Publications by authors named "Angeliki Bourazana"

: The aim of this study was to examine the association between in-hospital initiation of sodium glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) and outcomes in hospitalized heart failure (HHF) patients utilizing data from a Greek center. : The present work was a single-center, retrospective, observational study of consecutive HF patients hospitalized in a tertiary center. The study endpoint was all-cause mortality or HF rehospitalization.

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In recent times, there have been notable changes in cardiovascular medicine, propelled by the swift advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). The present work provides an overview of the current applications and challenges of AI in the field of heart failure. It emphasizes the "garbage in, garbage out" issue, where AI systems can produce inaccurate results with skewed data.

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: Remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) has demonstrated efficacy in protecting against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury when applied before percutaneous coronary revascularization. Ranolazine, an anti-ischemic drug, has been utilized to minimize ischemic events in chronic angina patients. However, there is a lack of trials exploring the combined effects of ranolazine pretreatment and RIPC in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs).

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Objective: Thyroid hormone under-replacement and over-replacement are associated with adverse health outcomes. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the extent of thyroid hormone replacement adequacy for patients with known hypothyroidism in real-word settings, excluding those receiving thyroid hormone suppressive therapy as thyroid cancer treatment.

Design: Four electronic databases (Embase [Ovid], Medline [Ovid], PubMed and SCOPUS) were searched for published and unpublished observational studies until 12 December 2022.

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The function of the kidney is tightly linked to the function of the heart. Dysfunction/disease of the kidney may initiate, accentuate, or precipitate of the cardiac dysfunction/disease and vice versa, contributing to a negative spiral. Further, the reciprocal association between the heart and the kidney may occur on top of other entities, usually diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis, simultaneously affecting the two organs.

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Patients with heart failure (HF) patients may die either suddenly (sudden cardiac death/SCD) or progressively from pump failure. The heightened risk of SCD in patients with HF may expedite important decisions about medications or devices. We used the Larissa Heart Failure Risk Score (LHFRS), a validated risk model for all-cause mortality and HF rehospitalization, to investigate the mode of death in 1363 patients enrolled in the Registry Focused on Very Early Presentation and Treatment in Emergency Department of Acute Heart Failure (REALITY-AHF).

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Recent studies have demonstrated the prognostic value of spot urinary sodium (UNa) in acutely decompensated chronic HF (ADCHF) patients. However, data on the prognostic role of UNa and spot urinary chloride (UCl) in patients with advanced HF are limited. In the present prospective pilot study, we examined the predictive value of UNa and UCl concentration at baseline, at 2 h and at 24 h after admission for all-cause mortality and HF rehospitalization up to 3 months post-discharge.

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An outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) occurred in December 2019 due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is a strain of SARS-CoV. Patients infected with the virus present a wide spectrum of manifestations ranging from mild flu-like symptoms, cough, fever and fatigue to severe lung injury, appearing as bilateral interstitial pneumonia or acute respiratory failure. Although SARS-CoV-2 infection predominantly offends the respiratory system, it has been associated with several cardiovascular complications as well.

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Myocarditis is a rare adverse event of vaccination. Recently, mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 have been reported to correlate with myocarditis, specifically in adolescents and young men. We report a rare case of a 50-year-old man who presented with symptoms of myocardial infarction 3 days after the second dose of vaccination for COVID-19.

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Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a health condition characterized by glucose dysregulation and affects millions of people worldwide. The presentation of heart failure in diabetic cardiomyopathy extends over a wide phenotypic spectrum, commencing from asymptomatic, subclinical structural abnormalities to severely symptomatic biventricular dysfunction with increased mortality risk. Similarly, the spectrum of systolic dysfunction in diabetic-induced heart failure is diverse.

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Coexisting morbidities (CM) are common in patients with heart failure (HF). This study evaluated the CM burden and its clinical significance in elderly hospitalized patients with new-onset (De-novo) HF (n = 84) and acutely decompensated chronic HF (ADCHF) (n = 122). All had HF symptoms associated with: (a) LVEF <50%, or, (b) left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≥50% and NT-proBNP ≥300 pg/mL.

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Background: Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is elevated in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Aim: To determine RDW values and impact of CV and non-CV coexisting morbidities in elderly patients hospitalized with chronic CVD.

Methods: This prospective study included 204 consecutive elderly patients (age 77.

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Aims: The relative impact of each individual coexisting morbidity on the pathogenesis of heart failure (HF) is incompletely understood. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of individual cardiac and non-cardiac coexisting morbidities both in the overall HF population and in the subgroup of HF patients with a single coexisting morbidity, stratified by left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) categories, as a measure of the relative contribution of each co-morbidity to the pathogenesis of HF.

Methods And Results: This is a prospective, observational study, in which unselected ambulatory patients with chronic HF visiting the HF clinic of a tertiary university hospital from January 2016 to January 2019 were classified according to baseline LVEF into three groups: (i) LVEF < 40%, (ii) LVEF = 40-49%, and (iii) LVEF ≥ 50% and then evaluated for various coexisting morbidities.

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Purpose Of Review: Heart failure (HF) patients often present with multiple coexisting morbidities. In this review, we contend that coexisting morbidities are highly prevalent and clinically important regardless of the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).

Recent Findings: Multimorbidity is prevalent in the ambulatory subjects of the community and increases with age.

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The risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) is high in heart failure (HF) patients. Sudden arrhythmic death (SAD) is a frequent cause of exit in HF patients at the lower end of the HF spectrum, and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators have been recommended to prevent these life-threatening rhythm disturbances in select patients. However, less is known regarding the cause of SCD in patients at the upper end of the HF spectrum, despite the fact that the majority of out-of-hospital SCD victims have unknown or near-normal/normal left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).

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