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Introduction:Global longitudinal strain (GLS) can predict cancer therapeutics-related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD) and guide initiation of cardioprotection (CPT) at the time of chemotherapy. No prospective randomized controlled trial (RCT) has identified the impact on LV function in survivors.Hypothesis:GLS-guided CPT provides less cardiac dysfunction in survivors of potentially cardiotoxic chemotherapy, compared with usual care.Methods:In this international (28 sites) multicenter prospective RCT, patients (pts) were included if they were administrated anthracyclines and had another risk factor for HF. They were randomly allocated into undergoing GLS-guided CPT for >12% relative reduction in GLS or EF-guided CPT for >10% absolute reduction of EF. Primary endpoint was the change in EF (ΔEF) from baseline to 3 years by 3D echocardiography.Results:Among 331 pts enrolled, 255 (77%, 60±16 years, 95% women) completed 3-year follow-up (123 in EF-guided group and 132 in GLS-guided). Most had breast cancer (236, 93%), 67 (26%) with hypertension and 32 (13%) with diabetes mellitus. A regimen of anthracycline and trastuzumab was the most common chemotherapy regimen (84%). The baseline LVEF was 61±4% with GLS of 20.7±2.3% in the entire population. CPT was administrated in 18 pts (15%) in EF-guided and 41 (31%) in GLS-guided (p=0.02). Most patients showed recovery in EF and GLS after chemotherapy (Figure). ΔEF was -2.0±4.8 in EF-guided and -1.4±5.4 in GLS-guided (p=0.25), but LVEF at 3 years in EF-guided was lower than that of GLS-guided (58.0±5.6% vs 59±4.9%, p=0.043). Ten pts in EF-guided developed CTRCD, and 6 in GLS-guided (p=0.24).Conclusions:Most of the enrolled pts were taking potentially cardiotoxic chemotherapy for breast cancer. Almost all improved LV function over 3 years, and although GLS-guided CPT was associated with higher EF at 3 years, there was no difference in ΔEF compared with EF-guided surveillance.

IntroductionRecent evidence shows that pro-inflammatory cytokines may be important in the assessment of severity and prognosis in congestive heart failure (CHF). In the present study, we examine the association of cytokines with causes, grade and prognosis of CHF patients.Subjects and methodsOf 127 patients with CHF, 11 were excluded and the remaining 116 patients with different aetiologies of CHF, and 250 age- and sex-matched control subjects, were evaluated in this case study. Severity of disease based on the New York Heart Association (NYHA) standards, fell within functional classes II to IV. The diagnosis of HF was based on clinical manifestations as well as on echocardiographic heart enlargement. Cytokines were measured by chemiluminescence. Causes of death were assessed based on death certificates. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the risk factors of heart failure.ResultsEchocardiographic ejection fraction was 39.1 ± 8.2% (mean ± SD) in the study group indicating class II-IV heart failure. Laboratory data showed increase in biomarkers of oxidative stress, among HF patients compared to healthy subjects. Pro-inflammatory cytokines; IL-6 and TNF-alpha were significantly higher among HF patients compared to healthy subjects. TNF-alpha and IL-6, showed significant increase among patients with CHF due to ischaemic heart disease and cardiomyopathy compared to levels among CHF patients with valvular heart disease and hypertensive heart diseases. The levels of the cytokines were significantly higher among patients with class III and IV heart failure and those who died, compared to patients with class II heart failure. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that CAD, cardiomyopathy, and IL-6 were strongly associated – and low ejection fraction and TNF-alpha – weakly associated with HF. Of 116 patients, 20 (17.2%) died during a follow-up of two years, and the deaths were mainly among NYHA class III and IV patients in whom the cause of CHF was CAD (10.9%) and cardiomyopathy (6.9%) which had greater levels of cytokines.ConclusionsThe findings indicated that pro-inflammatory cytokines may be important indicators of causes, severity of CHF and prognosis among these patients.

The present study aimed to test the capability of real-time three-dimensional echocardiography (RT3DE) in characterizing early abnormalities of left ventricular (LV) structure and function in native, untreated hypertensive patients1,2.

The relationship between carotid pathology and exercise stress – test (EST) in patients with new onset symptoms for cardiovascular disease (CVD) as predictor for cardiovascular events1,2.

Aims Availability of normative reference values for cardiac chamber quantitation is a prerequisite for accurate clinical application of echocardiography. In this study, we report normal reference ranges for cardiac chambers size obtained in a large group of healthy volunteers accounting for gender and age. Echocardiographic data were acquired using state-of-the-art cardiac ultrasound equipment following chamber quantitation protocols approved by the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging. Methods A total of 734 (mean age: 45.8 ± 13.3 years) healthy volunteers (320 men and 414 women) were enrolled at 22 collaborating institutions of the Normal Reference Ranges for Echocardiography (NORRE) study. A comprehensive echocardiographic examination was performed on all subjects following pre-defined protocols. There were no gender differences in age or cholesterol levels. Compared with men, women had significantly smaller body surface areas, and lower blood pressure. Quality of echocardiographic data sets was good to excellent in the majority of patients. Upper and lower reference limits were higher in men than in women. The reference values varied with age. These age-related changes persisted for most parameters after normalization for the body surface area. Conclusion The NORRE study provides useful two-dimensional echocardiographic reference ranges for cardiac chamber quantification. These data highlight the need for body size normalization that should be performed together with age-and gender-specific assessment for the most echocardiographic parameters.

The background was to test a new 3D strain algorithm in a clinical setting in order to estimate global and regional left ventricular function against reference methods1,2,3,4.