heart failure

Association of diabetes with an elevated risk of cardiac failure has been clinically evident. Diabetes potentiates diastolic and systolic cardiac failure following the myocardial infarction that produces the cardiac muscle-specific microvascular complication, clinically termed as diabetic cardiomyopathy. Elevated susceptibility of diabetic cardiomyopathy is primarily caused by the generation of free radicals in the hyperglycemic milieu, compromising the myocardial contractility and normal cardiac functions with increasing redox insult, impaired mitochondria, damaged organelles, apoptosis, and cardiomyocytes fibrosis...

BACKGROUND: Iron deficiency (ID) is frequent and associated with diminished exercise capacity in heart failure (HF), but its contribution to unexplained dyspnea without a HF diagnosis at rest remains unclear. METHODS: Consecutive patients with unexplained dyspnea and normal echocardiography and pulmonary function tests at rest underwent prospective standardized cardiopulmonary exercise testing with echocardiography (CPETecho) in a tertiary care dyspnea clinic. ID was defined as ferritin <300µg/l and transferrin saturation (TSAT)<20% and its impact on peak oxygen uptake (peakVO2 ), biventricular response to exercise, and peripheral oxygen extraction was assessed...

BACKGROUND: Downregulation of claudin-5 in the heart is associated with the end-stage heart failure. However, the underlying mechanism of claudin-5 is unclear. Here we investigated the molecular actions of claudin-5 in perspective of mitochondria in cardiomyocytes to better understand the role of claudin-5 in cardioprotection during ischemia. METHODS AND RESULTS: Claudin-5 was detected in the murine heart tissue and the neonatal rat cardiomyocytes (NRCM). Its protein level was severely decreased after myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R; 30 min/24 h) or hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R; 24 h/4 h)...

AIMS: Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT2i), initially introduced for the treatment of diabetes mellitus (DM), demonstrates cardiovascular and renal benefits in patients with heart failure (HF). We aimed to conduct a meta-analysis of its effects on cardiovascular, renal, and major safety outcomes in HF. METHODS AND RESULTS: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were searched using the terms of "SGLT2i and HF" or "SGLT2i *"...

BACKGROUND: In recent years, LRG1 was found to be closely related to atrial fibrillation, heart failure, and myocardial remodeling after myocardial infarction. While its role in cerebral infarction was still controversial. We aimed to explore the value of LRG1 to identify the cardioembolic stroke. METHODS: 283 acute ischemic stroke(AIS) patients and 169 controls were enrolled. The AIS patients were divided into a CE(cardiogenic embolism) group and a non-CE group...

AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between Timed Up and Go test performance and the incidence of older adult heart diseases and mortality. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of 1,084,875 older adults who participated in a national health screening program between 2009-2014 (all aged 66 years old). Participants free of myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, and atrial fibrillation at baseline were included and were divided into Group 1 (<10 s), Group 2 (10-20 s) and Group 3 (≥20 s) using the Timed Up and Go test scores...

AIMS: Functional decline is associated with worse outcomes in patients with elderly heart failure (HF), but little is known about the prognostic impact of hospital-acquired disability (HAD) during hospital stay after acute HF. The present study examines the prognostic significance of HAD in the prediction of all-cause mortality in elderly patients who admitted for acute HF. METHODS AND RESULTS: This retrospective study was performed in 1941 elderly patients aged ≥65 years or older from the cardiovascular physiotherapy for acute HF patients in the Tokyo metropolitan area registry and excluded those who died in hospital...

AIMS: The aims of the current study were to evaluate the association between anaemia and all-cause mortality according to chronic kidney disease (CKD) status and to explore at what level of haemoglobin concentration would the all-cause mortality risk increase prominently among CKD and non-CKD patients, respectively. METHODS AND RESULTS: This is a prospective cohort study, and 1559 patients with ischaemic heart failure (IHF) were included (mean age of 63.5 ± 11...

BACKGROUND: Older patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) have severely impaired physical function (PF) and quality of life (QOL). However, relationships between impairments in PF and QOL are unknown but are relevant to clinical practice and trial design. METHODS: We assessed 202 consecutive patients hospitalized with ADHF in the multicenter Rehabilitation Therapy in Older Acute HF Patients (REHAB-HF) Trial. PF measures included Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and 6-min walk distance (6MWD)...

