Relationship Between Quality of Life Indicators and Cardiac Status Indicators in Chemotherapy Patients.

Aim: With the aim of improving personalized treatment of patients on chemotherapy, the objective of the study was to assess the degree of association between selected Quality of life (QoL) indicators and both clinical and imaging cardiac status indicators when detecting deterioration in QoL of these patients.

Methods: In a cohort clinical study in Hamburg, from August 2017 through October 2020, 59 cancer patients, aged 18-80 years, were evaluated before chemotherapy, and at several follow-ups, using EQ-5D and SF-36 QoL questionnaires, fast strain-encoded (fast-SENC) cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), conventional CMR, and echocardiography, and further received a clinical and biomarker examination. Data was analyzed using survival analyses.

Fast-Strain Encoded Cardiac Magnetic Resonance During Vasodilator Perfusion Stress Testing.

Cardiac magnetic resonance perfusion imaging during vasodilator stress is an established modality in patients with suspected and known coronary artery disease (CAD). This study aimed to evaluate the performance of fast-Strain-Encoded-MRI (fast-SENC) for the diagnostic classification and risk stratification of patients with ischemic heart disease. Perfusion and fast-SENC cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) images were retrospectively analyzed in 111 patients who underwent stress CMR.

Multiparametric Early Detection and Prediction of Cardiotoxicity Using Myocardial Strain, T1 and T2 Mapping, and Biochemical Markers: A Longitudinal Cardiac Resonance Imaging Study During 2 Years of Follow-Up.

Background: Our goal was to evaluate the ability of cardiovascular magnetic resonance for detecting and predicting cardiac dysfunction in patients receiving cancer therapy. Left ventricular ejection fraction, global and regional strain utilizing fast-strain-encoded, T1 and T2 mapping, and cardiac biomarkers (troponin and BNP [brain natriuretic peptide]) were analyzed.

Methods: Sixty-one patients (47 with breast cancer, 11 with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and 3 with Hodgkin lymphoma) underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance scans at baseline and at regular intervals during 2 years of follow-up.

Use of drug-eluting stents in acute myocardial infarction with persistent ST-segment elevation: results of the ALKK PCI-registry.

Background: Drug-eluting stents (DES) reduce the rate of in-stent restenosis (ISR) and target vessel revascularization significantly when compared with bare metal stents (BMS). Their beneficial effects have been demonstrated in patients with acute myocardial infarction also, but the use of DES in the latter population seems to be still limited in clinical practice.

Methods And Results: From January 2006 to December 2011, 25,424 patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction were enrolled in the German ALKK PCI-registry.

Age-related differences in antithrombotic therapy, success rate and in-hospital mortality in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: results of the quality control registry of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Leitende Kardiologische Krankenhausärzte (ALKK).

Introduction: This analysis examines the influence of age on antithrombotic therapy, success rate of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and in-hospital mortality in patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) and elective PCI.

Methods: We analysed data of 26,795 unselected patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), unstable Angina (UA) and elective PCI from the ALKK-PCI Registry 2006, a German prospective, multicentre registry.

Results: Elderly patients (>75) with ACS were significantly less often treated with acetylsalicylic acid intravenously and a clopidogrel loading dose of 600 mg.

Enoxaparin in patients with primary percutaneous coronary intervention for acute ST segment elevation myocardial infarction.

The inhibition of thrombin plays a key role as adjunct therapy in the management of patients with primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST elevation myocardial infarction. Enoxaparin provides a more predictable and constant level of anticoagulation compared with the current standard unfractionated heparin. The available data from smaller studies and prospective registries suggest that enoxaparin is associated with a reduction in the rate of death and nonfatal reinfarction after primary percutaneous coronary intervention without an increase in bleeding complications.

Quantification of free total plasma DNA and minimal residual disease detection in the plasma of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The analysis of total plasma DNA and the monitoring of leukemic clone-specific immunoglobulin and/or T-cell receptor gene rearrangements for the evaluation of minimal residual disease (MRD) in the plasma may be useful tools for prognostic purposes or for early detection of subclinical disease recurrence in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The aim of this paper is to establish reference ranges for total plasma DNA concentrations and to test the feasibility of MRD measurements employing plasma DNA from children with ALL by using real-time quantitative (RQ)-PCR. Despite wide inter-individual variation, the median concentrations of total plasma DNA for 12 healthy donors (57 ng/ml), 21 children with ALL after day 4 of treatment initiation (62 ng/ml) and 13 children with other malignancies (76 ng/ml) were similar.