Publications by authors named "Rafael Vazquez-Garcia"

Objectives: To gather opinions, recommendations, and proposals for improvement from Spanish clinicians on cardiovascular (CV) health, with particular focus on dyslipidemia management.

Methods: The Expert Insights project involved 8face-to-face sessions held throughout Spain, attended by 138 CV health experts. Clinicians answered to 25 questions survey related to CV health and dyslipidemia control.

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Background: Cardiac rehabilitation is fundamental among patients recovering from a coronary event, and mHealth technology may constitute a useful tool that provides guidelines based on scientific evidence in an entertaining, attractive, and user-friendly format.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the efficacy of an mHealth intervention involving the eMOTIVA app and that of usual care regarding compliance with cardiac rehabilitation guidelines in terms of lifestyle, cardiovascular risk factors, and satisfaction among patients with acute coronary syndrome.

Methods: A randomized controlled clinical trial with a parallel group design was conducted.

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Background: Coronary heart disease is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. Secondary prevention is essential, as it reduces the risk of further coronary events. Mobile health (mHealth) technology could become a useful tool to improve lifestyles.

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Background: Coronary disease is the main cause of death around the world. mHealth technology is considered attractive and promising to promote behavioural changes aimed at healthy lifestyle habits among coronary patients. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of an mHealth intervention regarding improved results in secondary prevention in patients after an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or angina in terms of lifestyle, clinical variables and therapeutic compliance.

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A 70-year-old woman consulted us for dyspnea. Echocardiography revealed moderate aortic regurgitation secondary to ascending aorta dilatation. Study was completed with aortic angiography computed tomography, showing stenosis and dissection of several visceral arteries.

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Aortic valve stenosis (AS) induces an alteration in hemodynamic conditions that are responsible for coronary microvasculature impairment. Relief of AS by transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is expected to improve the coronary artery hemodynamic. We aimed to assess the midterm effects of TAVI in coronary flow reserve (CFR) and myocardial resistance reserve (MRR) by a continuous intracoronary thermodilution technique.

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Aims: The aim of our study was to analyse the response to short-coupled atrial extrastimuli to identify areas of hidden slow conduction (HSC) and their relationship with the atrial fibrillation (AF) phenotype.

Methods And Results: Twenty consecutive patients with paroxysmal AF and persistent AF (10:10) underwent the first pulmonary vein isolation procedure. Triple short-coupled extrastimuli were delivered in sinus rhythm (SR), and the evoked response was analysed: sites exhibiting double or highly fragmented electrograms (EGM) were defined as positive for HSC (HSC+).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess how coronary artery disease (CAD) influences mortality and readmission rates in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
  • Out of 1,831 hospitalized heart failure patients, 583 had HFrEF, with 266 having CAD and 137 having idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) as the primary causes.
  • Results showed similar one-year mortality and readmission rates for both groups, but those with idiopathic DCM were significantly more likely to receive a heart transplant compared to those with CAD.
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Background: Coronary artery disease is the main cause of death and loss of disability-adjusted life years worldwide. Information and communication technology has become an important part of health care systems, including the innovative cardiac rehabilitation services through mobile phone and mobile health (mHealth) interventions.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to determine the effectiveness of different kinds of mHealth programs in changing lifestyle behavior, promoting adherence to treatment, and controlling modifiable cardiovascular risk factors and psychosocial outcomes in patients who have experienced a coronary event.

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Background: Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is a very common condition in routine practice and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality all around the world.

Objetive: To determine the impact of a strategy based on strict control and close follow-up for patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) through the use of "post-ACS virtual lipid visits" on lipid-lowering therapy, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), and outcomes.

Methods: Prospective study that consecutively included patients with ACS during 2020.

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Background: Previous studies showed conflicting results regarding the contribution of coronary collateral circulation (CCC) to myocardial perfusion and function in the setting of myocardial infarction (MI). In the primary angioplasty era, the role of CCC in these studies may have been influenced by the effect of early reperfusion. The true impact of CCC could be clarified by studying its effect on nonreperfused patients.

