The MacNew Questionnaire Is a Helpful Tool for Predicting Unplanned Hospital Readmissions After Coronary Revascularization.

Background: The MacNew questionnaire is a neuro-behavioral tool which is easy and immediately usable. This self-reported questionnaire filled out by the patient allows the physician to achieve helpful information concerning the ways for optimizing the therapy and patient's lifestyles. In this retrospective study, our aim was to assess whether relatively high scores found using the MacNew questionnaire in patients who had undergone percutaneous or surgical revascularization were associated with a decreased risk of unscheduled hospitalizations during the follow-up.

The Relation Between Global Longitudinal Strain and Serum Natriuretic Peptide Is More Strict Than That Found Between the Latter and Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction: A Retrospective Study in Chronic Heart Failure.

Background: In chronic heart failure (CHF), the finding of elevated levels of the N-terminal fragment of the pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is a marker of pathological increase in myocardial ventricular wall stress and detrimental rise in ventricular filling pressures. However, the ensemble of data concerning the relationship between longitudinal deformation indices and NT-proBNP is still rather vague and approximate.

Methods: We carried out a retrospective study that involved 118 patients with CHF admitted to our clinic for CHF outpatients.

B-type natriuretic peptide-guided versus symptom-guided therapy in outpatients with chronic heart failure: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

Purpose: It has been asserted that serial measurements of natriuretic peptides, specifically B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) or the amino-terminal fragment of pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), may serve as an objective practical guide to better tailor the drug treatment for patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), and especially to detect the cases of subclinical congestion that would require an increase in drug dosing. However, considerable uncertainty remains about the alleged useful role of natriuretic peptide-guided therapy in this context. Therefore, we decided to execute a meta-analysis of published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to test the hypothesis that an improvement of clinical outcomes in outpatients with CHF may be achieved by adjustment of pharmacologic dosing performed according to natriuretic peptide determinations.