J Cardiovasc Med (Hagerstown)
November 2024
Aims: Secondary mitral regurgitation (MR) negatively affects prognosis in acutely decompensated heart failure (ADHF), but can be rapidly sensitive to changes in volume status and medical interventions. We sought to assess the evolution of secondary MR in patients hospitalized for ADHF and its prognostic implications.
Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 782 patients admitted for ADHF with at least two in-hospital echocardiographic evaluations of MR.
Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging
September 2024
A dyssynchronous biventricular activation, which can be determined by left bundle branch block, chronic right ventricular pacing, frequent premature ventricular complexes, or pre-excitation, can cause a global abnormal contractility, thus leading to systolic dysfunction and left ventricular remodelling in a unique nosological entities: abnormal conduction-induced cardiomyopathies. In this clinical scenario, the mainstay therapy is eliminating or improving LV dyssynchrony, removing the trigger. This usually ensures the improvement and even recovery of cardiac geometry and left ventricular function, especially in the absence of genetic background.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Cardiovasc Med (Hagerstown)
March 2024
Aim: The impact of mitral regurgitation (MR) in patients with advanced heart failure (HF) is poorly known. We aimed to evaluate the impact of MR on clinical outcomes of a real-world, contemporary, multicentre population with advanced HF.
Methods: The HELP-HF registry enrolled patients with HF and at least one "I NEED HELP" criterion, at four Italian centres between January 2020 and November 2021.
Background: The changing demographic of heart failure (HF) increases the exposure to non-cardiovascular (non-CV) events. We investigated the distribution of non-CV mortality/morbidity and the characteristics associated with higher risk of non-CV events in patients with advanced HF.
Methods: Patients from the HELP-HF registry were stratified according to the number of 2018 HFA-ESC criteria for advanced HF.
Aim: Persistent symptoms despite guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) and poor tolerance of GDMT are hallmarks of patients with advanced heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). However, real-world data on GDMT use, dose, and prognostic implications are lacking.
Methods And Results: We included 699 consecutive patients with HFrEF and at least one 'I NEED HELP' marker for advanced HF enrolled in a multicentre registry.
Background: The "I Need Help" markers have been proposed to identify patients with advanced heart failure (HF). We evaluated the prognostic impact of these markers on clinical outcomes in a real-world, contemporary, multicenter HF population.
Methods: We included consecutive patients with HF and at least 1 high-risk "I Need Help" marker from 4 centers.
Aims: Patients with heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (EF) (HFrEF), mildly reduced EF (HFmrEF), and preserved EF (HFpEF) may all progress to advanced HF, but the impact of EF in the advanced setting is not well established. Our aim was to assess the prognostic impact of EF in patients with at least one 'I NEED HELP' marker for advanced HF.
Methods And Results: Patients with HF and at least one high-risk 'I NEED HELP' criterion from four centres were included in this analysis.
Background: Electrocardiographic (ECG) findings in arrhythmogenic left ventricular cardiomyopathy (ALVC) are limited to small case series.
Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the ECG characteristics of ALVC patients and to correlate ECG with cardiac magnetic resonance and genotype data.
Methods: We reviewed data of 54 consecutive ALVC patients (32 men, age 39 ± 15 years) and compared them with 84 healthy controls with normal cardiac magnetic resonance.
Advances in cancer therapies have led to a global improvement in patient survival rates. Nevertheless, the price to pay is a concomitant increase in cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality in this population. Increased inflammation and disturbances of the immune system are shared by both cancer and CV diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCirc Cardiovasc Imaging
July 2023
Dilated cardiomyopathy is a primitive heart muscle condition, characterized by structural and functional abnormalities, in the absence of a specific cause sufficient to determine the disease. It is, though, an 'umbrella' term that describes the final common pathway of different pathogenic processes and gene-environment interactions. Performing an accurate diagnostic workup and appropriate characterization of the patient has a direct impact on the patient's outcome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLeft ventricular (LV) systolic function is an essential parameter for the evaluation of patients with ischaemic heart disease, and therapeutic choices are significantly driven by LV ejection fraction (LVEF) in the early stage of the disease and during follow-up. After an acute coronary syndrome, ventricular dysfunction may be reversible when caused by transient myocardial stunning. Therefore, the identification of clinical, laboratory, and instrumental predictors of improvement in LV systolic function (in addition to LVEF) is essential for an adequate prognostic stratification.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe first rice virus detected in Argentina was Rice stripe necrosis virus (RSNV), a benyvirus known to cause "entorchamiento" due to its characteristic symptom of leaf crinkling. As part of this study, it was proposed to sequence plants naturally infected with RSNV that presented another symptom such as thickening of veins, serrated edges, chlorosis that turns necrotic and dwarfism to detect the presence of other viruses in mixed infections. We worked with 20 rice plants sampled in the San Javier area (Santa Fe, Argentina) and that were positive for RSNV by serology using anti-RSNV antiserum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe reduced availability of human donor hearts compared with the needs of patients with advanced heart failure refractory to medical therapy has promoted the search for therapeutic alternatives to cardiac allografts. Porcine heart xenotransplantation represents one of the most promising frontiers in this field today. From the first researches in the 1960s to today, the numerous advances achieved in the field of surgical techniques, genetic engineering and immunosuppression have made it possible at the beginning of 2022 to carry out the first swine-to-human heart transplant, attaining a survival of 2 months after surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: The Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology (HFA-ESC) proposed a definition of advanced heart failure (HF) that has not been validated, yet. We assessed its prognostic impact in a consecutive series of patients with high-risk HF.
Methods And Results: The HELP-HF registry enrolled consecutive patients with HF and at least one high-risk 'I NEED HELP' marker, evaluated at four Italian centres between 1 January 2020 and 30 November 2021.
Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) is one of the most commonly used drugs in the world. It derives from the extract of white willow bark, whose therapeutic potential was known in Egypt since 1534 BC. ASA's pharmacological effects are historically considered secondary to its anti-inflammatory, platelet-inhibiting properties; however, human studies demonstrating a pro-inflammatory effect of ASA exist.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtracellular vesicles (EV) mediate the therapeutic effects of stem cells but it is unclear whether this involves cardiac regeneration mediated by endogenous cardiomyocyte proliferation. Bi-transgenic MerCreMer/ZEG (n = 15/group) and Mosaic Analysis With Double Markers (MADM; n = 6/group) mouse models underwent permanent coronary artery ligation and received, 3 weeks later, 10 billion EV (from human iPS-derived cardiovascular progenitor cells [CPC]), or saline, injected percutaneously under echo guidance in the peri-infarcted myocardium. Endogenous cardiomyocyte proliferation was tracked by EdU labeling and biphoton microscopy.
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