Influence of the medical treatment schedule in new diagnoses patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction.

Aims: Heart failure (HF) guidelines recommend treating all patients with HF and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) with quadruple therapy, although they do not establish how to start it. This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of these recommendations, analyzing the efficacy and safety of the different therapeutic schedules.

Methods And Results: Prospective, observational, and multicenter registry that evaluated the treatment initiated in patients with newly diagnosed HFrEF and its evolution at 3 months.

Congenital complete absence of pericardium in a young woman with non-specific symptoms.

Congenital absence of the pericardium is a very rare entity that is usually asymptomatic and hence difficult to diagnose. However, cases of sudden death have been reported in patients with partial pericardial defects (even asymptomatic ones), and such patients require surgical treatment. We report the case of a 17-year-old patient with complete pericardial agenesis (diagnosed by chance during a cardiological consultation) and briefly review the radiological findings of this entity.

Monitoring complex secundum atrial septal defects percutaneous closure with real time three-dimensional echocardiography.

Background: Atrial septal defect (ASD) is one of the most common congenital heart diseases. Nowadays, percutaneous closure is considered the treatment of choice in most of secundum ASDs. Assessment of the defect and procedure monitoring have been usually performed by angiographic balloon-sizing and/or two-dimensional (2D) transesophageal echocardiography.

[Impact of malnutrition on long-term mortality in hospitalized patients with heart failure].

Introduction And Objectives: The prevalence of malnutrition among patients with heart failure and the role it might play in prognosis is not currently known. The aim of this study was to analyse the prevalence and risk of malnutrition as well as its possible influence on long-term mortality in patients with heart failure.

Methods: A prospective analysis was conducted on 208 patients discharged consecutively from our centre between January 2007 and March 2008 after being hospitalised with heart failure.

Measurement of aortic valve annulus using different cardiac imaging techniques in transcatheter aortic valve implantation: agreement with finally implanted prosthesis size.

Aims: To compare the measurements of the aortic annulus obtained with various imaging techniques in patients with severe aortic stenosis scheduled for transcatheter aortic valve implantation, and to determine the grade of agreement between the predicted size of the prosthesis for each technique, and the size of the finally implanted valve.

Methods And Results: The aortic annulus was measured in 40 patients treated by transcatheter aortic valve implantation (CoreValve aortic valve) with transthoracic (TTE) and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), 64-slice tomography, and angiography. A large valve was implanted when annulus was >23 mm and a small one if it was ≤23 mm.