Inferior mesenteric arteriovenous fistula is a rare abnormal high flow communication with only 40 primary and secondary cases reported in literature. Shunting of arterial flow through the inferior mesenteric vein to the portal system can cause a variety of nonspecific clinical signs and symptoms usually associated with the diagnosis of arteriovenous malformation. Symptom intensities are flow-dependent and can range from minimal abdominal symptoms to severe heart failure due to left to right shunt. We report the case of a 72-year-old man without past history of abdominal surgery or trauma who was referred to our department for a 2-month history of intermittent diarrhea and abdominal pain caused by an arteriovenous fistula involving the left colic artery and the inferior mesenteric vein...

AIM: There are no studies comparing tests performed at home with those carried out in the laboratory, using the same device. The only studies that have been performed have compared the device used at home with the standard polygraph used in the laboratory. The purpose of this study was therefore to verify the accuracy of the home diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) via unassisted type 2 portable polysomnography, compared with polysomnography using the same equipment in a sleep laboratory...

An elevated left ventricular (LV) filling pressure is the main finding in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), and LV filling pressure is estimated with an algorithm in the recent American Society of Echocardiography (ASE)/European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) guideline. In this study, we sought to determine the efficacy of LA global longitudinal strain to estimate elevated LV filling pressure. Seventy-one consecutive patients (mean age of 63.2  ±  9...

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of chronic total occlusion (CTO) on clinical outcomes in patients with calcified coronary lesions receiving rotational atherectomy (RA). This multi-center registry enrolled consecutive patients with calcified coronary artery disease who underwent RA during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) from 9 tertiary centers in Korea between January 2010 and October 2019. The primary outcome was target-vessel failure (TVF) which included the composite of cardiac death, target-vessel myocardial infarction (TVMI), and target-vessel revascularization (TVR)...

Heart failure (HF) can be considered a disease of older people. It is a leading cause of hospitalisation and is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality in the over-65s. In 2012, an editorial in this journal detailed the latest HF research and guidelines, calling for greater integration of geriatricians in HF care. This current article reflects upon what has been achieved in this field in recent years, highlighting some future challenges and promising areas. It is written from the perspective of one such integrated team and explores the new role of cardiogeriatrician, working in a multidisciplinary team to deliver and improve care to increasingly complex, older, frail patients with multiple comorbidities who present with primary cardiology problems, especially decompensated HF...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure (HF) are both highly prevalent diseases and are accompanied by a significant disease burden and increased mortality. Although the conditions may exist independently, they often go hand in hand as each is able to provoke, sustain, and aggravate the other. In addition, the diseases share a risk profile with several coinciding cardiovascular risk factors, promoting the odds of developing both AF and HF separately from each other. When the diseases coexist, this provides additional challenges but also opportunities for the optimal treatment...

AIMS: This study aims to evaluate the impact of the combination of cardiogenic shock (CS) and cardiac arrest (CA) complicating non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). METHODS AND RESULTS: Adult (>18 years) NSTEMI admissions using the National Inpatient Sample database (2000 to 2017) were stratified by the presence of CA and/or CS. Outcomes of interest included in-hospital mortality, early coronary angiography, hospitalization costs, and length of stay...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

AIMS: This study aimed to measure physical activity (PA) in participants with suspected heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and assess associations between PA and participant characteristics. METHODS AND RESULTS: Adults with presumed HFpEF were recruited and received diagnostic evaluation and clinical assessment. Physical activity was objectively measured using accelerometers over 7 days. To examine predictors of PA, a best subset analysis was used, with the optimal model defined as that with the lowest Bayesian information criterion...

OBJECTIVE: Low-dose oral opioids may improve severe chronic breathlessness in advanced cardiorespiratory diseases. Prescription of opioids for breathlessness occurs infrequently however, with little known about patients' attitudes towards their use in this setting. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore patients' perceptions regarding opioids for the management of severe chronic breathlessness in people with advanced cardiorespiratory disease. METHODS: A cross-sectional, qualitative study was undertaken using outpatients with severe chronic breathlessness due to either severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or chronic heart failure (CHF)...

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to determine the utility of donor left ventricular function assessment by echocardiographic left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LV GLS) in predicting primary graft failure (PGF) after orthotopic heart transplantation (HT). DESIGN: Retrospective, observational study. SETTING: Tertiary referral hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Adult patients (>18 years) who underwent isolated HT. INTERVENTIONS: Demographic, clinical, and echocardiographic data were collected on 100 patients who underwent HT between January 2010 and December 2019 at the authors' institution...