Mitral Effective Regurgitant Orifice Area Predicts Pulmonary Artery Pressure Level in Patients with Aortic Valve Stenosis.

Background: Mitral regurgitation (MR) and elevated pulmonary artery pressure are common findings in patients with aortic valve stenosis (AS). The pathophysiologic role of quantitatively defined MR as a determinant of pulmonary hypertension (PH) is incompletely characterized across the whole spectrum of AS degrees. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the quantification of MR reveals a link to PH in patients with AS.

Redo procedures and chronic renal dysfunction are associated with higher risk of cardiac electronic device infections.

Background: Infection is a major complication of pacemaker (PM) and implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation. The present study sought to analyze the incidence rate of device infections, to investigate possible relationships between first implantations/repeated procedures and infection rates, and to identify some main risk factors associated with infection of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED).

Methods: In a single center retrospective observational study, records of 3899 consecutive patients having undergone PM and ICD implantation, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) or revision (device/lead replacements or upgrades) and between 2002 and 2012 were obtained.

Significant Drop in Right Atrial Pressure Does Not Influence Fractional Flow Reserve Coronary Assessment.

The effect of a highly elevated level of right atrial filling pressure on fractional flow reserve (FFR) measurement remains unclear. Transcatheter tricuspid valve intervention, a recently introduced option for inoperable or high-risk patients, represents a unique model of in-vivo physiology to investigate the eventual influence of central venous pressure on coronary FFR measurements. The case is reported of a patient with a degenerated tricuspid surgical bioprosthesis who underwent transcatheter tricuspid valve-in-valve replacement and concomitant coronary functional assessment with FFR.

Atrial Function as an Independent Predictor of Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation in Patients Undergoing Aortic Valve Surgery for Severe Aortic Stenosis.

Background: Postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) is a common, clinically relevant, but hardly predictable complication after surgical aortic valve replacement. The aim of this study was to test the role of preoperative left atrial longitudinal strain as a predictor of POAF in clinical practice.

Methods: Sixty patients scheduled for aortic valve replacement for severe isolated aortic stenosis, in stable sinus rhythm, were prospectively enrolled and underwent full clinical, biochemical, and transthoracic echocardiographic assessment on the day before surgery.

Concomitant mitral regurgitation and aortic stenosis: one step further to low-flow preserved ejection fraction aortic stenosis.

Aims: Patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) and normal ejection fraction (EF) can paradoxically present low-transaortic flow and worse prognosis. The role of co-existing mitral regurgitation (MR) in determining this haemodynamic inconsistency has never been quantitatively explored. The hypothesis is that MR influences forward stroke volume and characterizes the low-flow AS pattern.

Clinical outcomes of secondary prevention strategies for young patients with cryptogenic stroke and patent foramen ovale.

Background The aim of this study was to compare the immediate and long-term clinical outcomes of medical therapy and percutaneous patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure as secondary prevention strategies in patients younger than 55 years of age presenting with cryptogenic stroke and PFO. Methods Between January 2006 and April 2015, all patients with the diagnosis of cryptogenic stroke and PFO were analysed and prospectively followed. Stroke was confirmed in 159 out of 309 patients (51%).

Feasibility and relevance of right parasternal view for assessing severity and rate of progression of aortic valve stenosis in primary care.

Background: Right parasternal view (RPV) is important in assessing the severity of aortic stenosis (AS). However, the feasibility and relevance of RPV in primary care is unresolved. Moreover, information regarding the role of RPV in the evaluation of the hemodynamic progression of AS is lacking.

Pitfalls in electrogram interpretation: Subcutaneous cardioverter defibrillator malfunction in Brugada syndrome.

A patient with Brugada syndrome implanted with subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator (S-ICD) had oversensing episodes treated with S-ICD shocks. Comparable artifacts were not evocable with S-ICD pocket manipulation. The fluoroscopy excluded S-ICD macroscopic damage.

Dyspnea following thoracostomy closure after right pneumonectomy: An uncommon echocardiographic diagnosis and therapeutic approach.

Dyspnea and hypoxemia are common postoperative problems after pneumonectomy. One of the rarer causes of respiratory distress after right pneumonectomy is the development of a significant right-to-left shunt across a patent foramen ovale (PFO), which can evolve at a variable interval of time after the operation. We report here our experience with a patient who underwent right pneumonectomy, followed by several complications, and who presented severe dyspnea 7 months later, after the closure of a right thoracostomy.

Long-term follow-up after trans-catheter tricuspid valve-in-valve replacement with balloon-expandable aortic valves.

Background: Transcatheter tricuspid VIV replacement has been proposed as a feasible option for high-risk patients with previous tricuspid valve replacement that undergo valve degeneration causing refractory heart failure. However, little is known about the long-term outcome of patients treated with transcatheter tricuspid VIV. We evaluate the safety of transcatheter tricuspid valve-in-valve (VIV) replacement by using balloon-expandable aortic valve stents and the long-term follow-up.

