Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

BACKGROUND: Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D), medications such as antihypertensives and statins can reduce the increased cardiovascular risk. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of cigarette smoking on major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) and all-cause mortality in patients with T2D in a relatively well treated Swedish cohort. METHODS: Seven hundred and sixty-one patients with T2D aged 55-66 years were followed in the prospective observational CArdiovascular Risk factors in patients with DIabetes - a Prospective study in Primary care (CARDIPP) study...

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AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the diagnostic criteria for determining the origin of outflow tract ventricular arrhythmia (OTVA) and develop an ECG algorithm to predict its origin. METHOD: We analyzed the ECGs of 100 patients with OTVA who underwent successful ablation. The QRS complex was measured during sinus rhythm and ventricular arrhythmia. After the ECG algorithm was developed, it was validated in an additional 100 patients from two different hospitals...

AIMS: Data regarding the risk of incident pericarditis in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) recovered patients are lacking. We determined the risk of incident pericarditis after COVID-19 infection by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis of available data. METHODS: Following the PRISMA guidelines, we searched MEDLINE and Scopus to locate all articles published up to 11 February 2023 reporting the risk of incident pericarditis in patients who had recovered from COVID-19 infection compared to noninfected patients (controls) defined as those who did not experience the disease over the same follow-up period...

Hyperkalaemia is a life-threatening condition leading to significant morbidity and mortality. It is common in heart failure and in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients due to the diseases themselves, which often coexist, the high co-presence of diabetes, the fluctuations in renal function, and the use of some drugs [i.e. renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) inhibitors]. Hyperkalaemia limits their administration or uptitration, thus impacting on mortality. New K+ binders, namely patiromer and sodium zirconium cyclosilicate (ZS-9), are an intriguing option to manage hyperkalaemia in heart failure and/or CKD patients, both to reduce its fatal effects and to let clinicians uptitrate RAAS inhibition...

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AIMS: Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) have been found to minimize hospitalization for heart failure and cardiovascular death. Cardiac reverse remodeling may be a mechanism responsible for the favorable clinical efficacy of SGLT2is on heart failure. To date, few studies have examined their effects on the left atrium. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore whether SGLT2is improve left atrial adverse remodeling in patients with type 2 diabetes and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF)...

AIMS: Serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is known to be associated with cardiovascular events and cerebral arteriosclerosis. However, the link between ALP and early arteriosclerosis remains unclear. This study investigated the relationship between ALP and early arteriosclerosis assessed by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (Ba-PWV). METHODS: This retrospective analysis included 5011 participants who underwent health examinations, including ALP and Ba-PWV measurement, at the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University from 2012 to 2017...

INTRODUCTION: Data regarding echocardiographic findings during follow-up of asymptomatic or pauci-symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are scarce in pediatric patients. The aim of the present study is to assess post-COVID-19 sequelae through echocardiography in children who have experienced mild SARS-CoV-2. METHODS: This single-center, retrospective, observational study enrolled a cohort of 133 pediatric outpatients, born between 2005 and 2022, with a history of asymptomatic or paucisymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, who underwent transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) evaluation at an outpatient pediatric clinic in Northern Italy...

INTRODUCTION: Hypertension affects almost a third of the Italian population and is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Management of hypertension is often hindered by poor adherence to complex treatment regimens. This analysis aimed to estimate the 10-year clinical outcomes associated with single pill combination (SPC) therapies compared with other treatment pathways for the management of hypertension in Italy. METHODS: A microsimulation modeling approach was used to project health outcomes over a 10-year period for people with hypertension...

AIMS: Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is a serious heart disease associated with significant morbidity and mortality. TTS has been related to SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccine; however, the current data are scarce. We aimed to examine the associations between SARS-CoV-2 infection and its vaccine with TTS. METHODS: We conducted a nested case-control study in a cohort of 3 237 909 adults from the largest healthcare provider in Israel. Patients were followed from 1 March 2020 until 31 December 2021 for the occurrence of TTS...

AIMS: Hypoalbuminemia was extensively used to diagnose malnutrition in older adults. Malnutrition was associated with mortality in elderly patients with cardiovascular diseases. The relationship between hypoalbuminemia and clinical outcomes in elderly patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (NIDCM) remains unknown. METHODS: A total of 1058 consecutive patients with NIDCM (age ≥60 years) were retrospectively enrolled from January 2010 to December 2019...

AIMS: Despite general agreement on the benefits of the Heart Team approach for patients with cardiac diseases, few data are available on its real impact on the decision-making process. The aim of the study is to define the evolution over time of the level of agreement with the systematic discussion of patients in the Heart Team and to evaluate the adherence to the Heart Team recommendations and the impact of the Heart Team on the clinical outcome of the patients. METHODS: In 2015--2016, an experienced cardiac surgeon and a cardiologist independently reviewed clinical data of a series of 100 patients (Group 1, G1) and subsequently for each patient recommended treatment (surgical, percutaneous, hybrid or medical therapy) or further diagnostic investigations...

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AIMS: Timing and surgical strategies in acute infective endocarditis are still questionable. We sought to investigate clinical outcomes of patients undergoing mitral valve repair (MVR) compared with mitral valve replacement [mitral valve prosthesis (MVP)] for acute infective endocarditis. METHODS: From 2004 to 2019, 109 consecutive patients with acute mitral valve infective endocarditis were retrospectively investigated. Patients were divided into two groups according to surgical strategy: MVR 53/109 (48...

AIMS: Heart failure (HF) is a complex syndrome commonly categorized into two main phenotypes [left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) below or above 40%], and although empagliflozin is the first approved medication with proven clinical effectiveness for both phenotypes, its cost-effectiveness of treating the entire HF population remains unknown. METHODS: The analysis was performed utilizing two preexisting, LVEF phenotype-specific cost-effectiveness models to estimate the cost-effectiveness of empagliflozin in adults for the treatment of symptomatic chronic HF, irrespective of ejection fraction (EF)...

The effect of the pandemic on patient care and health care delivery is unprecedented. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on the epidemiological trends and disparities in the outcomes of patients hospitalized for heart failure. This was a retrospective study involving hospitalizations for HF. We sourced data from the NIS databases from 2016 through 2020. The study involved hospitalizations for HF as the principal diagnosis. These conditions were matched with CCSR categories...

AIMS: We sought to assess the atrial fibrillation/flutter (AF/AFL) mortality rates and relative trends among the Italian population between 2003 and 2017. METHODS: Data regarding the cause-specific mortality and population size by sex in 5-year age groups were extracted from the World Health Organization (WHO) global mortality database. Decedents reporting the codes I48 were extracted accordingly to the International Classification of Disease-10 (ICD-10) coding system...

BACKGROUND: Mitral annular calcification (MAC) is associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This study provides recent data on the association between cardiac computed tomography (CT) derived MAC and 15 years of stroke risk in a racially diverse cohort. METHODS: All multiethnic studies of atherosclerosis participants (n = 6814) who completed a cardiac CT at baseline were included in this analysis. MAC score was calculated from cardiac CT using the Agatston and volume score methods...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.