Subclinical cardiac damage monitoring in breast cancer patients treated with an anthracycline-based chemotherapy receiving left-sided breast radiation therapy: subgroup analysis from a phase 3 trial.

Objective: This study, derived from the phase 3 SAFE trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT2236806), explores subclinical cardiac damage in breast cancer patients receiving anthracycline-based chemotherapy and left-sided breast radiation therapy (RT).

Materials And Methods: Eligible patients were randomized to a cardioprotective pharmacological therapy (bisoprolol, ramipril, or both) or placebo, with cardiac surveillance at multiple time-point using standard and 3-dimensional echocardiography.

Surgical aortic valve replacement and left ventricular remodeling: Survival and sex-related differences.

Objectives: To analyze how left ventricular (LV) remodeling and hypertrophy geometry evolve after surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in octogenarian patients, and identify potential sex-related differences and implications for long-term outcomes.

Methods: In 170 patients with aortic stenosis ([AS], age 80 ± 4 years, 59% women), hypertrophy geometry and remodeling (LV index) were reanalyzed one year post-SAVR. The six-year outcomes were evaluated.

Cardiac Metastasis of Sacral Chordoma.

Chordoma is a rare tumor, usually diagnosed when the disease is advanced. Despite its slow growth, it is locally aggressive and has a poor long-term prognosis. Surgery is the mainstay treatment.

Papillary fibroelastoma of the right atrial appendage: Is it that rare?

Papillary fibroelastoma (PF) of the right atrium accounts for 2% of nonvalvular cases, and right appendage (RAA) PF was described only once in literature. We present three cases of RAA PF in patients with unrelated symptoms undergoing 3-dimensional transesophageal echocardiographic examination (3D-TEE) scheduled for conventional indications. Key to diagnosis in routine practice resides in systematic examination of the right atrium and RAA in live 3D-TEE imaging with backward and forward navigation of the real-time pyramidal data.

Oral anticoagulation in very elderly patients with atrial fibrillation: Results from the prospective multicenter START2-REGISTER study.

Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have shown similar efficacy and safety with respect to warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the proportion of patients aged ≥85 years enrolled in clinical trials was low and the applicability of their results to very elderly patients is still uncertain. We have carried out a prospective cohort study on AF patients aged ≥85 years enrolled in the Survey on anticoagulaTed pAtients RegisTer (START2-Register) and treated with either VKAs or DOACs, with the aim to evaluate mortality, bleeding and thrombotic rates during a long-term follow-up.