The Impact of Neurological Complications in Endocarditis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Infective endocarditis (IE) is associated with significant neurological complications (NCs). The impact of neurological sequelae due to IE, however, is not well characterized. Thus, the aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to determine whether patients who experienced NCs from IE had worse outcomes compared to those without neurological complications.

Future of invasive and non-invasive hemodynamic assessment for coronary artery disease management.

Coronary artery disease represents a global health challenge. Accurate diagnosis and evaluation of hemodynamic parameters are crucial for optimizing patient management and outcomes. Nowadays a wide range of both non-invasive and invasive methods are available to assess the hemodynamic impact of both epicardial coronary stenosis and vasomotor disorders.

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors-Associated Myocarditis: Diagnosis, Treatment and Current Status on Rechallenge.

Immune checkpoint molecules like cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4), programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) or its ligand, programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), play a critical role in regulating the immune response, and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) targeting these checkpoints have shown clinical efficacy in cancer treatment; however, their use is associated with immune-related adverse events (irAEs), including cardiac complications. The prevalence of cardiac irAEs, particularly myocarditis, is relatively low, but they can become a severe and potentially life-threatening condition, usually occurring shortly after initiating ICI treatment; moreover, diagnosing ICI-related myocarditis can be challenging. Diagnostic tools include serum cardiac biomarkers, electrocardiography (ECG), echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and endomyocardial biopsy (EMB).

The Use of Multimodality Imaging for the Diagnosis of Myocardial Outpouchings and Invaginations: A Systematic Review.

Cardiac ventricular outpouchings and invaginations are rare structural abnormalities and usually incidental findings during cardiac imaging. A definitive diagnosis is possible through the use of multimodality imaging. A systematic review of the literature was carried out in November 2022 to identify studies regarding ventricular outpouchings and invaginations.

Drug-based cardiovascular prevention in patients with Marfan Syndrome: a systematic review.

Introduction: Marfan Syndrome (MFS) is a rare and complex genetic disorder associated with increased aortic growth and aortic disease. The effectiveness of cardiovascular medical therapies aiming to slow down aortic growth has been tested in several trials, particularly beta-blockers and angiotensin receptor blockers, however showing conflicting results.

Evidence Acquisition: We conducted a systematic review on PubMed (Medline), Cochrane library, Google Scholar, and Biomed Central databases between January and February 2022.

[Clinical application and limitations of bicycle stress echocardiography (echo-bike)].

Stress echocardiography is an imaging methodology that is widely used in cardiopathic patients for the optimization of diagnosis and prognosis of patients with valvular heart diseases, in defining the response to physical stress in patients with ischemic heart disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, congenital heart disease, or heart failure. However, this method is not yet sufficiently used in clinical practice. Therefore, the aim of this literature review is to describe the main fields of application of stress echocardiography with echo-bike, describing its main advantages and limitations.

The role of stress echocardiography in transcatheter aortic valve implantation and transcatheter edge-to-edge repair era: A systematic review.

Objectives: In the last decade, percutaneous treatment of valve disease has changed the approach toward the treatment of aortic stenosis (AS) and mitral regurgitation (MR). The clinical usefulness of stress echocardiography (SE) in the candidates for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) and transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) of MR remains to be established. Therefore, the key aim of this review is to assess the main applications of SE in patients undergoing TAVI or TEER.

Unsolved Questions in the Revascularization of Older Myocardial Infarction Patients with Multivessel Disease.

Background: In cardiology, the global phenomenon of population ageing poses new major challenges, ranging from more comorbid and frail patients to the presence of complex, calcified and multiple coronary lesions. Considering that elderly patients are under-represented in randomized clinical trials (RCT), the aim of this systematic review is to summarize the current knowledge on the revascularization of the elderly patient with myocardial infarction and multivessel coronary artery disease.

Methods: A systematic review following PRISMA guidelines has been performed.

[Screening for atrial fibrillation in the general population: experience from a cardiovascular risk campaign in the Emilia-Romagna Region].

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major cause of cerebral ischemia, and its early detection may impact on health. Both invasive and non-invasive devices can be used for the diagnosis of AF. The aim of our study was to estimate the prevalence of AF using a single-lead ECG device (MyDiagnostickTM) on an adult, asymptomatic population during a screening campaign.