Publications by authors named "Scherr D"
In 1924, the Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram (ECG). Anno 2024, the ECG is commonly used as a diagnostic tool in cardiology. In the paper 'Le Télécardiogramme', Einthoven described the first recording of the now most common cardiac arrhythmia: atrial fibrillation (AF).
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: There are limited data about left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) in patients with cancer. We therefore sought to compare the outcome after LAAC in patients with vs. without cancer in a multicentre registry.
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- The peQasus study evaluates the safety and effectiveness of a new temperature-controlled high-power short-duration (HPSD) radiofrequency catheter (QDOT Micro) for pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF).
- Conducted across 15 centers in Europe, the study involved 1,023 patients and compared outcomes between a very HPSD technique and a hybrid approach.
- Results indicated complete PVI success, a mean procedure time of about 98 minutes, and a similar safety profile for both techniques, with 12-month arrhythmia-free survival rates around 77%.
Computational models of atrial fibrillation (AF) can help improve success rates of interventions, such as ablation. However, evaluating the efficacy of different treatments requires performing multiple costly simulations by pacing at different points and checking whether AF has been induced or not, hindering the clinical application of these models. In this work, we propose a classification method that can predict AF inducibility in patient-specific cardiac models without running additional simulations.
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- Advanced urothelial cancer displays significant genetic diversity and involves complex interactions between internal and external mutagens, which contributes to its deadly nature.
- The study revealed that APOBEC3-induced mutations occur early during tumor development, while chemotherapy leads to a surge of later mutations, with both processes affecting the structure of extrachromosomal DNA.
- Findings emphasized the role of circular ecDNA in the development of treatment resistance, specifically through CCND1 amplifications, highlighting key mechanisms that can inform future cancer therapies.
Article Synopsis
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common heart disease that makes the heart muscle thicker, and it can be inherited from family.
- In Austria, about 20,000 to 40,000 people might have this condition, but it's often hard to diagnose because it shows up in many different ways.
- Early diagnosis and genetic testing are important to help patients and their families, and new treatments are available that can help without surgery.
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- The study explores the effectiveness of using a smartphone app to monitor the time patients spend experiencing atrial fibrillation (AF) and related symptoms after AF ablation.
- A total of 484 patients participated, showing high adherence and satisfaction with the app, which measured AF and symptom data three times daily.
- Results indicated strong correlations between AF and symptom recordings, with most patients showing a paroxysmal AF pattern, suggesting successful monitoring through the app could aid in evaluating patient outcomes post-ablation.
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- Advanced bipolar radiofrequency catheter ablation (Bi-RFA) is being studied as a new treatment for patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT) and premature ventricular contractions (PVC) that do not respond to standard unipolar radiofrequency ablation (Uni-RFA).
- A multicenter registry conducted in Europe showed that out of 91 patients treated with Bi-RFA, 74% achieved elimination of clinical VT/PVC, and 78% experienced a significant reduction in PVC burden during follow-up.
- The procedure was found to be generally safe and feasible, though there were some major complications reported, indicating that Bi-RFA could be a valid option for managing refractory VT/PVC
Article Synopsis
- * Current methods using a standard 12-lead ECG often fail to pinpoint the exact locations of these accessory pathways (APs), leading to challenges in successful treatment outcomes.
- * The study employs a virtual cardiac model to analyze the relationship between AP location and ECG signals, providing insights into the limitations of current diagnostic methods and suggesting that these models can improve ECG accuracy and personalized treatment approaches.
Background: Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) have beneficial pleiotropic effects, contributing to improved cardiovascular and renal outcomes for patients with and without diabetes. The impact of SGLT2is on arrhythmic burden remains largely unexplored through randomized trials.
Methods: In this multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, we investigated the effects of ertugliflozin on arrhythmic burden among patients with heart failure with an ejection fraction less than 50%.
Background: Short and rare episodes of atrial fibrillation (AF) are commonly detected using implanted devices (device-detected AF) in patients with prior stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). The effectiveness and safety of oral anticoagulation in patients with prior stroke or TIA and device-detected AF but with no ECG-documented AF is unclear.
Methods And Results: This prespecified analysis of the NOAH-AFNET 6 (Non-Vitamin K Antagonist Oral Anticoagulants in Patients With Atrial High Rate Episodes) trial with post hoc elements assessed the effect of oral anticoagulation in patients with device-detected AF with and without a prior stroke or TIA in the randomized, double-blind, double-dummy NOAH-AFNET 6 trial.
