cardiology updates

BACKGROUND: On May 20, 2016, US professional organizations in cardiology published joint treatment guidelines recommending the use of angiotensin-receptor neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) for eligible patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Using data from the Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure registry, we evaluated the early impact of this update on temporal trends in ARNI prescription. METHODS: We analyzed patients with HFrEF who were eligible for ARNI prescription (EF ≤40%, no contraindications) and hospitalized from February 20, 2016, through August 19, 2016-allowing for 13weeks before and after guideline publication...

Heart failure is one of the leading diseases in internal medicine worldwide. Because of the increase in population aging, the incidence and prevalence of heart insufficiency is rising annually and is now the most frequent individual diagnosis among hospitalized patients in Germany. The mortality rate has recently been reduced, since new pharmacological options, especially the inhibition of neprilysin, have been developed; however, heart failure is still associated with a high mortality and morbidity rate. Thus, guideline-conform treatment is of crucial importance...

Hypertension affects at least 1 in 3 American adults and is a major contributor to premature mortality. Current guidelines recommend screening all adults for hypertension. Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring should be used to confirm the diagnosis of hypertension for most adults before starting antihypertensive drugs. Ambulatory BP monitoring is the preferred method but home BP monitoring is an acceptable alternative. Management of hypertension substantially reduces the risk of heart failure, stroke, and myocardial infarction...

Clinical management of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is an emergency situation. Primary aim is urgent reestablishment of reperfusion by means of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The European society of cardiology recently published the latest version of the guideline for management of patients with STEMI. A clear recommendation now exists for radial approach as access side for PCI as well as an intervention including the implantation of a drug eluting stent (DES). In patients with STEMI and multi vessel disease a complete revascularization should be planned on an individual basis either as part of the index procedure or as staged procedure...

This article updates the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2007 classification of advanced heart failure and describes new diagnostic and treatment options for these patients. Recognizing the patient with advanced heart failure is critical to facilitate timely referral to advanced heart failure centres. Unplanned visits for heart failure decompensation, malignant arrhythmias, co-morbidities, and the 2016 ESC guidelines criteria for the diagnosis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction are included in this updated definition...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

In the latest update of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines for the management of infective endocarditis (IE), imaging is positioned at the centre of the diagnostic work-up so that an early and accurate diagnosis can be reached. Besides echocardiography, contrast-enhanced CT (ce-CT), radiolabelled leucocyte (white blood cell, WBC) SPECT/CT and [18 F]FDG PET/CT are included as diagnostic tools in the diagnostic flow chart for IE. Following the clinical guidelines that provided a straightforward message on the role of multimodality imaging, we believe that it is highly relevant to produce specific recommendations on nuclear multimodality imaging in IE and cardiac implantable electronic device infections...

INTRODUCTION: Sacubitril/valsartan has been established as an effective treatment for heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction based on clinical trial data; however, little is known about its use or impact in real-world practice. METHODS: This study included data from medical and pharmacy claims and medical records review for patients (n = 200) who initiated sacubitril/valsartan between August 2015 and March 2016 preceding issuance of American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA)/Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) focused update on new pharmacological therapy for HF (May 2016), which included recommendations for sacubitril/valsartan...

PURPOSE: The 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Guideline on the Treatment of Blood Cholesterol to Reduce Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Risk in Adults recommends high-intensity statin therapy in patients aged ≤75 y with clinical coronary artery disease (CAD). The effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) in lipid management and guideline adherence is unknown. The purpose of this study is to determine whether CR participation affects guideline-driven achievement for statin use...

Primary care physicians play a significant role in managing heart failure (HF), with the goals of reducing mortality, avoiding hospitalization, and improving patients' quality of life. Most HF-related hospitalizations and deaths occur in patients with New York Heart Association functional class II or III, many of whom are perceived to have stable disease, which often progresses without clinical symptoms due to underlying deleterious effects of neurohormonal imbalance and endothelial dysfunction. Management includes lifestyle changes and stepped pharmacological therapy directed at the four stages of HF, with aggressive uptitration of therapies, including beta-blockers and inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system...

To more clearly reflect the relationship between iFR (instantaneous wave-free ratio) and FFR (fractional flow reserve), this Correction document highlights the following changes to the original document published in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology; the version available at JACC [1] has been updated to reflect the changes, with JACC's Correction document available at [2].

