As an initial management strategy in patients with stable coronary artery disease, PCI did not reduce the risk of death, myocardial infarction, or other major cardiovascular events when added to optimal medical therapy. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00007657 [ClinicalTrials.gov].).

These data establish that intravascular ultrasound is feasible and safe and yields luminal measurements that correlate generally with angiography. Differences between angiographic and ultrasound measures of lumen size in eccentric vessels probably reflect the dissimilar perspectives of tomographic and silhouette imaging techniques. Intravascular ultrasound provides detailed images of normal and abnormal wall morphology not previously possible in vivo.

We present polarization diagrams of the particle motions at the free surface of an isotropic half-space generated by incident shear waves from a local buried point source. The reflectivity technique is used to calculate synthetic seismograms from which the particle motions are plotted. The particle motions are examined over a range of epicentral distances in a uniform isotropic half-space for different source frequencies and polarization angles, and for different Poisson's ratios. The particle motions due to a curved wavefront possess different characteristics from those generated by plane wavefronts at corresponding incidence angles. A curved wavefront generates a local SP-phase: a P-headwave which propagates along the free surface, and arrives shortly before the direct S-wave. These two arrivals give rise to cruciform particle motions in the sagittal and horizontal planes, which could be misinterpreted as anisotropy-induced shear-wave splitting. An examination of the particle motion in the transverse plane, mutually orthogonal to the sagittal and horizontal planes, can be used to discriminate between isotropic and anisotropic interpretations. The amplitude of the SP-phase is enhanced when it propagates in a low-velocity surface layer overlying the source layer, and may then become the dominant phase on radial-component seismograms. The presence of even a single surface layer may introduce considerable complexity into the seismogram, and we examine the effects of layer thickness, velocity contrast, and source depth on the corresponding polarization diagrams. Reliable information on the source and propagation path characteristics of shear waves from a buried local point source can only be obtained from free-surface records if they are recorded within a very limited epicentral distance range.

Digoxin was associated with a significant increase in all-cause mortality in patients with AF after correcting for clinical characteristics and comorbidities, regardless of gender or of the presence or absence of HF. These findings call into question the widespread use of digoxin in patients with AF.

Shear wave splitting above small earthquakes in the Anza seismic gap on the San Jacinto fault, southern California, displays the effective anisotropy of vertical fluid-filled microcracks.The delays between the split shear waves increase significantly over the 3 years of available records at the only station with arrivals from a wide range of azimuths and angles of incidence.These changes can be modeled by increasing the aspect ratio ("bowing") of stressoriented microcracks, which is one of the expected elastic effects of an increase of stress on a rock mass containing a distribution of fluid-filled microcracks. This is the first time that temporal variations of shear wave splitting have been observed and suggests that shear wave splitting can be used to monitor the detailed changes in the buildup of stress before an earthquake.Res., 85, 6113-6156, 1980.