Background: Over the past few years, smartwatches have become increasingly popular in the monitoring of arrhythmias. Although the detection of atrial fibrillation with smartwatches has been the subject of various articles, there is no comprehensive research on the detection of arrhythmias other than atrial fibrillation. In this study, we included individual cases from the literature to identify the characteristics of patients with smartwatch-detected arrhythmias other than atrial fibrillation.

Methods: PubMed, Embase, and SCOPUS were searched for case reports, case series, or cohort studies that reported individual participant-level data, until January 6, 2022. The following search string was used for each databases: (“Smart Watch” OR “Apple Watch” OR “Samsung Gear”) AND (“Supraventricular Tachycardia” OR “Cardiac Arrhythmia” OR “Ventricular Tachycardia” OR “Atrioventricular Nodal Reentry Tachycardia” OR “Atrioventricular Reentrant Tachycardia” OR “Heart Block” OR “Atrial Flutter” OR “Ectopic Atrial Tachycardia” OR “Bradyarrhythmia”).

Results: A total of 52 studies from PubMed, 20 studies from Embase, and 200 studies from SCOPUS were identified. After screening, 18 articles were included. A total of 22 patients were obtained from 14 case reports or case series. Four cohort studies evaluating various arrhythmias were included. Arrhythmias, including ventricular tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia, atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia, second- or third-degree atrioventricular block, and sinus bradycardia, were detected with smartwatches.

Conclusions: Cardiac arrhythmias other than atrial fibrillation are also commonly detected with smartwatches. Smartwatches have an important potential besides traditional methods in the detection of arrhythmias and clinical practice.

Background: Pistacia vera L. (green pistachio) has been shown to increase antioxidant capacity and protect against cardiovascular diseases and cancer. This study investigated the protective effect of the Pistacia vera L. hull in rats with experimental cardiac damage induced by doxorubicin.

Methods: Sixty adult Wistar albino rats were randomly divided into 5 groups (n = 12). Sham, doxorubicin, doxorubicin + Pistacia vera L. extract 50 mg/kg, doxorubicin + Pistacia vera L. extract 100 mg/kg, and Pistacia vera L. extract 100 mg/kg. Biochemistry parameters, total antioxidant status, total oxidant status, oxidative stress index, 8-hydroxydeoxy guanosine, and caspase 3/7 values were measured in serum samples. Excised heart tissues were examined histopathologically.

Results: The groups were statistically significantly different in 8hydroxydeoxy guanosine, caspase 3/7, total antioxidant status, total oxidant status, oxidative stress index, and basal biochemical parameter values (P <.05, P <.001). In group II, 8-hydroxydeoxy guanosine, caspase 3/7, and total oxidant status values increased while the total antioxidant status value decreased (P <.001). In the treatment groups (group III and group IV), 8-hydroxydeoxy guano sine and caspase 3/7 values decreased compared to group II (P < .001). While total oxidant status and oxidative stress index values decreased in the treatment groups, total antioxidant status values increased (P <.001). The histopathological examination of the heart revealed fewer areas of focal necrosis in the treatment groups compared to group II.

Conclusion: In this study, the cardioprotective effect of Pistacia vera L. hull extract was investigated in vivo. It was shown that Pistacia vera L. hull extract reduced apoptosis and deoxyribonucleic acid damage in the face of cardiac damage and had antioxidant activity. Future studies will increase our knowledge on this subject.

Background: Cardiac myxomas are commonly located in the left atrium but rarely affect the right side of the heart. We retrospectively analyzed 28 patients receiving surgical treatment for right heart myxomas at our center and aimed to summarize the clinical features and surgical outcomes of right heart myxomas.

Methods: Between May 2001 and June 2022, 244 patients with sporadic cardiac myxomas underwent complete surgical resection. Twenty-eight patients (28/244, 11.48%) were right heart myxomas. Among the 28 right heart myxoma cases, 25 underwent median sternotomy and 3 underwent robotic or total thoracoscopic procedures. The clinical features, operative information, and follow-up data of right heart myxoma were comprehensively reviewed, and clinical characteristics between right heart myxoma and left heart myxoma were also compared.

Results: A significant difference was noted in sex between right heart myxoma and left
heart myxoma (P <.05). Right heart myxoma had a higher asymptomatic rate (17.86% vs. 3.70%, P =.007) and a lower embolization rate (3.57% vs. 30.09%, P =.003) than left heart myxoma. The most common attachment site of right heart myxoma is the atrial septum.
The mean operative duration and cardiopulmonary bypass time of right heart myxoma
resection were 207.71 ± 53.40 minutes and 63.86 ± 29.73 minutes, respectively, with an in-hospital mortality rate of 3.57%. During the follow-up, 2 patients died of noncardiac causes. The overall 1-, 2-, and 5-year actuarial survival rates after right heart myxoma resection were 95.8%, 90.8%, and 84.7%, respectively.

Conclusions: As a rare cardiac tumor, the clinical characteristics of right heart myxoma are different from typical left heart myxoma in some aspects, such as sex, asymptomatic rate, and embolization rate. Prompt surgical resection of right heart myxoma gives excellent early and midterm results.