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Background: It is important for health professionals to have tools available to assess patients' knowledge of lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors after they have suffered a coronary event and determine whether educational interventions are effective. This study aims to design and validate a scale to evaluate this knowledge.

Methods: Four-phase instrument design: (A) Conceptual review.

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Introduction: Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is an inflammatory marker associated with the development and progression of heart failure (HF). A close relationship between Gal-3 levels and renal function has been observed, but data on their interaction in patients with acute HF (AHF) are scarce. We aim to assess the prognostic relationship between renal function and Gal-3 during an AHF episode.

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Background: In early 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic caused an unprecedented overload for the health service. A decrease in admissions for Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) was reported during lockdown, although many aspects remain to be clarified. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the pandemic and of lockdown itself in this area.

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Coronary heart disease is one of the main causes of morbimortality around the world. Patients that survive a coronary event suffer a high risk of readmission, relapse and mortality, attributed to the sub-optimal control of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF), which highlights the need to improve secondary prevention strategies aimed at improving their lifestyle and adherence to treatment. Through a randomized controlled clinical trial, this study aims to evaluate the effect of an intervention involving an online health application supported by a mobile telephone or tablet (mHealth) on lifestyle (diet, physical activity, and tobacco consumption) and treatment adherence among people with coronary heart disease after percutaneous coronary intervention.

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Background: The use of ionizing radiation during cardiac catheterization interventions adversely impacts the medical staff. Traditional radiation protection equipment is only partially effective. The Cathpax® radiation protection cabin (RPC) has proven to significantly reduce radiation exposure in electrophysiological and neuroradiology interventions.

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Coronary heart disease is common in heart failure (HF). Our aim was to determine the impact of ischemic etiology on prognosis among men and women with HF. This study is a prospective national multicenter registry.

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Background: Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is the "gold standard" for assessing the physiological significance of coronary disease. In the last decade, several alternative adenosine-free indexes have been proposed in order to facilitate the dissemination of the functional evaluation of coronary stenosis. Our aim was to investigate whether radiographic contrast plus intracoronary nitroglycerin (cFFR-NTG) can predict functional assessment of coronary stenosis offering superior diagnostic agreement with FFR compared to non-hyperemic indexes and contrast mediated FFR (cFFR).

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Coronary flow reserve (CFR) is a well-validated flow-based physiological parameter that has shown value in clinical risk stratification. CFR can be invasively assessed, classically by Doppler and, more recently, by thermodilution with saline boluses (CFR). Alternatively, continuous thermodilution is a novel operator-independent, highly-reproducible technique to invasively quantify maximum absolute coronary flow (AF).

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Background: Available information about prognostic implications of potassium levels alteration in the setting of acute heart failure (AHF) is scarce.

Objectives: We aim to describe the prevalence of dyskalemia (hypo or hyperkalemia), its dynamic changes during AHF-hospitalization, and its long-term clinical impact after hospitalization.

Methods: We analyzed 1779 patients hospitalized with AHF who were included in the REDINSCOR II registry.

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Current European guidelines on chronic coronary syndromes recommend the use of low-dose aspirin (or clopidogrel if intolerance or contraindication occurs) throughout life. However, as the risk of recurrent vascular events is high, particularly in some patients (i.e.

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Background: Identifying readmission predictors in heart failure (HF) patients may help guide preventative efforts and save costs. We aimed to identify 15- and 30-day readmission predictors due to cardiovascular reasons.

Methods And Results: A total of 1831 patients with acute HF admission were prospectively followed during a year.

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Exposure to ionizing radiation during cardiac catheterization can have harmful consequences for patients and for the medical staff involved in the procedures. Minimizing radiation doses during the procedures is essential. We investigated whether fine-tuning the radiation protocol reduces radiation doses in the cardiac catheterization laboratory.

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Background: Medical therapy could improve the prognosis of real-life patients discharged after a heart failure (HF) hospitalisation.

Aim: To determine the impact of discharge HF treatment on mortality and readmissions in different left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) groups.

Methods: Multicentre prospective registry in 20 Spanish hospitals.

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