A highly conductive textile was woven from nano-fibers coated with the PEDOT-PSS polymer. The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of textile electrodes for ECG recording as a smart ...garment. Electrode textile pads and lead wires were sewn to the lining of sportswear and their tolerability to repeated washings were tested up to 150 times. The electrical conductivity of the textile electrode remained functional for up to 50 machine washes. To assess the level of motion artifacts or noise during the daily monitoring of ECG, a single lead ECG with conventional or textile electrodes was recorded during supine rest, seated rest, upright trunk rotation (i.e., twisting), and stepping movement in 66 healthy adults. A Holter system was used for data storage and analysis. ECG patterns of P, QRS, and T waves were comparable between the conventional and textile electrodes. However, the signal-to-artifact-and/or-noise ratio (SAR) during twisting was larger in the textile electrodes than in the conventional electrodes. No skin irritation was seen in the textile electrodes. The single lead textile electrodes embedded in an inner garment were usable for continuous and/or repeated ECG monitoring in daily life except during vigorous trunk movement.
Background: Hospitalized heart failure (HHF) is a critical issue in Japan. To improve its management and outcomes, the clinical features, in-hospital management, and outcomes should be analyzed to ...improve the guidelines for HHF. Methods and Results: The acute decompensated heart failure syndromes (ATTEND) registry is the largest study of HHF in Japan. The present report covers the clinical features and in-hospital management of HHF patients. The data from 4,842 enrolled patients have demonstrated that most Japanese HHF patients are elderly, with new onset, and a history of hypertension and orthopnea on admission. During hospitalization, furosemide and carperitide were commonly used and the length of stay was extremely long (mean 30 days), with 6.4% in-hospital mortality. Conclusions: The findings of the present study suggest the following: (1) the focus for hypertensive elderly and diabetic patients should be on primary prevention of HHF,(2) more intensive management with noninvasive positive pressure ventilation should be performed at the urgent stage, (3) it is necessary to clarify the clinical benefit of carperitide and angiotensin-receptor blockers, because they are commonly used in Japan, and (4) it is necessary to clarify the relationship between in-hospital mortality and length of stay from the viewpoint of both outcome and cost of patient care. (Circ J 2013; 77: 944–951)
Patients with heart failure (HF) are sometimes classified as malnourished, but the prognostic value of nutritional status in acute HF (AHF) remains largely unstudied. 1214 patients who were admitted ...to the intensive care unit between January 2000 and June 2016 were screened based on their serum albumin, lymphocyte count, and total cholesterol measures. A total of 458 HF patients were enrolled in this study. The Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) is calculated as 10 × serum albumin (g/dL) + 0.005 × lymphocyte count (per mm
3
) (lower = worse). The Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score is points based, and is calculated using serum albumin, total cholesterol, and lymphocyte count (range 0–12, higher = worse). Patients were divided into three groups according to PNI: high-PNI (PNI < 35,
n
= 331), middle-PNI (35 ≤ PNI < 38,
n
= 50), and low-PNI (PNI ≥ 38,
n
= 77). They were also divided into four groups according to CONUT score: normal-CONUT (0–1,
n
= 128), mild-CONUT (2–4,
n
= 179), moderate-CONUT (5–8,
n
= 127), and severe-CONUT (≥9,
n
= 24). The PNI, which exhibited a good balance between sensitivity and specificity for predicting in-hospital mortality 66.1 and 68.4%, respectively; area under the curve (AUC) 0.716; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.638–0.793), was 39.7 overall, while the CONUT score was 5 overall (61.4 and 68.4%, respectively; AUC 0.697; 95% CI 0.618–0.775). A Kaplan–Meier curve indicated that the prognosis, including all-cause death, was significantly (
p
< 0.001) poorer in low-PNI patients than in high-PNI groups and was also significantly poorer in severe-CONUT patients than in normal-CONUT and mild-CONUT groups. A multivariate Cox regression model showed that the low-PNI and severe-CONUT categories were independent predictors of 365-day mortality hazard ratio (HR) 2.060, 95% CI 1.302–3.259 and HR 2.238, 95% CI 1.050–4.772, respectively). Malnutrition, as assessed using both the PNI and the CONUT score, has a prognostic impact in patients with severely decompensated AHF.
Background: The degree and timing of acute kidney injury (AKI) on admission and during hospitalization in patients requiring non-surgical intensive care remain unclear.Methods and Results: In this ...study, 3,758 patients requiring intensive care were analyzed retrospectively. AKI was defined based on the ratio of serum creatinine concentrations recorded at each time point (i.e., on admission and during the first 5 days in the intensive care unit and during hospitalization) to those measured at baseline. Patients were grouped by combining AKI severity (RIFLE class) and timing (i.e., from admission to 5 days A-5D; from 5 days to hospital discharge 5D-HD) as follows: No-AKI; New-AKI (no AKI to Class R risk; ≥1.5-fold increase in serum creatinine, I injury; ≥2.0-fold increase in serum creatinine, and F failure; ≥3.0-fold increase in serum creatinine or receiving dialysis during hospitalization); Stable-AKI (Class R to R; Class I to I); and Worsening-AKI (Class R to I or F; Class I to F). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that 730-day mortality was independently associated with Class R, I, and F on admission; Class I and F during the 5D-H period; and New-AKI and Worsening-AKI during A-5D and 5D-HD.Conclusions: AKI on admission, even Class R, was associated with a poor prognosis. An increase in RIFLE class during hospitalization was identified as an important factor for poor prognosis in patients requiring intensive care.
Background: Various optimal medical therapies have been established to treat heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Both HFrEF and HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) are ...associated with poor outcomes. We investigated the effect of topiroxostat, an oral xanthine oxidoreductase inhibitor, for HFpEF patients with hyperuricemia or gout. Methods: In this nonrandomized, open-label, single-arm trial, we administered topiroxostat 40-160 mg/day to HFpEF patients with hyperuricemia or gout to achieve a target uric acid level of 6.0 mg/dL. The primary outcome was rate of change in log-transformed brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) level from baseline to 24 weeks after topiroxostat treatment. The secondary outcomes included amount of change in BNP level, uric acid evaluation values, and oxidative stress marker levels after 24 weeks of topiroxostat treatment. Thirty-six patients were enrolled; three were excluded before study initiation. Results: Change in log-transformed BNP level was -3.4 ± 8.9% (p = 0.043) after 24 weeks of topiroxostat treatment. The rate of change for the decrease in BNP level was -18.0 (-57.7, 4.0 pg/mL; p = 0.041). Levels of uric acid and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine/creatinine, an oxidative stress marker, also significantly decreased (-2.8 ± 1.6 mg/dL, p < 0.001, and -2.3 ± 3.7 ng/mgCr, p = 0.009, respectively). Conclusions: BNP level was significantly lower in HFpEF patients with hyperuricemia or gout after topiroxostat administration; however, the rate of decrease was low. Further trials are needed to confirm our findings.
Protection from lethal ventricular arrhythmias leading to sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a crucial challenge after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic activity ...can be noninvasively assessed using heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate turbulence (HRT). The EMBODY trial was designed to determine whether the Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor improves cardiac nerve activity.
This prospective, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial included patients with AMI and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Japan; 105 patients were randomized (1:1) to receive once-daily 10-mg empagliflozin or placebo. The primary endpoints were changes in HRV, e.g., the standard deviation of all 5-min mean normal RR intervals (SDANN) and the low-frequency-to-high-frequency (LF/HF) ratio from baseline to 24 weeks. Secondary endpoints were changes in other sudden cardiac death (SCD) surrogate markers such as HRT.
Overall, 96 patients were included (46, empagliflozin group; 50, placebo group). The changes in SDANN were + 11.6 and + 9.1 ms in the empagliflozin (P = 0.02) and placebo groups (P = 0.06), respectively. Change in LF/HF ratio was - 0.57 and - 0.17 in the empagliflozin (P = 0.01) and placebo groups (P = 0.43), respectively. Significant improvement was noted in HRT only in the empagliflozin group (P = 0.01). Whereas intergroup comparison on HRV and HRT showed no significant difference between the empagliflozin and placebo groups. Compared with the placebo group, the empagliflozin group showed significant decreases in body weight, systolic blood pressure, and uric acid. In the empagliflozin group, no adverse events were observed.
This is the first randomized clinical data to evaluate the effect of empagliflozin on cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic activity in patients with T2DM and AMI. Early SGLT2 inhibitor administration in AMI patients with T2DM might be effective in improving cardiac nerve activity without any adverse events.
The EMBODY trial was registered by the UMIN in November 2017 (ID: 000030158). UMIN000030158; https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr_e/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000034442 .
Acute heart failure syndromes (AHFS) are likely to increase in the future, and the high readmission rate of patients with AHFS is an important issue in Western countries. However, there are very few ...published epidemiological studies on AHFS in the Asia Pacific region. Because AHFS are heterogeneous, the characteristics, clinical profile, and management of AHFS should be clarified in an epidemiological study. The acute decompensated heart failure syndromes (ATTEND) registry is a prospective, observational, multicenter cohort study being performed in Japan and is the first epidemiological study of AHFS in the Asia Pacific region. This study is designed to investigate several aspects of AHFS as follows: (1) the registry allows patient-based data collection for precise evaluation of patient characteristics and short-term outcomes, including the readmission rate; (2) confirmation of clinical assessments can be performed, and new clinical assessments can be created; and (3) feedback allows the modification of guidelines for clinical management. The present report describes the clinical characteristics of patients with AHFS in Japan based on the preliminary data collected in this study, and the similarities and differences in characteristics of these patients compared with those in Western countries. Although most of the patient characteristics did not differ from those reported in Western studies, there are some unique findings in this study, including a high rate of treatment with carperitide (69.4%) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (53.9%) at discharge and a longer hospital stay (median 21 days). The ATTEND registry is designed to provide valuable information to clarify the characteristics of patients with AHFS to improve their management.
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