Basal Segmental Longitudinal Strain: A Marker of Subclinical Myocardial Involvement in Anderson-Fabry Disease.

Background: Cardiac involvement in Anderson-Fabry disease (AFD) is associated with increased left ventricular (LV) wall thickness. The aim of this study was to evaluate if two-dimensional global and regional strain in patients with AFD can identify early myocardial involvement (when LV wall thickness and function are normal). Additionally, the association of altered strain with adverse cardiovascular events was evaluated.

Addition of Supervised Exercise Training to a Post-Hospital Disease Management Program for Patients Recently Hospitalized With Acute Heart Failure: The EJECTION-HF Randomized Phase 4 Trial.

Objectives: This study sought to measure the impact on all-cause death or readmission of adding center-based exercise training (ET) to disease management programs for patients with a recent acute heart failure (HF) hospitalization.

Background: ET is recommended for patients with HF, but evidence is based mainly on ET as a single intervention in stable outpatients.

Methods: A randomized, controlled trial with blinded outcome assessor, enrolling adult participants with HF discharged from 5 hospitals in Queensland, Australia.

Exploring beliefs about heart failure treatment in adherent and nonadherent patients: use of the repertory grid technique.

Purpose: Beliefs about medicines impact on adherence, but eliciting core beliefs about medicines in individual patients is difficult. One method that has the potential to elicit individual core beliefs is the "repertory grid technique." This study utilized the repertory grid technique to elicit individuals' beliefs about their heart failure treatment and to investigate whether generated constructs were different between adherent and nonadherent patients.

Improving hospital outcomes in patients admitted from residential aged care: results from a controlled trial.

Background: residents of aged care are old, frail and frequently require hospital management of intercurrent illness, but hospital outcomes are poor.

Objective: to identify the impact of an interdisciplinary care model on medical inpatients admitted from residential aged care (RAC).

Design: pre-planned subgroup analysis of controlled trial.

Exercise training in recently hospitalized heart failure patients enrolled in a disease management programme: design of the EJECTION-HF randomized controlled trial.

Aims: The Exercise Joins Education: Combined Therapy to Improve Outcomes in Newly-discharged Heart Failure (EJECTION-HF) study will evaluate the impact of a supervised exercise training programme (ETP) on clinical outcomes in recently hospitalized heart failure patients attending a disease management programme (DMP). Methods This multisite, pragmatic randomized controlled trial enrols patients discharged from participating hospitals with clinical evidence of heart failure who are willing and able to participate in a DMP and considered clinically safe to exercise. Enrolment includes participants with impaired and preserved left ventricular systolic function.

Timing and risk factors for functional changes associated with medical hospitalization in older patients.

Background: Older medical patients often experience a decline in function associated with hospitalization. Some of this decline is already established at hospital admission, whereas some occurs during hospitalization. Objectives of this study were to separately describe pre-hospital and in-hospital functional changes in older Australian medical patients and to identify risk factors associated with these functional changes.

Optimising care of acute coronary syndromes in three Australian hospitals.

Objective: To improve quality of in-hospital care of patients with acute coronary syndromes using a multifaceted quality improvement program.

Design: Prospective, before and after study of the effects of quality improvement interventions between October 2000 and August 2002. Quality of care of patients admitted between 1 October 2000 and 16 April 2001 (baseline) was compared with that of those admitted between 15 February 2002 and 31 August 2002 (post-intervention).

Achieving better in-hospital and after-hospital care of patients with acute cardiac disease.

In patients hospitalised with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and congestive heart failure (CHF), evidence suggests opportunities for improving in-hospital and after-hospital care, patient self-care, and hospital-community integration. A multidisciplinary quality improvement program was designed and instigated in Brisbane in October 2000 involving 250 clinicians at three teaching hospitals, 1080 general practitioners (GPs) from five Divisions of General Practice, 1594 patients with ACS and 904 patients with CHF. Quality improvement interventions were implemented over 17 months after a 6-month baseline period and included: clinical decision support (clinical practice guidelines, reminders, checklists, clinical pathways); educational interventions (seminars, academic detailing); regular performance feedback; patient self-management strategies; and hospital-community integration (discharge referral summaries; community pharmacist liaison; patient prompts to attend GPs).