In 2012, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines provided recommendations on the management of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The recommendation from these guidelines is restricted to the European subcontinent. To adapt the updated recommendations for Indian subset of STEMI patients, a panel of experts in the management of STEMI provided their expert opinions. This document provides expert consensus on adapting 2012 ESC STEMI guidelines recommendations in Indian setting. Document also discussed "India-specific" relevant literature to support the consensus opinions provided in the management of STEMI...

OBJECTIVES: To assess the reliability and low cost of a computerized interventional cardiology (IC) registry to prospectively and systematically collect high-quality data for all consecutive coronary patients referred for coronary angiogram or/and coronary angioplasty. BACKGROUND: Rigorous clinical practice assessment is a key factor to improve prognosis in IC. A prospective and permanent registry could achieve this goal but, presumably, at high cost and low level of data quality...

A group of Polish experts in cardiology and emergency medicine, encouraged by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines, have recently published common recommendations for medical emergency teams regarding the pre-hospital management of patients with acute coronary syndrome. Due to the recent publication of the 2017 ESC guidelines for the management of acute myocardial infarction in patients presenting with ST-segment elevation and 2017 focused update on dual antiplatelet therapy in coronary artery disease the current panel of experts decided to update the previous standpoint...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The goal of this paper is to provide a summary of the new recommendations in the most recent 2017 ACC/AHA/HFSA Focused Update of the 2013 ACCF/AHA Guideline for the Management of Heart Failure: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Clinical Practice Guidelines and the Heart Failure Society of America. The intent is to provide the background and the supporting evidence for the recommendations and to provide practical guidance for management strategies in treatment of heart failure patients...

Dilated cardiomyopathy is the second most common cardiac disease in dogs and causes considerable morbidity and mortality. Primary dilated cardiomyopathy is suspected to be familial, and genetic loci have been associated with the disease in a number of breeds. Because it is an adult-onset disease, usually with late onset, testing breeding dogs and bitches before breeding for a genetic mutation that could lead to dilated cardiomyopathy would be helpful to prevent disease. There is growing evidence that the genetic basis may be multigenic rather than monogenic in the majority of studied breeds...

While primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has significantly contributed to improve the mortality in patients with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction even in cardiogenic shock, primary PCI is a standard of care in most of Japanese institutions. Whereas there are high numbers of available facilities providing primary PCI in Japan, there are no clear guidelines focusing on procedural aspect of the standardized care. Whilst updated guidelines for the management of acute myocardial infarction were recently published by European Society of Cardiology, the following major changes are indicated; (1) radial access and drug-eluting stent over bare metal stent were recommended as Class I indication, and (2) complete revascularization before hospital discharge (either immediate or staged) is now considered as Class IIa recommendation...

As usual, numerous papers published in 2017 contributed to optimize the management of patients in all clinical cardiologic fields. It is of course impossible to summarize them all in such an article. Subjects and papers were thus selected if they were thought to be particularly important for non-cardiologist physicians, especially general practitioners. The authors would also like to take the opportunity of this article to honor the memory of Pr Daniel Wagner who unfortunately passed away after less than six months at the head of our Cardiology Department...

: The introduction of percutaneous treatment of severe aortic stenosis with transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) remains one of the greatest achievements of interventional cardiology. In fact, TAVI emerged as a better option than either medical therapy or balloon aortic valvuloplasty for patients who cannot undergo surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or are at high surgical risk. Recently, increased operator experience and improved device systems have led to a worldwide trend toward the extension of TAVI to low-risk or intermediate-risk patients...

The new technology of PET/MRI is a prototype of hybrid imaging, allowing for the combination of molecular data from PET scanning and morphofunctional information derived from MRI scanning. Recent advances regarding the technical aspects of this device, especially after the development of MRI-compatible silicon photomultipliers of PET, permitted an increase in the diagnostic performance of PET/MRI translated into dose reduction and higher imaging quality. Among several clinical applications, PET/MRI gains ground initially in oncology, where MRI per se plays an essential role in the assessment of primary tumors (which is limited in the case of PET/CT), including prostate, rectal and gynecological tumors...