This report from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Atlas Project updates and expands upon the 2021 report in presenting cardiovascular disease (CVD) statistics for the ESC member countries. This paper examines inequalities in cardiovascular healthcare and outcomes in ESC member countries utilizing mortality and risk factor data from the World Health Organization and the Global Burden of Disease study with additional economic data from the World Bank. Cardiovascular healthcare data were collected by questionnaire circulated to the national cardiac societies of ESC member countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is common in heart failure (HF) and negatively impacts outcomes. The role of ablation-based rhythm control in patients with AF and HF with preserved (HFpEF) or mildly reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF) is not known. The CABA-HFPEF-DZHK27 (CAtheter-Based Ablation of atrial fibrillation compared to conventional treatment in patients with Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction) trial will determine whether early catheter ablation for AF can prevent adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with HFpEF or HFmrEF.
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- Researchers developed a new risk score called ABC-AS for predicting outcomes in patients with severe aortic stenosis undergoing aortic valve replacement, using a neuronal network model.
- The study involved 3,595 patients, split into test and validation groups, utilizing variables such as age, high-sensitivity troponin T levels, and cardiac history to create the score.
- Findings showed that the ABC-AS score outperformed the existing Society of Thoracic Surgery Predictive Risk score in predicting both 30-day and overall cardiovascular mortality, highlighting its potential as a better risk assessment tool.
Article Synopsis
- Pulsed field ablation (PFA) is a new method for treating atrial fibrillation (AF) that focuses on ablating heart tissue while minimizing harm to nearby structures.
- In the MANIFEST-17K study, data from 106 centers involved 17,642 patients and showed no serious complications like esophageal damage, with only a 1% major complication rate.
- The results suggest that PFA has a strong safety profile and may change how AF is treated, compared to traditional thermal ablation methods.
Background And Objective: Data from electro-anatomical mapping (EAM) systems are playing an increasingly important role in computational modeling studies for the patient-specific calibration of digital twin models. However, data exported from commercial EAM systems are challenging to access and parse. Converting to data formats that are easily amenable to be viewed and analyzed with commonly used cardiac simulation software tools such as openCARP remains challenging.
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- * A post-hoc analysis focused on 181 patients from the trial examined the relationship between baseline ECG metrics and the cardiac improvements observed with empagliflozin treatment.
- * The analysis revealed that while certain ECG metrics like QRS width and heart rate showed correlations with cardiac parameters, baseline ECG characteristics did not predict the benefits of empagliflozin on NT-proBNP levels or changes in heart function/structure within 26 weeks post-AMI.
Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) coexist, increasing morbidity and mortality. Studies have demonstrated improved outcomes following AF ablation in HF patients with reduced ejection fraction (EF).
Objective: To assess the outcomes of pulsed-field ablation (PFA) in HF.
Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) coexist, increasing morbidity and mortality. Studies have demonstrated improved outcomes following AF ablation in HF patients with reduced ejection fraction (EF).
Objective: This study sought to assess the outcomes of pulsed field ablation (PFA) in HF.
Pulsed field ablation (PFA) is an innovative approach in the field of cardiac electrophysiology aimed at treating cardiac arrhythmias. Unlike traditional catheter ablation energies, which use radiofrequency or cryothermal energy to create lesions in the heart, PFA utilizes pulsed electric fields to induce irreversible electroporation, leading to targeted tissue destruction. This state-of-the-art review summarizes biophysical principles and clinical applications of PFA, highlighting its potential advantages over conventional ablation methods.
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- Catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common procedure in electrophysiology, aiming to isolate pulmonary veins, but there is insufficient data on severe complications worldwide.
- A study involved collecting and analyzing data from 23 centers with 33,879 procedures to determine the incidence and management of severe complications during AF ablation.
- The study found that while severe complications like tamponade and stroke have a low incidence, factors like age, gender, and procedure duration play a role in their occurrence; most patients with complications were discharged after about 5 days.
Article Synopsis
- - The study evaluated the effectiveness of two PVC ablation techniques: multipolar mapping using a high-density catheter and point-by-point mapping with the ablation catheter, involving 698 patients across 10 hospitals from 2017 to 2021.
- - Results revealed that the multipolar group had significantly better mapping efficiency (more activation points) and shorter procedure times, while both groups showed high acute success rates and midterm efficacy.
- - Notably, patients undergoing left-sided PVC ablation had better midterm outcomes with the multipolar method, suggesting it may lead to more successful results in certain cases.
Ebstein anomaly is frequently associated with accessory pathways, including Mahaim atriofascicular fibres. We herein illustrate successful Mahaim fibre ablation in Ebstein anomaly by targeting the ventricular insertion site below the tricuspid ridge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Contact force (CF)-sensing radiofrequency (RF) catheters with an ablation index have shown reproducible outcomes for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) in large multicentre studies. A dual-energy (DE) focal CF catheter to deliver RF and unipolar/biphasic pulsed field ablation (PFA), integrated with a three-dimensional (3D) mapping system, can provide operators with additional flexibility. The SmartfIRE study assessed the safety and efficacy of this novel technology for the treatment of drug-refractory, symptomatic paroxysmal AF.
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