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The authors sent a survey questionnaire to almost 800 hospices. Responses were obtained from 414. The survey asked an administrator whether or not their facility had admitted patients with active ICDs, whether any of these patients had been shocked in the past year, and whether any patient had received multiple shocks.
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Natriuretic peptide levels (BNP, NT-proBNP) are of prognostic value in general populations, but whether they add information to other known risk factors for cardiovascular outcomes is less clear.
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Calcific aortic stenosis (AS) in older subjects is an important problem, but should the aortic valve be replaced? It is widely accepted that severe symptomatic AS patients should be seriously, even urgently, considered for AV replacement, particularly if there is evidence of early heart failure.
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Patients presenting with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) often have co-existing lesions in the non-infarct arteries (i.e., they have multi-vessel disease).
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In this paper, Patel et al, from five major ablation centers, report on the results of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation in women.
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In-stent restenosis (ISR) is the Achilles' heel of bare-metal stents (BMS).
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The FDA has approved a potassium channel blocker to improve walking in adults with multiple sclerosis.
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Nonspecific chest pain is a persistent illness and patients with it are subject to overly extensive work-ups.
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For women with suspected urinary tract infection, there is no advantage to routinely sending midstream urine samples for testing; antibiotics based on dipstick tests with a delayed prescription as backup, or empirical delayed prescription, can help to reduce antibiotic use.