Donor-derived cell-free DNA as a new biomarker for cardiac allograft rejection: A prospective study (FreeDNA-CAR).

Background: There is a long-standing need for a noninvasive biomarker that allows monitoring of cardiac allograft rejection, avoiding the need for periodic endomyocardial biopsies (EMB).

Methods: Multicenter, observational, prospective study, performed between 2019 and 2023 (NCT04973943). All patients underwent 7 per-protocol surveillance EMB during the first postheart transplantation year.

Heart failure in Europe: Guideline-directed medical therapy use and decision making in chronic and acute, pre-existing and de novo, heart failure with reduced, mildly reduced, and preserved ejection fraction - the ESC EORP Heart Failure III Registry.

Aims: We analysed baseline characteristics and guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) use and decisions in the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Heart Failure (HF) III Registry.

Methods And Results: Between 1 November 2018 and 31 December 2020, 10 162 patients with acute HF (AHF, 39%, age 70 [62-79], 36% women) or outpatient visit for HF (61%, age 66 [58-75], 33% women), with HF with reduced (HFrEF, 57%), mildly reduced (HFmrEF, 17%) or preserved (HFpEF, 26%) ejection fraction were enrolled from 220 centres in 41 European or ESC-affiliated countries. With AHF, 97% were hospitalized, 2.

Structural heart transcatheter interventions in orthotopic cardiac transplant and left ventricular assist devices recipients: A nationwide study.

Background: The current incidence and outcomes of structural transcatheter procedures in heart transplant (HTx) recipients and left-ventricular assist devices (LVAD) carriers is unknown.

Aims: To provide insights on structural transcatheter procedures performed across HTx and LVAD patients in Spain.

Methods: Multicenter, ambispective, observational nationwide registry.

2023 Focused Update of the 2021 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure: Developed by the task force for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) With the special contribution of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC.

Document Reviewers: Rudolf A. de Boer (CPG Review Co-ordinator) (Netherlands), P. Christian Schulze (CPG Review Co-ordinator) (Germany), Elena Arbelo (Spain), Jozef Bartunek (Belgium), Johann Bauersachs (Germany), Michael A.

Review of the allocation criteria for heart transplant in Spain in 2023. SEC-Heart Failure Association/ONT/SECCE consensus document.

Heart transplant (HT) remains the best therapeutic option for patients with advanced heart failure (HF). The allocation criteria aim to guarantee equitable access to HT and prioritize patients with a worse clinical status. To review the HT allocation criteria, the Heart Failure Association of the Spanish Society of Cardiology (HFA-SEC), the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular and Endovascular Surgery (SECCE) and the National Transplant Organization (ONT), organized a consensus conference involving adult and pediatric cardiologists, adult and pediatric cardiac surgeons, transplant coordinators from all over Spain, and physicians and nurses from the ONT.

Conduction system pacing and atrioventricular node ablation in heart failure: The PACE-FIB study design.

Aims: Atrial fibrillation (AF) worsens the prognosis of patients with heart failure (HF). Successful treatments are still very scarce for those with permanent AF and preserved (HFpEF) or mildly reduced (HFmrEF) ejection fraction. In this study, the long-term benefits and safety profile of heart rate regularization through left-bundle branch pacing (LBBP) and atrioventricular node ablation (AVNA) will be explored in comparison with pharmacological rate-control strategy.

Repetitive ambulatory levosimendan as a bridge to heart transplantation.

Introduction And Objectives: Repetitive ambulatory doses of levosimendan are an option as a bridge to heart transplantation (HT), but evidence regarding the safety and efficacy of this treatment is scarce. The objective of the LEVO-T Registry is to describe the profile of patients on the HT list receiving levosimendan, prescription patterns, and clinical outcomes compared with patients not on levosimendan.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all patients listed for elective HT from 2015 to 2020 from 14 centers in Spain.

Mortality After the First Hospital Admission for Acute Heart Failure, De Novo Versus Acutely Decompensated Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction.

It is not clear to date whether a first admission in heart failure (HF) marks a worse evolution in patients not previously diagnosed with HF ("de novo HF") than those already diagnosed as outpatients ("acutely decompensated HF"). The aim of the study was to analyze whether survival in patients admitted for de novo HF differs from the survival in those admitted for a first episode of decompensation but with a previous diagnosis of HF. This study includes an analysis of 1,728 patients admitted for decompensated HF during 9 years.

