Systemic vasoconstriction and mortality in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction: A cohort of patients who underwent non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring.

Advanced heart failure primarily manifests during and after hospitalization for decompensation. Identifying prognostic factors is crucial for distinguishing patients who may benefit from drug therapy from those with end-stage disease. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of systemic vasoconstriction in patients with decompensated heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction.

Multifaceted Strategy Based on Automated Text Messaging After a Recent Heart Failure Admission: The MESSAGE-HF Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Readmissions after an index heart failure (HF) hospitalization are a major contemporary health care problem.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of an intensive telemonitoring strategy in the vulnerable period after an HF hospitalization.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This randomized clinical trial was conducted in 30 HF clinics in Brazil.

Sex Differences in Prognosis of Heart Failure Due to Ischemic and Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy.

Background: Limited research has explored sex-specific differences in death predictors of HF patients with ischemic (iCMP) and nonischemic (niCMP) cardiomyopathy. This study assessed sex differences in niCMP and iCMP prognosis.

Methods: We studied 7487 patients with HF between February 2017 and September 2020.

Sex Differences in Heart Failure Mortality with Preserved, Mildly Reduced and Reduced Ejection Fraction: A Retrospective, Single-Center, Large-Cohort Study.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Studies show that women have better survival rates than men despite higher hospitalizations. However, little is known about differences in mortality and predictors of death in women and men with HF with preserved (HFpEF), mildly reduced (HFmrEF), and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in Brazil between 1996 and 2019.

Background: cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are Brazil's leading causes of death in women and men. This study analyzed age-adjusted death rate (DRaj) trends from all causes of death (ACD), CVD, ischemic heart disease (IHD), and stroke in women and men aged 35 to 74 years from 1996 to 2019.

Methods: We analyzed DRaj trends for all causes of death (ACD), CVD, IHD, and stroke.

The use of peripherally inserted central catheter reduced the incidence of phlebitis in heart failure patients: A randomized trial.

Background: During decompensated heart failure, the use of intravenous inotropes can be necessary. With peripheral venous access, prolonged inotrope infusion can cause phlebitis. However, traditional central venous catheters have possible complications.

Sacubitril/valsartan versus enalapril on exercise capacity in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: A randomized, double-blind, active-controlled study.

Unlabelled: Sacubitril/valsartan reduces mortality in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) when compared with enalapril. However, it is unknown the effect of both treatments on exercise capacity. We compared sacubitril/valsartan versus enalapril in patients with HFrEF based on peak oxygen consumption (VO) and 6-minute walk test (6-MWT).

Is Current Drug Therapy for Heart Failure Sufficient to Control Heart Rate of Patients?

Background: Studies have shown that heart failure (HF) patients with heart rate (HR) < 70 bpm have had a better clinical outcome and lower morbidity and mortality compared with those with HR > 70 bpm. However, many HF patients maintain an elevated HR.

Objective: To evaluate HR and the prescription of medications known to reduce mortality in HF patients attending an outpatient cardiology clinic.

Android to gynoid fat ratio and its association with functional capacity in male patients with heart failure.

Aims: We studied the association between android (A) to gynoid (G) fat ratio and functional capacity (peak VO ) in male patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Methods And Results: We enrolled 118 male patients with HFrEF with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <40%. Body composition (by using dual x-ray absorptiometry) and peak VO (by cardiopulmonary exercise testing) were measured.

Biomarkers for prediction of mortality in left-sided infective endocarditis.

Background: Evidence regarding biomarkers for risk prediction in patients with infective endocarditis (IE) is limited. We aimed to investigate the value of a panel of biomarkers for the prediction of in-hospital mortality in patients with IE.

Methods: Between 2016 and 2018, consecutive IE patients admitted to the emergency department were prospectively included.

Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), HDL capacity of receiving cholesterol and status of inflammatory cytokines in patients with severe heart failure.

