Publications by authors named "David Zach"
Patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) represent a high-risk heart failure population with continued unmet therapeutic needs. Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) improve cardiovascular outcomes in patients with heart failure across the whole spectrum of ejection fraction, and first evidence regarding their safety and effectiveness in patients with ATTR-CM is arising. This study investigates the association between SGLT2i therapy and clinical outcomes in these patients.
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- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common heart disease that makes the heart muscle thicker, and it can be inherited from family.
- In Austria, about 20,000 to 40,000 people might have this condition, but it's often hard to diagnose because it shows up in many different ways.
- Early diagnosis and genetic testing are important to help patients and their families, and new treatments are available that can help without surgery.
In patients with stable chronic heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) provides limited prognostic value, especially in patients with moderately to severely reduced LVEF. Echocardiographic parameters of right ventricular function may be associated with adverse clinical events in these patients. Therefore, we analyzed 164 patients with HFrEF in a prospective single-center cohort study to evaluate whether the parameters of right ventricular function are associated with worsening heart failure (WHF) hospitalizations, cardiovascular and all-cause deaths and combined endpoints.
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- Chronic heart failure (HFrEF) can lead to osteoporosis and vertebral fractures, increasing the risk of fractures and poor clinical outcomes.
- In this study of 205 outpatients with HFrEF, 15% had osteoporosis and 14% had vertebral fractures, with 27% showing either condition.
- Vertebral fractures were significantly linked to higher risks of cardiovascular death and worsening heart failure, while osteoporosis alone did not show a strong association with negative cardiovascular events.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates the link between arterial hypertension (HTN) and markers of left ventricular dysfunction and inflammation in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).
- It compares 30 HCM patients with HTN to 30 without, assessing echocardiographic measures and inflammatory markers.
- Results reveal that while both groups had similar cardiac function, those with HTN showed higher levels of systemic inflammation, suggesting HTN's negative effects on HCM patients stem from overall body inflammation rather than direct heart function decline.
Pivotal outcome trials targeting heart failure with preserved (HFpEF) and mildly-reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF) may have excluded patients at highest risk of poor outcomes. We aimed to assess eligibility for HFpEF/HFmrEF outcome trials in an unselected heart failure cohort and its association with all-cause mortality. Among 32.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Echocardiographic diagnosis of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) often requires extensive provocative manoeuvers. We investigated, whether echocardiography-derived parameters obtained at rest can aid to determine the presence of LVOTO in persons with HCM.
Methods And Results: Consecutive patients with HCM admitted to a referral centre underwent standardized transthoracic echocardiographic examination including provocative manoeuvers.
Article Synopsis
- * Analyzed data from 102 patients revealed that Perugini scores of 2 or higher had a specificity of 95% and a positive predictive value (PPV) of 96% for diagnosing ATTR, while excluding patients with monoclonal proteins raised the PPV to 100%.
- * The study concluded that a non-invasive diagnosis of ATTR CA is reliable with a Perugini score ≥ 2 and a normal FLC, but a tissue biopsy is essential in
Accumulating evidence suggests that individuals with sarcomeric hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) carrying mutations may have a worse prognosis than mutation carriers. Myocardial deformation analysis is superior to standard echocardiography in detecting subtle myocardial dysfunction and scar formation, but studies evaluating the association with HCM genotype are scarce. We therefore aimed to compare myocardial strain parameters between and mutation carriers with proven HCM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmyloid light chain (AL) cardiomyopathy is the most malignant specific cardiomyopathy. According to international recommendations, it should be ruled out non-invasively using the serum free light chain (FLC) ratio and immunofixation electrophoresis in both serum and urine. Here, we report on a 69-year-old female patient with new-onset heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFluorescence-guided resection (FGR) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) have previously been investigated separately with the objectives, respectively, of increasing the extent of brain tumour resection and of selectively destroying residual tumour post-resection. Both techniques have demonstrated trends towards improved survival, pre-clinically and clinically. We hypothesize that combining these techniques will further delay tumour re-growth.
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