Specialized Proresolving Mediators Protect Against Experimental Autoimmune Myocarditis by Modulating Ca Handling and NRF2 Activation.

Specialized proresolving mediators and, in particular, 5(S), (6)R, 7-trihydroxyheptanoic acid methyl ester (BML-111) emerge as new therapeutic tools to prevent cardiac dysfunction and deleterious cardiac damage associated with myocarditis progression. The cardioprotective role of BML-111 is mainly caused by the prevention of increased oxidative stress and nuclear factor erythroid-derived 2-like 2 (NRF2) down-regulation induced by myocarditis. At the molecular level, BML-111 activates NRF2 signaling, which prevents sarcoplasmic reticulum-adenosine triphosphatase 2A down-regulation and Ca mishandling, and attenuates the cardiac dysfunction and tissue damage induced by myocarditis.

Indications, Complications, and Outcomes of Cardiac Surgery After Heart Transplantation: Results From the Cash Study.

Background: Allograft pathologies, such as valvular, coronary artery, or aortic disease, may occur early and late after cardiac transplantation. Cardiac surgery after heart transplantation (CASH) may be an option to improve quality of life and allograft function and prolong survival. Experience with CASH, however, has been limited to single-center reports.

Heart transplantation: focus on donor recovery strategies, left ventricular assist devices, and novel therapies.

Heart transplantation is advocated in selected patients with advanced heart failure in the absence of contraindications. Principal challenges in heart transplantation centre around an insufficient and underutilized donor organ pool, the need to individualize titration of immunosuppressive therapy, and to minimize late complications such as cardiac allograft vasculopathy, malignancy, and renal dysfunction. Advances have served to increase the organ donor pool by advocating the use of donors with underlying hepatitis C virus infection and by expanding the donor source to use hearts donated after circulatory death.

Specific test panels for patients with heart failure: implementation and use in the Spanish National Health System.

Objectives: The use of specific test panels (STP) for heart failure (HF) could help improve the management of this condition. The purpose of this study is to gain an insight into the level of implementation of STPs in the management of HF in Spain and gather the opinions of experts, with a special focus on parameters related to iron metabolism.

Methods: The opinions of experts in HF were gathered in three stages STAGE 1 as follows: level of implementation of STPs (n=40).

Cardiac protection induced by urocortin-2 enables the regulation of apoptosis and fibrosis after ischemia and reperfusion involving miR-29a modulation.

Urocortin-2 (Ucn-2) has demonstrated cardioprotective actions against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injuries. Herein, we explored the protective role of Ucn-2 through microRNAs (miRNAs) post-transcriptional regulation of apoptotic and pro-fibrotic genes. We determined that the intravenous administration of Ucn-2 before heart reperfusion in a Wistar rat model of I/R recovered cardiac contractility and decreased fibrosis, lactate dehydrogenase release, and apoptosis.

Advanced Heart Failure: Definition, Epidemiology, and Clinical Course.

Advanced heart failure (HF) is characterized by a progressive worsening of symptoms disabling for daily life, refractory to all therapies, and with high mortality. These patients may be candidates for life-prolonging therapies, such as heart transplantation (HT) or long-term (LT) mechanical circulatory support (MCS) or must just require palliative therapies. The 1-year survival after HT and/or LT-MCS is approaching 80% to 90%, being patient selection and timely referral to advanced HF centers critical for optimal outcomes.

Results of heart retransplantation: subanalysis of the Spanish Heart Transplant Registry.

Introduction And Objectives: Heart retransplantation (ReHT) is controversial in the current era. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze the results of ReHT in Spain.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort analysis from the Spanish Heart Transplant Registry from 1984 to 2018.

Determinants of maximal oxygen uptake in patients with heart failure.

Aims: Maximum oxygen uptake (VO ) is an essential parameter to assess functional capacity of patients with heart failure (HF). We aimed to identify clinical factors that determine its value, as they have not been well characterized yet.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, observational, single-centre study of 362 consecutive patients with HF who underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) as part of standard clinical assessment since 2009-2019.

Diagnostic and prognostic value of cardiac imaging in amyloidosis.

Amyloidosis is an infiltrative disease caused by extracellular protein deposition that has accumulated a lot of scientific production in recent years. Different types of amyloidosis can affect the heart. Transthyretin amyloidosis and light chain amyloidosis are the two most common types of cardiac amyloidosis.