Background: Chronic heart failure (CHF) is the most common and prognostically unfavorable outcome of many diseases of the cardiovascular system. Recent data suggest that beta-blockers are beneficial in patients with CHF. Among β-blocker class of drugs, bisoprolol is a highly selective β1-adrenergic receptor blocker whereas Carvedilol is non-selective. Many large-scale trials have confirmed that both these β-blockers are superior to placebo and other β-blockers. This study was designed to compare the effects of carvedilol and bisoprolol in patients with chronic HF in a single center.Methods: It was a quasi experimental study. A total of 288 cases of heart failure were selected by purposive sampling, from January 2017 to June 2017. Each patient was allocated into either of the two groups, and was continued receiving treatment with either bisoprolol (Group-I) or carvedilol (Group-II). Each patient was evaluated clinically and echocardiographically at the beginning of treatment (baseline) and at the end of 3rd month. Echocardiography was performed to find out change in left ventricular systolic function.Result: After 3 months of treatment, ejection fraction was found higher in the bisoprolol group (42.6 ± 6.5 versus 38.3 ± 4.6%; P < 0.05). Ejection fraction (EF) changes were 8.4% in bisoprolol group and 4.1% in carvedilol group. A significant reduction in left ventricular end-systolic volume (21.9±2.5 in group I versus 14.9±5.7 in group II; P < 0.05) and left ventricular systolic diameter (3.2±0.1 in group I versus 2.3±0.5 in group II; P<0.05) occurred after 3 months of treatment. But no significant differences were observed in left ventricular end-diastolic volume (10.1±3.2 versus 6.1±6.4; P=0.101) and left ventricular diastolic diameter (1.7±0.8 versus 1.3±0.8; P=0.081) between groups. Three months after treatment, heart rate was reduced in the bisoprolol group from 87.7±9 to 74.5±8.1 and carvedilol group from 88.8±9.1 to 80.1±8.7. Differences in heart rate responses between 2 groups were not statistically significant (P=0.113). Assessment of blood pressure three months later of treatment shows, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were improved in both group but difference between two groups were statistically non significant (p>0.05).Conclusion: In this study, bisoprolol was superior to carvedilol in increasing left-ventricular ejection fraction, improving left ventricular end systolic volume and left ventricular end systolic diameter but no significant difference was observed in LV end diastolic volume, LV end diastolic diameter, heart rate and blood pressure.University Heart Journal Vol. 14, No. 1, Jan 2018; 3-8

Background: Statins are the corner stone therapy of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Statins may cause myalgia, myotoxicity, myopathy and rhabdomyolysis along with its lipid lowering properties and pleiotropic effects. Statins associated muscle symptoms (SAMS) are the leading cause of nonadherent and discontinuation. This study was conducted to evaluate and understand the muscle symptoms of high intensity statin therapy (atorvastatin 40 mg and rosuvastatin 20 mg) for a period of three months in individual patient with clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.Methods: A total of 280 patients with clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease were studied to once daily atorvastatin 40 mg and rosuvastatin 20 mg. It was a randomized controlled single blind trial. The primary end point was muscle symptoms-muscle pain, fatigue, cramp/spasticity and weakness at 4 weeks and in 3 months of study period. Serum creatinine kinase was measured in every patient with muscular symptoms.Results: Patients of atorvastatin group noticed severe pain more than rosuvastatin group at the end of 3 months of treatment period (14.21% vs 4.38%, p <0.05), respectively). Significantly more patients felt extremely bad (12.78% vs 4.38%, p <0.05) and bad (24.66% vs 14.52%, p <0.05) with atorvastatin compared with rosuvastatin. Patients of atorvastatin group showed more marked increase muscle spasm (3.76% vs 1.46%, p <0.05) and slight increase muscle spasm (36.27% vs 16.01%, p <0.05) than rosuvastatin group by spasticity grade. One patient of atorvastatin group developed considerable increase in muscle spasm. Medical research council (MRC) muscle power grade 4 between atorvastatin and rosuvastatin group was observed 20.05% vs 10.90%, p <0.05, respectively. Three patients of atorvastatin group developed grade 3 muscle power. Serum creatine kinase > 1500 U/L was observed more in atorvastatin than rosuvastatin group (14.21% vs 4.38%, p <0.05, respectively). Statin associated muscle symptoms (more severe muscle problem, myositis/myopathy) observed more in atorvastatin than that of rosuvastatin group ( 34.07% vs 13.08% , p <0.05, respectively). Both treatments were well tolerated. No cases of rhabdomyolysis, incident diabetes, hepatic or renal insufficiency were recorded during the study period.Conclusion: Rosuvastatin had better outcome profile of muscle symptoms than atorvastatin in patients with clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease among the Bangladeshi population. Patients in atorvastatin group experienced more muscle pain, fatigue, cramp/spasticity and weakness than rosuvastatin.University Heart Journal Vol. 14, No. 1, Jan 2018; 9-20

