Acute Heart Failure

Heart failure is a common complication among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and is associated with significantly increased risks of subsequent morbidity and mortality. Until recently, therapies and strategies were lacking to attenuate this excess risk of heart failure in this population. Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors represent a unique class of glucose-lowering therapies that have multisystem health benefits. Three large cardiovascular outcomes trials have demonstrated consistent reductions in heart failure events among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with, or at risk for, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease...

BACKGROUND: The GUIDE-IT (GUIDing Evidence Based Therapy Using Biomarker Intensified Treatment in Heart Failure) trial demonstrated that a strategy to "guide" application of guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) by reducing amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) was not superior to GDMT alone. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the prognostic meaning of NT-proBNP changes following heart failure (HF) therapy intensification relative to the goal NT-proBNP value of 1,000 pg/ml explored in the GUIDE-IT trial...

AIM: To evaluate the long-term outcome of patients with Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) and severely reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF ≤ 35%) at presentation. METHODS AND RESULTS: The study population included 326 patients (mean age 69.5 ± 10.7 years, 28 male) with TTS enrolled in the Takotsubo Italian Network, divided into two groups according to LVEF (≤ 35%, n = 131; > 35%, n = 195), as assessed by transthoracic echocardiography at hospital admission...

BACKGROUND: Approximately 50% of patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have multivessel coronary disease (MVD). Evidence on the best PCI approach for these patients is conflicting. The aim of this study is to examine Australian data from the CONCORDANCE registry to describe the practice and outcomes of patients receiving multivessel vs culprit-only PCI. METHODS: Two cohorts were constructed from MVD-STEMI patients undergoing primary PCI at 41 hospitals between 2009 and 2015: culprit-only PCI (n = 587; 87%) and multivessel PCI (n = 82; 12%)...

AIMS: Sudden cardiac death (SCD) annual incidence is 0.6-1% in post-myocardial infarction (MI) patients with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)≥40%. No recommendations for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) use exist in this population. METHODS AND RESULTS: We introduced a combined non-invasive/invasive risk stratification approach in post-MI ischaemia-free patients, with LVEF ≥ 40%, in a multicentre, prospective, observational cohort study...

AIMS: From the various mechanical cardiac assist devices and indications available, the use of the percutaneous intraventricular Impella CP pump is usually restricted to acute ischaemic shock or prophylactic indications in high-risk interventions. In the present study, we investigated clinical usefulness of the Impella CP device in patients with non-ischaemic cardiogenic shock as compared with acute ischaemia. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this retrospective single-centre analysis, patients who received an Impella CP at the University Hospital Würzburg between 2013 and 2017 due to non-ischaemic cardiogenic shock were age-matched 2:1 with patients receiving the device due to ischaemic cardiogenic shock...

Arrhythmias coexist in patients with heart failure (HF) and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. Tachycardias, atrial fibrillation, and premature ventricular contractions are known to trigger a reversible dilated cardiomyopathy referred as arrhythmia-induced cardiomyopathy (AiCM). It remains unclear why some patients are more prone to develop AiCM despite similar arrhythmia burdens. The challenge is to determine whether arrhythmias are fully, partially, or at all responsible for an observed LV dysfunction. AiCM should be suspected in patients with mean heart rate >100 beats/min, atrial fibrillation, and/or premature ventricular contractions burden ≥10%...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Bedside cardiac output (CO) measurement is an important part of routine hemodynamic monitoring in the differential diagnosis of circulatory shock and fluid management. Different choices of CO measurement devices are available. The purpose of this review is to review the importance of CO [or stroke volume (SV)] measurement and to discuss the various methods (devices) used in determination of CO. RECENT FINDINGS: CO measurement devices can be classified into two types: those use simple physical principles with minimal assumptions, and those predicting CO via mathematical modelling with a number of assumptions...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Heart failure is the most common cardiovascular reason for hospital admission for people older than 60 years of age. Few areas in medicine have progressed as remarkably as heart failure treatment over the past three decades. However, progress has been consistent only for chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. In acutely decompensated heart failure and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, none of the treatments tested to date have been definitively proven to improve survival. Delaying or preventing heart failure has become increasingly important in patients who are prone to heart failure...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Limited knowledge exists on inter-hospital variation in the utilization of short-term, nondurable mechanical circulatory support (MCS) for myocardial infarction (MI) complicated by cardiogenic shock (CS). METHODS AND RESULTS: Hospitalizations for MI with CS in 2014 in a nationally representative all-payer database were included. The proportion of hospitalizations for MI with CS using MCS (MCS ratio) and in-hospital mortality were evaluated. Hospital characteristics and outcomes were compared across quartiles of MCS usage...