Coronary Catheterization and Percutaneous Interventions After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is often present in patients with severe aortic valve stenosis candidates to transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Mild CAD may also worsen and need treatment years after TAVI. The implantation of a transcatheter valve may interfere with the capability of reengaging the coronary arteries.

Left ventricular end-diastolic volume as early indicator of trastuzumab-related cardiotoxicity in HER2+ breast cancer patients: results from a single-center retrospective study.

Background: Adjuvant trastuzumab therapy increases survival rates in patients with early HER2-positive breast cancer, although it can be potentially cardiotoxic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction; and the relationship between the presence of cardiovascular risk factors, cardiac therapy and/or echocardiographic parameters of systolic function at baseline and the development of cardiotoxicity in such patients.

Methods: A total of 227 patients were retrospectively reviewed.

Functional Assessment of Coronary Artery Disease in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation: Influence of Pressure Overload on the Evaluation of Lesions Severity.

Background: Aortic valve stenosis may influence fractional flow reserve (FFR) of concomitant coronary artery disease by causing hypertrophy and reducing the vasodilatory reserve of the coronary circulation. We sought to investigate whether FFR values might change after valve replacement.

Methods And Results: The functional relevance of 133 coronary lesions was assessed by FFR in 54 patients with severe aortic valve stenosis before and after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) during the same procedure.

Clinical outcomes of transcatheter aortic valve implantation: from learning curve to proficiency.

Objective: The use of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is growing rapidly in countries with a predominantly elderly population, posing a huge challenge to healthcare systems worldwide. The increment of human and economic resource consumption imposes a careful monitoring of clinical outcomes and cost-benefit balance, and this article is aimed at analysing clinical outcomes related to the TAVI learning curve.

Methods: Outcomes of 177 consecutive transfemoral TAVI procedures performed in 5 years by a single team were analysed by the Cumulative Sum of failures method (CUSUM) according to the clinical events comprised in the Valve Academic Research Consortium (VARC-2) safety end point and the VARC-2 definition of device success.

Mitral Regurgitation and Increased Risk of All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

Background: Mitral regurgitation is the most common heart valve disease in the general population, but little is known about the prevalence and prognostic implications of mitral regurgitation in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data from 814 outpatients with type 2 diabetes who had undergone a conventional echocardiography for clinical reasons during the years 1992-2007. Mitral regurgitation was evaluated by using an integrated multiparametric echocardiographic approach.

Functional mitral regurgitation: are we treating the real target?

Functional mitral regurgitation is a form of valve insufficiency in the presence of anatomically normal mitral valve. The cause of functional mitral regurgitation is left ventricular remodelling that tethers valve leaflet more apically decreasing their coaptation ability. Given the pathophysiologic relation between functional mitral regurgitation and ventricular dysfunction, the valve insufficiency has long been considered a surrogate of ventricular disease.

Echocardiographically Derived Pulse Wave Velocity and Diastolic Dysfunction Are Associated with an Increased Incidence of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients with Systolic Heart Failure.

Background: Chronic heart failure (CHF) is an established risk factor of atrial fibrillation (AF), but the prognostic value of cardiac and hemodynamic parameters in assessing the risk of developing AF among patients with CHF is less defined.

Methods And Results: We followed an outpatients cohort of CHF patients secondary to left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction, who were free of AF at baseline. All patients underwent clinical evaluation, comprehensive echocardiography, and blood drawing in the same morning.

Repeat revascularization: Percutaneous coronary intervention after coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Repeat myocardial revascularization procedures are markedly different from de novo interventions, with increased procedural risk and technical-demanding complexity. However the number of patients previously treated with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) that need a repeat revascularization due to graft failure is increasing consistently. Late graft failure, usually caused by saphenous vein grafts (SVG) attrition, is certainly not uncommon.

Long-Term (3 Years) Prognosis of Contrast-Induced Acute Kidney Injury After Coronary Angiography.

Contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) after coronary angiography or interventions is relatively frequent and portends adverse outcomes. The lack of a "universally accepted" definition, however, limits the integration and comparison of available data. We aimed to detect the CI-AKI definition that best correlates with the occurrence of clinical events at long-term in a 3-year follow-up study of patients at intermediate-to-high risk for CI-AKI.

Association between Beta1 -Adrenergic Receptor Polymorphism and Risk of ICD Shock in Heart Failure Patients.

Background: Sympathetic activation in heart failure patients favors the development of ventricular arrhythmias, thus leading to an increased risk of sudden cardiac death. β1 - and β2 -adrenergic receptor polymorphisms have been linked to the risk of sudden death. Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD) are implanted in a large percentage of heart failure patients, and beyond preventing sudden cardiac death they provide a continuous monitoring of major ventricular arrhythmias and of their own interventions.

Immediate and long-term clinical performance of bioresorbable vascular scaffolds in a real world population.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS) in terms of acute success and long-term clinical events in a real world population according to the most updated technical recommendations.

Methods: Perspective, single-center registry involving symptomatic patients treated with BVS from February 2013 to January 2016. Primary end-point was the occurrence of MACCEs at one year: death, target vessel related myocardial infarction, target vessel revascularization, stroke, major bleeding.