Background: Ischemic heart disease is increasing all over the world even in the developing countries like Bangladesh. The incidence rate of coronary artery disease is escalating very rapidly among both male and female population in our country. Though exercise treadmill test (ETT) is a well accepted non-invasive investigation to diagnose Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), it has a high false positive and false negative result if ST segment response alone is calculated for interpretation of the test. Accuracy of different treadmill scores in our population is largely unknown. Clevelan Clinic Score is a prognostic ETT score which is validated for prognostic indication but may have some diagnostic value as well. Objective: To know the diagnostic role of Cleveland Clinic Score, currently which has only prognostic implication. Method: A Cross-Sectional study was carried out on patients attending University Cardiac Center in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) for stable chest pain to find out the accuracy of Cleveland Clinic Scores (CCS) in comparison to other diagnostic treadmill scores namely Duke Treadmill Score (DTS) and Simple Treadmill Score (STS).Total 130 persons including male and female who have undergone ETT were included according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Coronary angiogram reports were collected after the procedure was performed as per clinical practice. The accuracy of ST segment response & different treadmill scores were calculated and compared with each other. Result: ETT scores had better sensitivity and specificity than ST segment response which was affected by workup bias more. CCS, DTS and STS have 83.3% & 60.9%; 71.4% & 71.7%; 64.3% & 78.3% sensitivity & specificity, respectively. Receiver Operator Characteristics (ROC) curve analysis showed all of the three scores have similar area under curve (AUC) that means they have similar accuracy to diagnose CAD. But they have different sensitivity and specificity for different cut off value. Overall analysis showed accuracy of STS (83.9%) is comparable to that of DTS (83.3%), CCS (77%) . Conclusion: Among the three treadmill scores Cleveland Clinic Score has comparable predictive accuracy when compared with DTS, STS. Though a prognostic ETT score, CCS may have diagnostic role which need to be validated further. University Heart Journal Vol. 14, No. 2, Jul 2018; 62-66

Introduction:At the end of twentieth century, the mortality from cardiovascular diseases allocated nearly half of the statistics of mortality in industrial and a quarter of fatalities in developing countries. Among these diseases is "congestive heart failure (CHF)" which is a very important part of cardiovascular diseases and almost all heart diseases can lead to this syndrome. 1 CHF is a debilitating complaint associated with a large number of readmissions. 2 A large body of research has revealed that CHF-related rehospitalization within six months is around 25-30%, which can increase to 40% within 1 year. 3 Another study showed the readmission from CHF range from 27% to 47% within three to six months after initial discharge. 4 One of the study in USA showed, annual readmission rate was 56.6%, median time to Abstract:Background: Repeated hospital readmissions are frequent and increasing over time in patients with heart failure (HF). The readmission rate within 3-6 months after discharge in these patients is 10-50%.

Background and objectives: Noninvasive assessment of coronary artery disease severity remains a clinical challenge. Myocardium subtended by obstructive coronary artery disease may show reduced left ventricular strain. The present study was intended to investigate whether this reduction of strain value correlates with increasing severity of coronary artery disease in Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (NSTEMI) patients. Methods: This cross sectional study included 86 patients of NSTEMI. We assessed myocardial strain in global longitudinal strain (GLS) value using two dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2DSE). We performed coronary angiogram of the same patients and documented presence or absence of significant disease, number of affected vessels and Gensini score. Significant coronary artery was defined as ≥70% stenosis in any major coronary artery and or ≥50% stenosis in left main coronary artery. Results: Global longitudinal strain value was significantly lower in the significant coronary artery disease group (-13.5±3.4% vs. -19.01±2.3%) (p < 0.001). GLS declined proportionately with increasing severity of coronary artery disease defined by number of affected vessels (p < 0.001). Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient test between GLS value and Gensini score showed that the two variables maintained a linear but inverse relationship (ρ = 0.816, p < 0.001) that implies decreasing GLS is associated with increasing Gensini score. Multivariate logistic regression analysis found global longitudinal strain as an independent predictor of coronary artery disease. Conclusion: Myocardial strain assessed in global longitudinal strain value correlates with angiographic severity of coronary artery disease in patients with Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction.