The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on heart failure management: Global experience of the OPTIMIZE Heart Failure Care network.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, reductions in heart failure (HF) hospitalizations have been widely reported, and there is an urgent need to understand how HF care has been reorganized in countries with different infection levels, vaccination rates and healthcare services. The OPTIMIZE Heart Failure Care program has a global network of investigators in 42 countries, with first-hand experience of the impact of the pandemic on HF management in different care settings. The national coordinators were surveyed to assess: 1) the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic for continuity of HF care, from both a hospital and patient perspective; 2) the organizational changes enacted to ensure continued HF care; and 3) lessons learned for the future of HF care.

Navigating between Scylla and Charybdis: challenges and strategies for implementing guideline-directed medical therapy in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.

Guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) has the potential to reduce the risks of mortality and hospitalisation in patients with heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). However, real-world data indicate that many patients with HFrEF do not receive optimised GDMT, which involves several different medications, many of which require up-titration to target doses. There are many challenges to implementing GDMT, the most important being patient-related factors (comorbidities, advanced age, frailty, cognitive impairment, poor adherence, low socioeconomic status), treatment-related factors (intolerance, side-effects) and healthcare-related factors that influence availability and accessibility of HF care.

Statins, vascular calcification, and vitamin K-dependent proteins: Is there a relation?

The present cross-sectional clinical study aimed to examine the connection between statin exposure, coronary artery calcification (CAC), and vitamin K-dependent proteins (VKDPs) in patients with cardiovascular (CV) conditions. Two groups of patients were studied: patients with established CV disease (CVD) and healthy patients at moderate risk for CVD (a control group). The groups were also split into statin users and non-users.

Circulating uncarboxylated matrix Gla protein in patients with atrial fibrillation or heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

Context: Circulating uncarboxylated matrix Gla protein (ucMGP) is possibly related to coronary arterial calcification (CAC) in cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the relationships between circulating ucMGP, CVD pathology and CAC and its interplay with CVD risk factors.

Materials And Methods: ucMGP was measured in 99 CVD-patients.

Circulating proinflammatory peptides related to abdominal adiposity and cardiometabolic risk factors in healthy prepubertal children.

Objectives: To analyze the circulating levels of proinflammatory peptides in healthy prepubertal children in relation to abdominal obesity, measured by waist circumference (WC), and to investigate their interactions with cardiometabolic risk factors.

Design And Methods: A cross-sectional study of 137 healthy prepubertal children with a mean age of 8.0±0.

Waist circumference percentile curves for Bulgarian children and adolescents aged 6-18 years.

Background: Waist circumference (WC) is a simple, easily available anthropometric measurement, giving relevant information about fat distribution and reflecting the degree of central adiposity in children. It appears to be the main risk factor for the progress of the metabolic syndrome. Our aim was to develop age- and sex-specific WC percentile curves for Bulgarian children/adolescents and to compare them with those from other countries.