Telemonitoring versus standard care in heart failure: a randomised multicentre trial.

Aims: The aim was to assess the effect of a telemonitoring programme vs. standard care (SC) in preventing all-cause deaths or unplanned hospitalisations in heart failure (HF) at 18 months.

Methods And Results: OSICAT was a randomised, multicentre, open-label French study in 937 patients hospitalised for acute HF ≤12 months before inclusion.

Early detection of subclinical left ventricular dysfunction after breast cancer radiation therapy using speckle-tracking echocardiography: association between cardiac exposure and longitudinal strain reduction (BACCARAT study).

Background: Breast cancer (BC) radiotherapy (RT) can induce cardiotoxicity, with adverse events often observed many years after BC RT. Subclinical left ventricular (LV) dysfunction can be detected early after BC RT with global longitudinal strain (GLS) measurement based on 2D speckle-tracking echocardiography. This 6-month follow-up analysis from the BACCARAT prospective study aimed to investigate the association between cardiac radiation doses and subclinical LV dysfunction based on GLS reduction.

Early detection and prediction of cardiotoxicity after radiation therapy for breast cancer: the BACCARAT prospective cohort study.

Background: Radiotherapy (RT) for breast cancer presents a benefit in terms of reducing local recurrence and deaths resulting from breast cancer but it can lead to secondary effects due to the presence of neighboring cardiac normal tissues within the irradiation field. Breast RT has been shown to be associated with long-term increased risk of heart failure, coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction and finally cardiovascular death more than 10 years after RT. However, there is still a lack of knowledge for early cardiotoxicity induced by breast RT that can appear long before the onset of clinically significant cardiac events.

Early hemodynamic changes versus peak values: what is more useful to predict occurrence of dyspnea during stress echocardiography in patients with asymptomatic mitral stenosis?

Background: In asymptomatic mitral stenosis (MS), the usefulness of peak exercise Doppler echocardiography (DE) values is acknowledged, but the role of values recorded during the first stage of DE remains unclear.

Methods: DE was analyzed in 48 asymptomatic patients with significant MS and revealed dyspnea in 22 patients (46%).

Results: MS severity and rest and peak systolic pulmonary artery pressures (SPAPs) were not different between patients who did and did not develop dyspnea.

[Stress cardiomyopathy, a topical cardiac disorder].

Stress cardiomyopathy (Tako-Tsubo, Broken Heart syndrome, or apical ballooning syndrome) was recently recognized as a distinct clinical entity. The aims of this review are to define this acute and reversible cardiomyopathy and to list its major clinical, biological and angiographic features. We performed a Medline scan for all relevant case series.

Echocardiographic evaluation of the mitral valve area before and after percutaneous mitral commissurotomy: the pressure half-time method revisited.

Background: Doppler pressure half-time (PHT) is widely used for mitral valve area (MVA) assessment but its accuracy has not been fully evaluated before and after percutaneous mitral commissurotomy (PMC) in a large series of patients.

Methods: In 120 patients with severe mitral stenosis, MVA(PHT) was prospectively evaluated before and 24 to 48 hours after PMC and compared with 2-dimensional planimetry (MVA(2D)) as a reference method.

Results: After PMC, MVA(2D) significantly increased (1.

Extracellular matrix remodelling in human aortic valve disease: the role of matrix metalloproteinases and their tissue inhibitors.

Aims: Aortic valve diseases are characterized by pathological remodelling of valvular tissue but the cellular and molecular effectors involved in these processes are not well known. The role of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9, MMP-3, MMP-7, and tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 and TIMP-2 are investigated here.

Methods And Results: Histological analysis of pathological valves [aortic stenosis (AS) (n=49), aortic regurgitation (AR) (n=23)] and control valves (n=8) was performed.

Temporal trends in percutaneous mitral commissurotomy over a 15-year period.

Aims: To evaluate temporal trends in percutaneous mitral commissurotomy (PMC) in terms of changes in patient characteristics and their impact on immediate results.

Methods And Results: From 1986 to 2001, PMC was indicated in 2773 consecutive patients. Patient characteristics and results were compared each year and linear trends were analysed.

Contemporary results of mitral valve repair for infective endocarditis.

Objectives: We sought to evaluate the feasibility and immediate and late results of mitral valve repair (MVRep) for acute and healed endocarditis.

Background: Improvements in techniques of MVRep have extended its feasibility in complex lesions, but experience with endocarditis is limited.

Methods: Among 78 patients operated on for mitral endocarditis between 1990 and 1999, 63 underwent MVRep.