Publications by authors named "Ana Merino-Merino"

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates whether early intensive lipid-lowering therapy can help achieve lower LDL cholesterol levels in patients who have suffered an acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
  • It evaluates the effectiveness of a combination therapy (high-potency statin, bempedoic acid, and ezetimibe) compared to standard guideline-recommended treatment on patients at risk for high LDL levels.
  • The primary goal is to see if this intensive treatment can lead to at least 33% of patients reaching LDL levels below 55 mg/dL within 8 weeks after their AMI.
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Aims: Frailty and dependence are frequent in patients admitted for acute heart failure (AHF), but their prognostic significance is unknown, especially in young adults. We aimed to study in adults admitted for AHF, regardless of age, the effect of frailty and dependence on the incidence of mortality and a combined event of mortality, readmissions for AHF, and visits to the emergency room (ER) for AHF at 1 and 6 months.

Methods And Results: We designed a prospective cohort study by including all the patients with AHF admitted in our Cardiology Department from July 2020 through May 2021.

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Background: Heart failure prevalence is increasing in elder adults. These patients usually present geriatric syndromes, especially frailty. The effect of frailty on heart failure is under discussion but there are few data about the clinical characterization of frail patients who are admitted for acute heart failure decompensation.

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Atrial fibrillation (AF) is explained by anatomical and electrophysiological changes in the atria determined by high pressure, dilatation, infiltration and inflammation in the myocardium. There are some biomarkers implicated in these processes, namely, NT-proBNP, high sensitivity troponin (Hs-Tn), urate, galectin-3, ST2, C reactive protein and fibrinogen. The aim of this study was to assess differences in these biomarkers between patients with AF and healthy controls.

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Frailty has traditionally been studied in the elderly population but scarcely in younger individuals. The objective of the present study is to analyze differences according to age in the diagnostic performance of cardiac biomarkers to predict frailty in patients admitted to the hospital for acute heart failure (AHF). A frailty assessment was performed with the SPPB and FRAIL scales (score > 3).

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Galectin-3 is a lectin that binds beta-galactosides. It is involved in cardiac remodeling and fibrosis through the activation of macrophages and fibroblasts. ST2 is secreted by myocardial cells due to cardiac overload.

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Genotyping of ST2 and galectin-3 in atrial fibrillation (AF) is not well analyzed. The aim of our study was to analyze the possible relationship between levels of sST2 and galectin-3 and three polymorphisms in patients with AF. We included 125 patients with persistent AF undergoing electric cardioversion.

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Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) with non-reduced left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) present a diagnostic overlap. In this paper, we analyze differences in biomarkers between patients with and without HF, in a cohort of patients presenting with symptomatic AF. Differences in biomarkers between patients with medium range ejection fraction HF (HFmrEF) and those with preserved ejection fraction HF (HFpEF) are also analyzed.

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