Background: Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension is a condition that occurs after mechanical obstruction of the pulmonary arteries by thrombus. Since the frequency and demographics of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension differ between countries, it is thought that genetic factors may play a role in its development. The aim of this study is to reveal the status of VKORC1, CYP2C9*3, CYP2C9*7, and fibrinogen-Aα THR312ALA gene polymorphisms in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension patients in Turkey.

Methods: In this prospective cross-sectional study, a total of 46 chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension patients and 106 healthy volunteers were included. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method was used to determine candidate gene polymorphisms for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. The general population parameters of each locus were calculated, and the relationship between dominant, codominant, and recessive genotype models and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension was analyzed.

Results: For the fibrinogen-Aα gene, those with the THR/THR genotype were found to have a 13.51 (95% CI: 2.688-33.333) times less susceptibility rate to the disease than those with the ALA/THR genotype, the susceptibility of THR/ALA genotype to the disease was 5.026 (95% CI: 1.774-14.242) times more than those with ALA/ALA genotype. There was no difference between patient groups for VKORC1, CYP2C9*3 genes (P >.05). Since the CYP2C9*7 patient group was monomorphic for the ILE allele, the patient/control odds ratio and 95% CI could not be calculated.

Conclusion: This study shows that there is an association between the fibrinogen-Aα gene ALA polymorphism at the amino acid position of 312 and the development of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, but not between the CYP2C9 and VKORC1 gene polymorphisms.

Background: As observed in recent genetic studies, PITX2 is one of the most popular genes with atrial fibrillation; single nucleotide polymorphism (rs2200733) at chromosome 4q25 (near PITX2) is found to be strongly associated with atrial fibrillation, but it has a difference among Chinese Han population. The basic aim of conducting this study is to find the correlation between PITX2 gene polymorphism and the risk of atrial fibrillation and to identify the possibility for early diagnosis of silent atrial fibrillation and high-risk atrial fibrillation.

Methods: The study included 98 cases of atrial fibrillation patients and 88 non-atrial fibrillation patients in Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University were enrolled in a case-control study. The single nucleotide polymorphism of rs2200733 at 4q25 near PITX2 was genotyped by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.

Results: A total of 98 patients with atrial fibrillation were genotyped, and the following frequencies were included in genotype percentages (44.9%, 50%, and 5.1%) while distribution of significant single nucleotide polymorphism rs2200733 consisted (29.55%, 53.41%, and 17.05%) which showed (χ2 = 9.159, P =.01). There was no significant difference in TC genotype frequency (P =.642), frequency of T allele (χ2 = 7.447, P =.006), and T allele was 1.806 times that of the control group (odds ratio = 1.806, 95% CI = 1.179-2.766, P =.006). According to logistic regression analysis, following results were concluded for TC genotype (odds ratio = 3.128, 95% CI = 1.053-9.287, P =.04), or TT genotype (odds ratio = 5.077, 95% CI = 1.653-15.595, P =.005) increased the risk of atrial fibrillation.

Conclusions: The genotype and allele frequency distribution of rs2200733 (T/C) near PITX2 is different in the atrial fibrillation group and the control group. The T allele is a risk factor for atrial fibrillation. Compared with the CC genotype, the TT genotype increased the risk of atrial fibrillation.

Background: Acute myocardial infarction seriously threatens human health and life quality, which needs novel biomarkers to improve its early detection and development prediction. This study aimed to assess the potential of long non-coding RNA GAS6-AS1 in discriminating acute myocardial infarction patients and predicting patients’ outcomes.

Methods: The circulating expression of GAS6-AS1 in 83 acute myocardial infarction patients and 62 healthy individuals was evaluated using polymerase chain reaction. The value of GAS6-AS1 in the distinguishing acute myocardial infarction patients was evaluated with receiver operating characteristic analysis, and its prognosis predictive potential was assessed by Kaplan–Meier and Cox analysis. Additionally, the correlation of GAS6-AS1 with patients’ critical features was evaluated by Spearman’s correlation analysis.

Results: Significant downregulation of GAS6-AS1 was observed in the plasma of acute myocardial infarction patients relative to healthy individuals. Reduced GAS6-AS1 could discriminate acute myocardial infarction patients from healthy controls and indicate patients’ unoptimistic prognosis. Moreover, GAS6-AS1 was found to be negatively cor-related with the levels of creatine kinase, creatine kinasemyocardial bland, lactic dehy-drogenase, hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase, troponin T, and positively correlated with the ejection fraction of acute myocardial infarction patients.

Conclusion: Changes in circulating GAS6-AS1 in acute myocardial infarction served as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker of acute myocardial infarction.

Although transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), which is a less invasive standard treatment for aortic stenosis than surgery, has been recommended even in low-risk patients, its effectiveness in bicuspid aortic valve is still unclear. Cardiac surgery has been proven to cause serious complications in hematological diseases with factor deficiency or bleeding diathesis. In this case, which is the first in the literature to our knowledge, we tried to present the successful TAVI procedure in a young patient with bicuspid aortic stenosis and factor 7, 11 deficiency complicated by atrial fibrillation.