Ventricular septal rupture (VSR) is an uncommon but potentially lethal complication of acute myocardial infarction (MI). Its prompt recognition is essential to permit timely institution of corrective measures. The present study was undertaken to assess the diagnostic accuracy of a novel and unique angiographic sign, the ‘winking coronary sign (WCS)’, for recognizing post-MI VSR. The WCS is defined as partial transient occlusion of the infarct-related culprit artery overlying the site of VSR during ventricular systole with near normal filling in the diastole. A total of 56 patients with post-MI VSR (mean age 60.9 ± 9.9 years, 75% male) were compared with 73 age- and sex-matched acute MI patients without VSR. The extent of coronary artery disease was not different between the two groups, but higher number of patients in the VSR group had thrombolysis in MI grade 3 flow (57.1% vs 34.5%, P 0.01). The WCS was observed in 67.9% of the patients with VSR but in none of the patients without VSR (p < 0.0001), yielding a sensitivity of 67.9% and specificity of 100% for this sign for diagnosing underlying VSR. This demonstrates the potential utility of the WCS for diagnosing VSR in patients in whom the VSR has developed in the time frame between the echocardiography and angiography or has been missed during the initial clinical and/or echocardiographic evaluation.

Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an independent risk factor for the development of coronary artery disease. We evaluated outcomes amongst patients of CKD undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) as assessed on severity of CKD based on estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at the time of PCI. Method and materials We analyzed 100 consecutive CKD patients who underwent PCI and were followed up for 1 year; an observational, prospective, open-label study. Multivariate and Receiver operator characteristics (ROC) analysis was used to determine the cut point ofeGFR for predicting 4-P major adverse cardiac events (MACE) outcomes defined as the composite of Cardiovascular (CV) mortality, heart failure hospitalization (HHF), repeat revascularization and non-fatal MI over 1 year follow up. Results According to eGFR cut-off value derived from ROC, patients were divided in to two groups based on eGFR cut-off of 36.25 mL/min/1.73 m 2 . Majority of patients (79%) were in Group 1 (eGFR >36.25 mL/min/1.73 m 2 ). Group 2 had Lower HbA1C, hemoglobin and elevated level of urea as compared to group:1 (p=0.002,<0.0001 respectively). All-cause mortality had trend forbeing higher (6.3 vs. 19%) in group:2, but statistically non-significant ( p = 0.17). Lower baseline LVEF (39 ± 10.08%) across the cohort was independent predictor of higher risk for HHF. eGFR <36.25 mL/mim/1.73 m 2 was the most robust predictor of MACE, carrying a 3-fold increase in risk of 4-P MACE with significant association (0.69, CI 0.59 to 0.78, p = 0.0009). Conclusions Lower baseline eGFR was associated with higher incidence of 4 P MACE with best cut-off being eGFR <36.25 mL/min/1.73 m 2 . Lower Baseline LVEF was independent predictor from HHF across the cohort.