[Utility of the AGREE tool for the development and evaluation of clinical protocols: From theory to clinical practice].

Introduction And Objective: Clinical protocols are tools for the delivery of optimal and quality healthcare. However, there are often shortcomings in the quality of their design that invalidate their implementation. The aim of this study is to describe a systematic evaluation of clinical protocols, to analyse their quality in order to enable their implementation.

Prognostic value of early reassessment of reduced ejection fraction in acute heart failure.

Background And Objectives: An improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients with heart failure (HF) is associated with a better prognosis. Identifying these subjects early after an episode of decompensation, the necessary threshold of LVEF improvement, and its predictive factors are of great interest.

Patients And Methods: One hundred and ten patients hospitalized for HF were prospectively reassessed at an early outpatient visit (mean of 38 days).

Absence of cystatin C involvement in ventricular remodelling and heart failure.

Unlabelled: Cystatin C (CysC) is a protease encoded by housekeeping genes. Although its prognostic value in heart failure (HF) is well known, it is debatable whether this value is due to the greater accuracy of CysC in calculating the glomerular filtration rate or to its involvement in pathological ventricular remodelling. The aim of this study was to determine whether CysC expression changes in the myocardium of foetuses of different ages and in the myocardium of adults with various cardiovascular diseases, as well as to analyse the correlation between its serum concentrations and cardiac structure and morphology in a patient group with HF.