Abstract Background To investigate the outcomes of hospitalized patients with both de-novo and worsening heart failure (HF) with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (HFpEF) (LVEF ≥ ...50%), compared to those with reduced LVEF (HFrEF). Methods and results We studied 1669 patients (22.6% HFpEF) hospitalized for acute HF in the prospective multi-center nationwide Italian Network on Heart Failure (IN-HF) Outcome Registry. In all patients LVEF was assessed during hospitalization. De-novo HF presentations constituted 49.6% of HFpEF and 43.1% of HFrEF hospitalizations. All-cause mortality during hospitalization was lower in HFpEF than HFrEF (2.9% vs 6.5%, p = 0.01), but this mortality difference was not significant at 1 year (19.6% vs 24.4%, p = 0.06), even after adjusting for clinical covariates. Similarly, there were no differences in 1-year mortality between HFpEF and HFrEF when compared by cause of death (cardiovascular vs non-cardiovascular) or mode of presentation (worsening HF vs de novo). Rehospitalization rates (all-cause, non-cardiovascular, cardiovascular, HF-related) at 90 days and 1 year were also similar. Mode of presentation influenced rehospitalizations in HFpEF, where those presenting with worsening HFpEF had higher all-cause (36.8% vs 21.6%, p = 0.001), cardiovascular (28.1% vs 14.9%, p = 0.002), and HF-related (21.1% vs 7.7%, p = 0.0003) rehospitalization rates at 1 year compared to those with de novo presentations. Conclusions Outcomes at 1 year following hospitalization for HFpEF are as poor as that of HFrEF. A prior history of HF decompensation or hospitalization identifies patients with HFpEF at particularly high risk of recurrent events. These findings may have implications for clinical practice, quality and process improvements and trial design.
Background
Age‐ and sex‐specific differences exist in the treatment and outcome of ST‐elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). We sought to describe age‐ and sex‐matched contemporary trends of ...in‐hospital management and outcome of patients with STEMI.
Methods and Results
We analyzed data from 5 Italian nationwide prospective registries, conducted between 2001 and 2014, including consecutive patients with STEMI. All the analyses were age‐ and sex‐matched, considering 4 age classes: <55, 55 to 64, 65 to 74, and ≥75 years. A total of 13 235 patients were classified as having STEMI (72.1% men and 27.9% women). A progressive shift from thrombolysis to primary percutaneous coronary intervention occurred over time, with a concomitant increase in overall reperfusion rates (P for trend <0.0001), which was consistent across sex and age classes. The crude rates of in‐hospital death were 3.2% in men and 8.4% in women (P<0.0001), with a significant increase over age classes for both sexes and a significant decrease over time for both sexes (all P for trend <0.01). On multivariable analysis, age (odds ratio 1.09, 95% CI 1.07–1.10, P<0.0001) and female sex (odds ratio 1.44, 95% CI 1.07–1.93, P=0.009) were found to be significantly associated with in‐hospital mortality after adjustment for other risk factors, but no significant interaction between these 2 variables was observed (P for interaction=0.61).
Conclusions
Despite a nationwide shift from thrombolytic therapy to primary percutaneous coronary intervention for STEMI affecting both sexes and all ages, women continue to experience higher in‐hospital mortality than men, irrespective of age.
Inflammation has a pathogenetic role in acute myocardial infarction (MI). Pentraxin-3 (PTX3), a long pentraxin produced in response to inflammatory stimuli and highly expressed in the heart, was ...shown to peak in plasma approximately 7 hours after MI. The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of PTX3 in MI compared with the best-known and clinically relevant biological markers.
In 724 patients with MI and ST elevation, PTX3, C-reactive protein (CRP), creatine kinase (CK), troponin T (TnT), and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were assayed at entry, a median of 3 hours, and the following morning, a median of 22 hours from symptom onset. With respect to outcome events occurring over 3 months after the index event, median PTX3 values were 7.08 ng/mL in event-free patients, 16.12 ng/mL in patients who died, 9.12 ng/mL in patients with nonfatal heart failure, and 6.88 ng/mL in patients with nonfatal residual ischemia (overall P<0.0001). Multivariate analysis including CRP, CK, TnT, and NT-proBNP showed that only age > or =70 years (OR, 2.11; 95% CI, 1.04 to 4.31), Killip class >1 at entry (OR, 2.20; 95% CI, 1.14 to 4.25), and PTX3 (>10.73 ng/mL) (OR, 3.55; 95% CI, 1.43 to 8.83) independently predicted 3-month mortality. Biomarkers predicting the combined end point of death and heart failure in survivors were the highest tertile of PTX3 and of NT-proBNP and a CK ratio >6.
In a representative contemporary sample of patients with MI with ST elevation, the acute-phase protein PTX3 but not the liver-derived short pentraxin CRP or other cardiac biomarkers (NT-proBNP, TnT, CK) predicted 3-month mortality after adjustment for major risk factors and other acute-phase prognostic markers.
Background:Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is involved in collagen deposition and inflammation and is a prognostic biomarker in heart failure (HF).Methods and Results:Gal-3 and other markers of fibrosis or ...cardiac stress were measured serially in 413 patients with mild HF randomized to the mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist canrenone or placebo to evaluate treatment effect and association with clinical outcome. Gal-3 increased slightly over 6 months in both arms of the study and was associated with clinical endpoints.Conclusions:Although Gal-3 showed prognostic value, the effect of canrenone on clinical outcomes was unaffected by baseline concentrations of biomarkers of fibrosis or cardiac stress.
ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to assess current management of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) undergoing coronary stenting.DesignNon-interventional, ...prospective, nationwide study.Setting76 private or public cardiology centres in Italy.ParticipantsPatients with ACS with concomitant AF undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).Primary and secondary outcome measuresTo obtain accurate and up-to-date information on pharmacological management of patients with AF admitted for an ACS and undergoing PCI with stent implantation.ResultsOver a 12-month period, 598 consecutive patients were enrolled: 48.8% with AF at hospital admission and 51.2% developing AF during hospitalisation. At discharge, a triple antithrombotic therapy (TAT) was prescribed in 64.8%, dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) in 25.7% and dual antithrombotic therapy (DAT) in 8.8% of patients. Among patients with AF at admission, TAT and DAT were more frequently prescribed compared with patients with new-onset AF (76.3% vs 53.8% and 12.5% vs 5.3%, respectively; both p<0.0001), while a DAPT was less often used (11.2% vs 39.5%; p<0.0001). At multivariable analysis, a major bleeding event (OR: 5.40; 95% CI: 2.42 to 12.05; p<0.0001) and malignancy (OR: 5.11; 95% CI: 1.77 to 14.78; p=0.003) resulted the most important independent predictors of DAT prescription.ConclusionsIn this contemporary registry of patients with ACS with AF treated with coronary stents, TAT still resulted as the antithrombotic strategy of choice, DAT was reserved for high bleeding risk and DAPT was mainly prescribed in those developing AF during hospitalisation.Trial registration numberNCT03656523.
Introduction. The current use of lipid lowering therapies and the eligibility for proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin-9 (PCSK9) inhibitors of patients surviving a myocardial infarction (MI) is ...poorly known. Methods. Using the data from two contemporary, nationwide, prospective, real-world registries of patients with stable coronary artery disease, we sought to describe the lipid lowering therapies prescribed by cardiologists in patients with a prior MI and the resulting eligibility for PCSK9 inhibitors according to the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)/European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) and the Italian regulatory agency (Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco; AIFA) criteria. The study cohort was stratified according to the following low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels at the time of enrolment: <70 mg/dl; 70–99 mg/dl and ≥100 mg/dl. Results. Among the 3074 post-MI patients with LDL-C levels available, a target level of LDL-C < 70 mg/dl was present in 1186 (38.6%), while 1150 (37.4%) had LDL-C levels ranging from 70 to 99 mg/dl and the remaining 738 (24.0%) an LDL-C ≥ 100 mg/dl. A statin was prescribed more frequently in post-MI patients with LDL-C levels <70 mg/dl (97.1%) compared to the other LDL-C groups (p<0.0001). A low dose of statin was prescribed in 9.3%, while a high dose in 61.4% of patients. Statin plus ezetimibe association therapy was used in less than 18% of cases. In the overall cohort, 293 (9.8%) and 450 (22.2%) resulted eligible for PCSK9 inhibitors, according to ESC/EAS and AIFA criteria, respectively. Conclusions. Post-MI patients are undertreated with conventional lipid lowering therapies. A minority of post-MI patients would be eligible to PCSK9 inhibitors according to ESC/EAS guidelines and Italian regulatory agency criteria.
Abstract Objectives The authors performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the predictive value of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) cardiac magnetic resonance for ventricular tachyarrhythmia in ischemic ...cardiomyopathy (ICM) and nonischemic cardiomyopathy (NICM) patients with ventricular dysfunction. Background The use of LGE to detect myocardial fibrosis and its related arrhythmic substrate is well established. Several recent studies have described the predictive value of LGE for ventricular tachyarrhythmias; however, their validity is limited by small sample size and low number of events. Methods MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library electronic databases were systematically searched to identify studies that applied LGE in ICM and NICM patients with ventricular dysfunction and reported arrhythmic clinical outcomes (sudden death, aborted sudden death, ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, and appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator ICD therapy, including antitachycardia pacing). A meta-analysis was performed to determine pooled odds ratios (ORs) for these arrhythmic events. Results Nineteen studies that evaluated 2,850 patients with 423 arrhythmic events over a mean/median follow-up of 2.8 years were identified. The composite arrhythmic endpoint was reached in 23.9% of patients with a positive LGE test (annualized event rate of 8.6%) versus 4.9% of patients with a negative LGE test (annualized event rate of 1.7%; p < 0.0001). LGE correlated with arrhythmic events in the different patient groups. In the overall population, the pooled OR was 5.62 (95% confidence interval CI: 4.20 to 7.51), with no significant differences between ICM and NICM patients. In a subgroup of 11 studies (1,178 patients) with mean ejection fraction (EF) ≤30%, the pooled OR for the arrhythmic events increased to 9.56 (95% CI: 5.63 to 16.23), with a negative likelihood ratio of 0.13 (95% CI: 0.06 to 0.30). Conclusions LGE is a powerful predictor of ventricular arrhythmic risk in patients with ventricular dysfunction, irrespective of ICM and NICM etiology. The prognostic power of LGE is particularly strong in patients with severely depressed EF, which suggests its potential to improve patient selection for ICD implantation.
Several studies have reported that the combination of high TG and low HDL-C, as simplified by the TG/HDL-C ratio, was a predictor of cardiovascular disease independent of LDL-C level. Nevertheless, ...poor data are available on the predictive role of TG/HDL-C ratio in very high risk (VHR) patients with chronic coronary syndromes (CCS).
Using the data from the STable Coronary Artery Diseases RegisTry (START) study, an Italian nationwide registry, we assessed the association between the TG/HDL-C ratio and baseline clinical characteristics, pharmacological treatment, and major adverse cardio-cerebrovascular events (MACCE) at 1 year in a large cohort of CCS patients at VHR.
VHR patients with both TG and HDL-C levels available were grouped in tertiles of TG/HDL-C ratio: low (TG/HDL-C ratio <2,
= 967), middle (TG/HDL-C ratio 2-3.3,
= 1,071) and high (TG/HDL-C ratio >3.3,
= 1,028). At 1 year from enrolment, 232 (7.6%) patients presented a MACCE, with a higher incidence in the higher tertile, even though not statistically significant (6.0, 8.2, and 8.4% in the low, middle and high tertile, respectively;
= 0.08). At multivariable analysis, the TG/HDL-C ratio in tertiles did not result an independent predictor of the MACCE (
= 0.29) at 1-year follow-up (HR: 1.30; 95% CI: 0.93-1.82;
= 0.12 middle vs. lower tertile, and HR: 1.22; 95% CI: 0.87-1.72;
= 0.25 higher vs. lower).
In the present large, nationwide cohort of CCS patients at VHR a high TG/HD ratio did not emerge as independent predictor of MACCE at 1 year. Further studies with a longer follow-up are needed to better define the prognostic role of TG/HDL ratio in CCS.
Pharmacotherapy of chronic heart failure with mildly reduced (HFmrEF) and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) remains challenging. We aimed to assess whether combined neuro-humoral modulation (NHM) ...(renin−angiotensin system inhibitors, betablockers, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists) was differentially associated with outcome according to phenotype and age groups. Between 1999 and 2018 we recruited in a nationwide cardiology registry 4707 patients (HFmrEF n = 2298, HFpEF n = 2409) from three age groups: <65, 65−79 and 80+ years old. We analyzed clinical characteristics and 1 year all-cause mortality/cardiovascular hospitalization according to none/single, any double, or triple NHM. Prescription rates of no/single and triple NHM were 25.1% and 26.7% for HFmrEF; 36.5% and 17.9% for HFpEF patients, respectively. Older age was associated with higher prescription of no/single NHM in HFmrEF (ptrend = 0.001); the reverse was observed among HFpEF (ptrend = 0.005). Triple NHM increased over time in both phenotypes (all p for trend < 0.0001). Compared to no/single NHM, triple, but not double, NHM was associated with better outcomes in both HFmrEF (HR 0.700, 95%CI 0.505−0.969, p = 0.032) and HFpEF (HR 0.700, 95%CI 0.499−0.983, p = 0.039), with no interaction between NHM treatment and age groups (p = 0.58, p = 0.80, respectively). In a cardiology setting, among HF outpatients with EF > 40%, triple NHM treatment increased over time and was associated with better patient outcomes.
PDF
