Interventional cardiology in Europe 1999

Aims The purpose of this registry is to collect data on trends in interventional cardiology within Europe. Special interest focuses on relative increases and ratios in newer revascularization approaches and its distribution in different regions in Europe. Methods and Results Questionnaires distributed to delegates of the national societies of cardiology represented in the European Society of Cardiology to be completed by local institutions and operators yielded that 1 452 751 angiograms and 452 019 PTCAs were performed in 1999. This is an increase of 28% and 16%, respectively, compared with 1998. Most of these increases are due to high relative increases in eastern European countries. The number of PTCAs per 106 inhabitants rose to 714 in 1999. Coronary stenting increased by 31% to about 313 000 stents implanted in 1999. Complication rates remained stable, the need for emergency coronary artery bypass grafting showing a further slight decrease to currently 0.3%. Conclusion Interventional cardiology in Europe is still growing, mainly due to rapid growth in countries with lower socio-economical levels. In some central European countries a saturation seemed to be reached with only minor increases in procedures performed. Coronary stenting remains the only noteworthy and growing complement or alternative to balloon angioplast

Percutaneous coronary interventions in Europe 1992-2001

Aims The purpose of this registry is to collect data on trends in interventional cardiology within Europe. Special interest focuses on relative increases and ratios in newer re-vascularisation approaches and its distribution in different regions in Europe. We report the data of the year 2001 and give an overview of the development of coronary interventions since 1992, when the first data collection was performed. Methods and Results Questionnaires were distributed to delegates of the individual national societies of cardiology represented in the European Society of Cardiology. These were completed by the local institutions and operators and showed that 1,806,238 angiograms and 617,176 percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasties (PTCAs) were performed in 2001. This is an increase of 10% and 17%, respectively, compared with the year 2000. The population-adjusted PTCA rate rose from nearly 800 procedures per 106 inhabitants in the year 2000 to approximately 990 procedures per 106 inhabitants in 2001. Coronary stenting increased by 25% to about 488,900 stents implanted in 2001. Complication rates remained unchanged, and the need for emergency coronary artery bypass grafting is still at 0.2% per percutaneous intervention. Conclusion Interventional cardiology in Europe is still expanding, mainly due to rapid growth in countries with lower socio-economical levels. Most central European countries reported only minor increases in procedures performed. Coronary stenting remains the only noteworthy adjunctive strategy to balloon angioplast

Empirical Legal Studies Before 1940: A Bibliographic Essay

The modern empirical legal studies movement has well-known antecedents in the law and society and law and economics traditions of the latter half of the 20th century. Less well known is the body of empirical research on legal phenomena from the period prior to World War II. This paper is an extensive bibliographic essay that surveys the English language empirical legal research from approximately 1940 and earlier. The essay is arranged around the themes in the research: criminal justice, civil justice (general studies of civil litigation, auto accident litigation and compensation, divorce, small claims, jurisdiction and procedure, civil juries), debt and bankruptcy, banking, appellate courts, legal needs, legal profession (including legal education), and judicial staffing and selection. Accompanying the essay is an extensive bibliography of research articles, books, and reports

Kognitive und psychische Effekte einer Herznotfallkampagne auf die Bevölkerung

The major part of the delay from onset of symptoms of acute myocardial infarction to arrival in hospital is caused by patients' delayed reporting. Therefore, a media campaign was initiated by the Swiss Heart Foundation with the goal of informing people about the seriousness of chest pain and about the importance of proper action in these situations. An initial 2 months' national campaign was followed by a 3 weeks' intensive local campaign in a mixed urban/suburban area in central Switzerland. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of this media campaign on patients information and reaction in case of cardiac emergency, and to study the possible impact of this campaign on anxiety levels and other emotions. Telephone interviews were performed before and after both the national and the local campaign using a cohort of 500 persons in a longitudinal and 4 x 500 persons in a cross-sectional study. The information had reached about 50% of the population by the end of the local campaign. The percentage of persons who would call the emergency medical services immediately in case of chest pain increased from 40% to 57% in the cross-sectional and from 48% to 65% in the longitudinal study (p < 0.001), and the percentage of persons who would call the ambulance team immediately on witnessing a person with a heart attack increased from 25 to 92% in the cross-sectional and to 96% in the longitudinal study (p < 0.001). Anxiety levels and other negative emotions decreased slightly during the campaign (p < 0.05), whereas feelings of personal safety revealed a slight increase (p < 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS