takes a village

Young healthy male presented with paroxysmal AF and was in sinus rhythm when seen at A+E, oxygen was unusually low at 87% for an otherwise healthy person, ECG showed classical S1Q3T3 features and a CTPA confirmed the presence of a large “saddle” Pulmonary Embolism (PE). It was increasingly difficult to maintain oxygen levels despite increasing oxygen to the patient. We activated our “The Heart Practice” team and performed an emergency pulmonectomy. Large clots were retrieved and patient’s parameters quickly improved. Still some ways to go but this will speed up patient’s recovery.

13/01/2025

don’t feel guilty about your cup of coffee in the morning … may just live a bit longer and happier

AbstractBackground and Aims. To identify the patterns of coffee drinking timing in the US population and evaluate their associations with all-cause and cau

31/12/2024

We have moved ! we are now at #07-41

30/10/2024

Using smart watch data … any exercise is better than no exercise … lower risk of stroke heart attack etc even for “weekend warriors”

Research suggests that exercise has a beneficial effect on brain health during aging but more information is needed. Here, the authors show, using UK Biobank data, that the ‘weekend warrior’ physical activity pattern, with concentrated exercise over 1–2 days, is similarly linked to lower ris.....

09/08/2024

07/04/2024

https://www.acc.org/Latest-in-Cardiology/Articles/2024/04/02/17/02/sat-415pm-crescent-acc-2024

Sleep Apnea is increasingly recognised to be a major contributor to cardiovascular disease - CPAP is poorly tolerated and Prof Lee and his team has shown that a MAD (Mandibular Advancement Device) is just as good

05/04/2024

wow GLP1 agonists seems to have another off target benefit - this time in Parkinson’s Disease

Lixisenatide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist used for the treatment of diabetes, has shown neuroprotective properties in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease. In this phase 2, double-bl...

21/03/2024

This abstract has been going around mass media and social media.

This study is based on the NHANES database and patient recall and is not a prospective study. A few points to consider

1. total mortality is no different only "cardiovascular mortality"
2. although "CVD" or cardiovascular disease were equally represented, we don't know if they were mild vs severe, study cannot exclude selection bias e.g. patients with prior heart attacks were more likely to be told to start intermittent fasting vs patients with stable heart disease (both would be labelled as having CVD)
3. data was from 2 interviews over 15 year period, we don't know if patients kept to intermittent fasting or were just "told to start" intermittent fasting as study did not track compliance - so if all the post heart attack patients (the most serious form of "CVD") were told to start intermittent fasting then we would naturally see more heart attacks and deaths in this group over time.
4. number of patients on the < 8 hour fasting was only 414 (out of 20078 or 2%), small numbers with high event rates can skew the maths and we don't know if these 414 were average CVD patient or not.

Essentially possible selection bias and tyranny of small numbers

https://newsroom.heart.org/news/8-hour-time-restricted-eating-linked-to-a-91-higher-risk-of-cardiovascular-death

08/03/2024

Emerging evidence for role of microplastics in heart / vascular disease ... watch this space

Original Article from The New England Journal of Medicine — Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Atheromas and Cardiovascular Events

24/11/2023

A nice summary of the history of the contrast we use in medical imaging

Hat tip to friend of the channel Dr. M. Kanuparthy for suggesting this topic and also spending time explaining it to me over a call. Links:- The Asianometry ...

23/10/2023

“One cannot outrun a bad diet”

Like many people, strategic communications lecturer Ian YH Tan believed that exercising regularly was enough to burn off excess weight gain. As Singapore’s obesity rate creeps up, it helps to rethink the narratives about health and nutrition.

10/09/2023

Thanks to APSAVD for the kind invitation to speak at their 2023 symposium … Plenary was from Shizuya Yamash*ta as pioneer in HDL research. Prof Tan Ru San was also speaking on Inclisaran a new siRNA treatment for cholesterol. The Chairman of the symposium Dr Sazzli shared the platform with Dr Ong Hean Yee (SG) and Dr David Colquhuon (AU) who was keen to share his Australian CV risk guidelines for the obligatory group photo.