Publications by authors named "Munehisa Sakamoto"

Patients hospitalized for heart failure (HF) experience impairments in functional status, primarily affecting basic activities of daily living (ADL). We investigated the independent effect of functional status for ADL on patient-centered outcomes (i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Research shows that women with supra-normal left ventricular ejection fraction (snEF) have a higher risk of adverse heart failure outcomes compared to men, particularly in the mildly reduced EF (HFmrEF) category.
  • A study involving nearly 4,000 heart failure patients found that women were less likely to receive guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) compared to men, which could impact their health outcomes.
  • The findings suggest a U-shaped relationship between left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and long-term health risks, indicating the need for sex-specific treatment guidelines to improve heart failure management for women.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Current guidelines recommend starting multiple cardioprotective drugs early for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, but the best order for administering these drugs is not well-established, indicating a need for personalized treatment plans.
  • The LAQUA-HF trial will compare the effects of long-acting versus short-acting loop diuretics alongside different neurohormonal agents, enrolling 240 patients to assess health status changes over 6 months.
  • Ethical approval has been granted for the trial, ensuring informed consent from participants, with results intended for broader dissemination to the medical community.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Many patients with acute heart failure (AHF) are not receiving the recommended guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) during their hospital stay.
  • In a study of over 3,000 hospitalized AHF patients, only 17.1% were given an increased dosage of GDMT at discharge despite 75% being eligible.
  • Higher rates of drug dosage increases were linked to better long-term outcomes, highlighting the need for improved adherence to GDMT guidelines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Interest in clinical course preceding heart failure (HF) exacerbation has grown, with a greater emphasis placed on patients' clinical factors including precipitant factor (PF). Large-scale studies with precise PF documentation and temporal-outcome variation remain limited.

Methods: We reviewed prospectively collected 2412 consecutive patient-level records from a multicenter Japanese registry of hospitalized patients with HF (West Tokyo Heart Failure2 Registry: 2018-2020).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Clinical congestion is a major reason for hospital admissions in acute heart failure (AHF), yet few studies have deeply explored its patterns and prognostic significance.
  • A study of 3,151 patients utilized statistical analysis to identify three groups based on physical congestive signs: 'no physical congestion,' 'congestion without jugular vein distention (JVD),' and 'congestion with JVD.'
  • The findings revealed that patients with 'congestion with JVD' faced the highest risk for negative outcomes within a year, emphasizing the importance of JVD in assessing long-term risks for AHF patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background The burden of noncardiovascular conditions is becoming increasingly prevalent in patients with heart failure (HF). We aimed to identify novel phenogroups incorporating noncardiovascular conditions to facilitate understanding and risk stratification in elderly patients with HF. Methods and Results Data from a total of 1881 (61.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Recent trials on novel heart failure (HF) treatments (angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor, sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor, and ivabradine) emphasize the use of conventional medical therapy (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, beta-blockers [BB], and mineral corticosteroid receptor antagonists). We aimed to evaluate the prescription rate of conventional medical therapy and its association with long-term outcomes in patients eligible for recent trials.

Methods: We examined 1295 consecutive patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) from a multicenter registry (WET-HF registry).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pseudoaneurysms are a rare complication of cardiovascular surgery, caused by disruption of the aortic structure (adventitia, media, and intima). Some reports have observed an extremely high mortality rate associated with the open surgical repair of pseudoaneurysms. In elderly or highly frail patients, the use of less invasive procedures is preferable.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) and cardiac computed tomography (CCT), in addition to standard transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), have been used to identify left atrial (LA) thrombi prior to ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF). The clinical advantages of this, however, remain unclear. This study therefore investigated the advantages of additional pre-procedural LA appendage (LAA) thrombus evaluation using ICE and the clinical value of CCT in persistent and long-standing persistent AF.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Preprocedural dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) has been shown to improve outcomes; however, the efficacy of the procedure and its complications in Japanese patients remain largely unexplored, so we examined the risks and benefits of DAPT before PCI and its association with in-hospital outcomes.

Methods and results: We analyzed data from patients who had undergone PCI at 12 centers within the metropolitan Tokyo area between September 2008 and September 2013.Our study group comprised 6,528 patients, of whom 2,079 (31.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The use of loop diuretics has been shown to deteriorate renal dysfunction and is associated with a poor prognosis in patients with heart failure (HF). Tolvaptan, a vasopressin V2-receptor antagonist, has been reported to be effective in treating HF due to its potent effects of water diuresis and is expected to improve fluid retention without adversely affecting renal function. The present case is a 77-year-old man with pulmonary hypertension associated with chronic pulmonary artery thrombosis and old pulmonary tuberculosis who developed worsening right-sided HF with marked fluid retention and renal dysfunction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although primary aldosteronism had been recognized to be a treatable type of hypertension, it was recently suggested to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular complications. Coronary artery aneurysm is a rare complication after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation, and a giant coronary aneurysm is very rare. The present case is a 51-year-old, hypertensive patient with primary aldosteronism who developed myocardial infarction, a giant coronary aneurysm after DES implantation, and then cerebral hemorrhage.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To investigate the outcome-cost relationship of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) during 1 year in Japan and other countries. Foreign databases showing similar coronary events to those observed in Japan during the follow-up period were chosen.

Methods: The Japanese multicenter prospective observational cost database (JSIC) was compared to the Stent Restenosis Study (STRESS), a university hospital (DUKE), Arterial Revascularization Therapies Study (ARTS), and the Primary Angioplasty in Myocardial Infarction trial (PAMI).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF