Introduction
Previous studies have shown that fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is involved in the ventricular remodeling process in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). We ...hypothesized that high levels of FGF21 correlated with the ventricular remodeling of heart failure patients with mildly reduced (HFmrEF) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
Methods
A total of 203 participants with HFmrEF or HFrEF were enrolled and followed up from June 2018 to June 2021. 68 subjects without heart failure (HF) underwent physical examinations during the same time were selected as the control group. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), which were defined as all-cause or cardiac mortality and rehospitalization for decompensation. Serum FGF21 levels were measured early the next morning after admission using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
Results
The FGF21 levels were significantly higher in patients with HFmrEF or HFrEF than that in the control group (213.57 ± 42.65 pg/mL, 222.93 ± 34.36 pg/mL vs 171.00 ± 12.86 pg/mL, p < .001). The serum levels of FGF21 and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were both higher in the endpoint event group than those of non-endpoint event group regardless of the HFmrEF or HFrEF group (p < .001). Spearman’s correlation revealed that FGF21 was positively correlated with left ventricular end-systolic diameter left ventricular end-diastolic diameter left ventricular mass index (p < .01). Moreover, there was a negative correlation between FGF21 and left ventricular ejection fraction in addition to relative wall thickness (p < .001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of FGF21 was 0.874. The optimal cut-off value of FGF21 determined by ROC curve was 210.11 pg/mL. The Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated that the low FGF21 levels group had an increased MACE-free survival rate compared with the high FGF21 levels group. On univariate and multivariate Cox analysis, it was seen that both serum FGF21 and NT-proBNP were independent predictors of a poor prognosis in HF patients.
Conclusion
Baseline levels of FGF21 and NT-proBNP were related to the ventricular remodeling of patients with a mildly reduced or reduced ejection fraction. FGF21 and NT-proBNP both had good prognostic value for MACEs in heart failure patients with a mildly reduced and reduced ejection fraction.
Abstract
A key factor to successful secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is optimal patient adherence to treatment. However, unsatisfactory rates of adherence to treatment for CVD ...risk factors and CVD have been observed consistently over the last few decades. Hence, achieving optimal adherence to lifestyle measures and guideline-directed medical therapy in secondary prevention and rehabilitation is a great challenge to many healthcare professionals. Therefore, in this European Association of Preventive Cardiology clinical consensus document, a modern reappraisal of the adherence to optimal treatment is provided, together with simple, practical, and feasible suggestions to achieve this goal in the clinical setting, focusing on evidence-based concepts.
Graphical Abstract
Graphical Abstract
•This meta-analysis provides insights about telemonitoring on heart failure patients.•Telemonitoring reduces mortality and rehospitalization in hearth failure patients.•Telemonitoring may be ...integrated in care pathways to ensure the continuity of care.
Heart failure (HF) is a cardiac clinical syndrome that involves complex pathological aetiologies. It represents a growing public health issue and affects a significant number of people worldwide.
To synthesize evidence related to the impact of telemonitoring strategies on mortality and hospital readmissions of heart failure patients.
A systematic literature review was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, IEEE Xplore Digital Library, Engineering Source, and INSPEC. To be included, studies had to be in English or Italian and involve heart failure patients of any NYHA class, receiving care through any telecare, remote monitoring, telemonitoring, or telehealth programmes. Articles had to contain data on both mortality and number of patients who underwent rehospitalizations during follow-ups. To explore the effectiveness of telemonitoring strategies in reducing both one-year all-cause mortality and one-year rehospitalizations, studies were synthesized through meta-analyses, while those excluded from meta-analyses were summarized narratively.
Sixty-one studies were included in the review. Narrative synthesis of data suggests a trend towards a reduction in deaths among monitored patients, but the number of rehospitalized patients was higher in this group. Meta-analysis of studies reporting one-year all-cause mortality outlined the protective power of care models based on telemonitoring in reducing one-year all-cause mortality. Meta-analysis of studies reporting the number of rehospitalized patients in one-year outlined that telemonitoring is effective in reducing the number of rehospitalized patients when compared with usual care strategies.
Evidence from this review confirms the benefits of telemonitoring in reducing mortality and rehospitalizations of HF patients. Further research is needed to reduce the heterogeneity of the studies.
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•A methodological approach to increase the user experience of telemedicine platforms for heart failure patients in a short period.•Usability analysis of telemedicine platforms ...composed by televisits and telemonitoring.•Introduction of skilled technological staff to support medical personnel and patients during the use of the platform and lead the usability analysis.•Evaluation by means of customized satisfaction questionnaires and PSSUQs designed for both patients and clinicians.•Test of the methodology in collaboration with a heart failure clinic of an Italian hospital.
With the spread of COVID-19, telemedicine solutions became crucial to release continuous and remote assistance to chronic patients. The rapid transition to telemedicine solutions did not allow a complete assessment of the user experience by both patients and medical personnel. Despite the well-known benefits in remote care, the lack of usability evaluation of already existing technologies for the vital signs measurement has emerged. A telemedicine platform must match video communication between patients and the medical staff with the possibility to measure vital parameters. Furthermore, technological assistance may overcome the unfamiliarity with telemedicine and drastically reduce the learning time for both patients and medical personnel.
The research work presents a method to improve the user experience of a telemedicine service based on the combination of televisits and telemonitoring with wearable sensors for heart failure patients. Skilled technological staff is proposed by the presented method to lead the learning process of both medical personnel and patients in order to reach a high level of usability in less than 6 months.
The proposed method is composed of 5 steps: identification of technological staff and end users; selection of the telemedicine platform; design of questionnaires for usability analysis; training of clinicians and patients; final usability evaluation of the telemedicine platform by means of customized satisfaction questionnaires and Post-Study System Usability Questionnaires (PSSUQs). The methodological approach has been tested in collaboration with a heart failure clinic by involving 5 physicians, 5 nurses, 15 heart failure patients, a research engineer and 4 technicians. A platform with 3 wearable sensors has been chosen: a wireless thermometer, a finger pulse-oximeter and an undershirt have been used for the detection of ECG trace. While these devices allowed asynchronous measurements of physiological data, scheduled televisits have been used for direct communication between physicians and patients.
Satisfaction questionnaires of patients and clinicians reached respectively 65.18% and 65.83%, while PSSUQ scores were respectively 91.73% and 81.70%. Both groups of end users confirmed a good level of usability and their satisfaction about the ease of use and the perceived quality of the instrumentation. Moreover, 73% of patients did not require help from caregivers to use the kit of sensors. The results have been reached in 5.5 months according to the aim defined initially. Research engineers have played a crucial role in helping clinicians and patients to improve the user experience with the telemedicine platform.
The high level of usability and satisfaction confirmed that the proposed methodological approach helps to learn the technological features of the telemedicine platforms, which are based on different types of technology, such as web applications, wearable sensors and virtual calls. The positive results with heart failure patients encouraged to plan further research studies by using the designed method with other categories of chronic patients.
The aim of the present study is to investigate the quantitative effects of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors on the quality of life in heart failure (HF) patients. A total of 14,674 ...HF patients from two dapagliflozin and three empagliflozin studies is included for analysis
the nonlinear mixed-effect modeling (NONMEM) software, among which the change rate of the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) score is used as the evaluation index. There is no significant difference in the pharmacodynamics influencing the quality of life in HF patients between the SGLT-2 inhibitors: 10 mg/day dapagliflozin and 10 mg/day empagliflozin. For the clinical summary score (CSS), total symptom score (TSS), and overall summary score (OSS), the E
of the SGLT-2 inhibitors on the quality of life in HF patients is 3.74%, 4.43%, and 4.84%, respectively, and ET
is 2.23, 4.37, and 7.15 weeks, respectively. In addition, the time duration of achieving 25%, 50%, 75%, and 80% E
is 0.75, 2.23, 6.69, and 8.92 weeks for the CSS; 1.46, 4.37, 13.11, and 17.48 weeks for the TSS; and 2.39, 7.15, 21.45, and 28.6 weeks for the OSS, respectively. Therefore, to reach the plateau period (80% of E
) of SGLT-2 inhibitors on the CSS, TSS, and OSS, 10 mg/day dapagliflozin (or 10 mg/day empagliflozin) is required to be taken for 8.92 weeks, 17.48 weeks, and 28.6 weeks, respectively. This is the first time that the quantitative effects of SGLT-2 inhibitors on the quality of life in HF patients are being explored.
Several techniques assessing cardiac output (Q) during exercise are available. The extent to which the measurements obtained from each respective technique compares to one another, however, is ...unclear. We quantified Q simultaneously using four methods: the Fick method with blood obtained from the right atrium (QFick‐M), Innocor (inert gas rebreathing; QInn), Physioflow (impedance cardiography; QPhys), and Nexfin (pulse contour analysis; QPulse) in 12 male subjects during incremental cycling exercise to exhaustion in normoxia and hypoxia (FiO2 = 12%). While all four methods reported a progressive increase in Q with exercise intensity, the slopes of the Q/oxygen uptake (VO2) relationship differed by up to 50% between methods in both normoxia 4.9 ± 0.3, 3.9 ± 0.2, 6.0 ± 0.4, 4.8 ± 0.2 L/min per L/min (mean ± SE) for QFick‐M, QInn, QPhys and QPulse, respectively; P = 0.001 and hypoxia (7.2 ± 0.7, 4.9 ± 0.5, 6.4 ± 0.8 and 5.1 ± 0.4 L/min per L/min; P = 0.04). In hypoxia, the increase in the Q/VO2 slope was not detected by Nexfin. In normoxia, Q increases by 5–6 L/min per L/min increase in VO2, which is within the 95% confidence interval of the Q/VO2 slopes determined by the modified Fick method, Physioflow, and Nexfin apparatus while Innocor provided a lower value, potentially reflecting recirculation of the test gas into the pulmonary circulation. Thus, determination of Q during exercise depends significantly on the applied method.
The twenty-first century has revolutionized the management of congestive heart failure with the widespread use of left ventricular assist devices and other treatment modalities that improve morbidity ...and mortality after the failure of medical management. These novel devices come with significant side effects. One of the most common side effects of left ventricular assist devices is the increased frequency of lower gastrointestinal bleeding compared to heart failure patients without left ventricular assist devices. Multiple etiologies of recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding in such patients have been studied. The decreased amount of von Willebrand factor polymers is now recognized as one of the most common causes of increased incidence of gastrointestinal bleeding in patients with left ventricular assist devices alongside increased arteriovenous malformations. Multiple treatment modalities have been identified to prevent and treat gastrointestinal bleeding in these patients. Since the use of left ventricular assist devices is becoming more prevalent in patients with advanced heart failure, we decided to conduct this systematic review. The article summarizes the incidence, pathophysiology, and management of lower gastrointestinal bleeding in patients with left ventricular assist devices.
The impact of sacubitril-valsartan on heart failure (HF) patients with preserved ejection fractions (HFpEF) is uncertain. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to explore the clinical advantages and ...safety of sacubitril-valsartan in patients with HFpEF.
PubMed and Web of Science were searched without any restrictions from inception to 8 May 2022 to identify valuable articles. The studies that met the inclusion criteria were analyzed.
Four trials, with a total of 7008 patients were included. Compared with valsartan, sacubitril-valsartan significantly reduced the rate of HF decompensation and of the combined end point of HF decompensation and all-cause mortality. All-cause mortality, New York Heart Association class improvement and rate of hyperkalemia were not significantly different between the two groups. Regarding safety, sacubitril-valsartan was more likely to increase the risk of hypotension.
This meta-analysis suggests that sacubitril-valsartan may be an effective strategy to reduce HF decompensation events in patients with HFpEF.Systematic Review registration: CRD42022336077.
Background
Heart failure with mid-range left ventricular ejection fraction (HFmrEF) is a poorly characterized population as it has been studied either in the context of HF with reduced (HFrEF) or ...preserved (HFpEF) left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) depending on applied LVEF cutoffs. We sought to investigate the clinical profile, in-hospital management, and short-term outcome of HFmrEF patients in comparison with those with HFrEF or HFpEF in a large acute HF cohort.
Methods and results
The Acute Heart Failure Global Registry of Standard Treatment (ALARM-HF) included 4953 patients hospitalized for HF in nine countries in Europe, Latin America, and Australia. Baseline characteristics, clinical presentation, in-hospital therapies, and short-term mortality (all-cause in-hospital or 30-day mortality, whichever first) were compared among HFrEF (LVEF <40%), HFmrEF (LVEF 40–49%), and HFpEF (LVEF ≥50%) patients. Among 3257 patients with documented LVEF, 52% had HFrEF, 25% HFmrEF, and 23% HFpEF. Patients with HFmrEF had a distinct demographic and clinical profile with many intermediate features between HFrEF and HFpEF. In addition, they had a higher prevalence of hypertension (
p
< 0.001), a lower prevalence of chronic renal disease (
p
= 0.003), more hospitalizations for acute coronary syndrome (
p
< 0.001), or infection (
p
= 0.003), and were more frequently treated with intravenous vasodilators compared to HFrEF or HFpEF. Adjusted short-term mortality in HFmrEF was lower than HFrEF hazard ratio (HR) = 0.635 (0.419, 0.963),
p
= 0.033 but similar to HFpEF HR = 1.026 (0.605, 1.741),
p
= 0.923.
Conclusion
Hospitalized HFmrEF patients represent a demographically and clinically diverse group with many intermediate features compared to HFrEF and HFpEF and carry a lower risk of short-term mortality than HFrEF but a similar risk with HFpEF.
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