Data from previous studies of patients with heart failure and coronary artery disease suggest that those with higher resting heart rates (HRs) have worse cardiovascular outcomes. We sought to evaluate whether HR immediately before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is an independent predictor for 30-day outcome. We analyzed the outcome of 3,720 patients who had HR recorded before PCI from the Melbourne Interventional Group registry. HR and outcomes were analyzed by quintiles, and secondarily by dichotomizing into <70 or ≥70 beats/min...

Myocardial injury induces significant changes in ventricular structure and function at both the cellular and anatomic level, leading to ventricular remodeling and subsequent heart failure. Unloading left ventricular pressure has been studied in both the short-term and long-term settings, as a means of preventing or reversing cardiac remodeling. In acute myocardial infarction, cardiac unloading is used to reduce oxygen demand and limit infarct size. Research has demonstrated the benefits of short-term unloading with mechanical circulatory support devices before reperfusion in the context of acute myocardial infarction with cardiogenic shock, and a confirmatory trial is ongoing...

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) accounts for approximately one-third of all deaths among patients with non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy (NICM). Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy has been the primary intervention for managing individuals at high risk for SCD. However, individual ICD trials in the NICM population have failed to demonstrate a mortality benefit with prophylactic ICD implantation. Current guidelines recommend ICD implantation in NICM patients with symptomatic heart failure and a left ventricular ≤35% and are based on meta-analyses of multiple trials that span three decades and include the recent Danish Study to Assess the Efficacy of ICDs in Patients with Non-ischaemic Heart Failure on Mortality (DANISH) trial...

BACKGROUND: The clinical effect of routine oxygen therapy in patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction who do not have hypoxemia at baseline is uncertain. METHODS: In this registry-based randomized clinical trial, we used nationwide Swedish registries for patient enrollment and data collection. Patients with suspected myocardial infarction and an oxygen saturation of 90% or higher were randomly assigned to receive either supplemental oxygen (6 liters per minute for 6 to 12 hours, delivered through an open face mask) or ambient air...

Patients who develop heart failure (HF) after an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are at higher risk of adverse fatal and nonfatal outcomes. Published studies on the incidence and associations of HF after infarction have been contradictory, with some reporting increasing and others decreasing incidence. Between 2000 and 2015, 109,717 patients admitted for a first AMI in New Jersey were discharged alive. In the 15 years from 2000 to 2015, the rates of admission for HF in AMI patients who were discharged alive decreased by 60%, from 3...

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to determine the use of intravenous fluids in the early care of patients with acute decompensated heart failure (HF) who are treated with loop diuretics. BACKGROUND: Intravenous fluids are routinely provided to many hospitalized patients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted with HF to 346 hospitals from 2009 to 2010. We assessed the use of intravenous fluids during the first 2 days of hospitalization...

Cardiorenal syndrome has been defined as the simultaneous dysfunction of both the heart and the kidney. Worsening renal function that occurs in patients with acute heart failure has been classified as cardiorenal syndrome type 1. In this setting, worsening renal function is a common finding and is due to complex, multifactorial, and not fully understood processes involving hemodynamic (renal arterial hypoperfusion and renal venous congestion) and nonhemodynamic factors. Traditionally, worsening renal function has been associated with worse outcomes, but recent findings have revealed mixed and heterogeneous results, perhaps suggesting that the same phenotype represents a diversity of pathophysiological and clinical situations...

BACKGROUND: This study evaluated whether minority orthotopic heart transplant (OHT) recipients tend to be transplanted at worse performing centers. METHODS AND RESULTS: OHT recipients between 2000 and 2010 were identified in the United Network for Organ Sharing database and stratified by race. Center performance was evaluated using observed-to-expected mortality ratios that were calculated using validated indexes for recipient and donor risk in OHT. The primary outcome was 1-year post-OHT mortality...