Background: Heart failure (HF) courses with chronic inflammatory process and alterations in lipid metabolism may aggravate the disease. The aim was to test whether the severity of HF, using brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) as a marker, is associated with alterations in functional aspects of HDL, such as lipid transfer, cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP) and lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) concentration.

Methods: Twenty-five HF patients in NYHA class I/II and 23 in class III/IV were enrolled.

Infection in Patients with Decompensated Heart Failure: In-Hospital Mortality and Outcome.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a syndrome, whose advanced forms have a poor prognosis, which is aggravated by the presence of comorbidities.

Objective: We assessed the impact of infection in patients with decompensated HF admitted to a tertiary university-affiliated hospital in the city of São Paulo.

Methods: This study assessed 260 patients consecutively admitted to our unit because of decompensated HF.

Addressing Major Unmet Needs in Patients with Systolic Heart Failure: The Role of Ivabradine.

We reviewed clinical evidence for the use of ivabradine in systolic heart failure (HF), in which it appears to improve symptoms, improve quality of life, prevent hospitalization, and prolong survival, thereby addressing unmet needs in the management of HF. Ivabradine provides symptomatic benefits in HF on top of standard therapies, in terms of functional parameters and exercise capacity, and there is some evidence that this leads to improvements in quality of life in symptomatic HF patients, who may have dyspnea, altered exercise capacity, and fatigue. The SHIFT trial demonstrated that ivabradine has significant beneficial effects on major outcomes in HF.

Cardiac and Hemodynamic Benefits: Mode of Action of Ivabradine in Heart Failure.

Heart failure has seen a number of therapeutic advances in recent years. Despite this, heart failure is still related to increasing rates of morbidity, repeated hospitalizations, and mortality. Ivabradine is a recent treatment option for heart failure.

Most Heart Failure Patients Die from Pump Failure: Implications for Therapy.

Careful review of the literature of the last 20 years since the appearance of the first positive trials in heart failure indicates an evolution in the mode of death moving from sudden death to a predominance of pump failure death (i.e., death due to progression of heart failure).

Testosterone deficiency increases hospital readmission and mortality rates in male patients with heart failure.

Background: Testosterone deficiency in patients with heart failure (HF) is associated with decreased exercise capacity and mortality; however, its impact on hospital readmission rate is uncertain. Furthermore, the relationship between testosterone deficiency and sympathetic activation is unknown.

Objective: We investigated the role of testosterone level on hospital readmission and mortality rates as well as sympathetic nerve activity in patients with HF.

Reverse Cardiac Remodeling: A Marker of Better Prognosis in Heart Failure.

In heart failure syndrome, myocardial dysfunction causes an increase in neurohormonal activity, which is an adaptive and compensatory mechanism in response to the reduction in cardiac output. Neurohormonal activity is initially stimulated in an attempt to maintain compensation; however, when it remains increased, it contributes to the intensification of clinical manifestations and myocardial damage. Cardiac remodeling comprises changes in ventricular volume as well as the thickness and shape of the myocardial wall.

Temporal variation in the prognosis and treatment of advanced heart failure - before and after 2000.

Background: The treatment of heart failure has evolved in recent decades suggesting that survival is increasing.

Objective: To verify whether there has been improvement in the survival of patients with advanced heart failure.

Methods: We retrospectively compared the treatment and follow-up data from two cohorts of patients with systolic heart failure admitted for compensation up to 2000 (n = 353) and after 2000 (n = 279).

Optimized treatment and heart rate reduction in chronic heart failure.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a syndrome that leads to poor outcome in advanced forms. The neurohormonal blockade modifies this natural history; however, it is often suboptimal.

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess at what percentage cardiologists used to treating HF can prescribe target doses of drugs of proven efficacy.

IRON-HF study: a randomized trial to assess the effects of iron in heart failure patients with anemia.

Background: Anemia in heart failure patients and has been associated with increased morbi-mortality. Previous studies have treated anemia in heart failure patients with either erythropoietin alone or combination of erythropoietin and intravenous (i.v.