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BACKGROUND: Survival after heart transplantation has increased due to continuously refined and effective care management. Knowledge is sparse on the influence of multimorbidity and social vulnerability on management. We assessed the long-term influence of multimorbidity and socioeconomic factors on cross-sectional health care service utilization in heart transplant recipients.METHODS: First-time heart transplant recipients, from the Transplant Center at Aarhus University Hospital, were followed from transplant until December 31, 2018. We linked individual-level data from the Scandiatransplant Database to Danish national registers. We followed recipients for 15 years using descriptive statistic.RESULTS: We identified 325 recipients; 79% were male and 60% were between 41 and 60 years of age. The median (IQR) number of chronic conditions at baseline was 1.0 (1.0-2.0). The prevalence of recipients with ≥3 chronic conditions in the follow-up period 0 to 1 year was 10% and 65% within 10 to 15 years. The median use of cross-sectional health care services was higher in recipients with ≥3 chronic conditions compared to CONCLUSIONS: The use of cross-sectional health care services was higher in heart transplant recipients with increased incidence of comorbidities during follow-up intervals. A socioeconomic influence was observed in the utilization of services.

Aims Systematic use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) have the potential to improve quality of care and reduce costs of health care services. We aimed to describe whether PROs in patients diagnosed with heart disease are directly associated with health care costs. Methods and results A national cross-sectional survey including PROs at discharge from a heart centre with 1-year follow-up using data from national registers. We included patients with either ischaemic heart disease (IHD), arrhythmia, heart failure (HF), or valvular heart disease (VHD). The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the heart-specific quality of life, the EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire, and the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale were used. The economic analysis was based on direct costs including primary, secondary health care, and medical treatment. Patient-reported outcomes were available from 13 463 eligible patients out of 25.241 [IHD (n = 7179), arrhythmia (n = 4322), HF (n = 987), or VHD (n = 975)]. Mean annual total direct costs in all patients were €23 228 (patients with IHD: €19 479, patients with arrhythmia: €21 076, patients with HF: €34 747, patients with VDH: €48 677). Hospitalizations contributed overall to the highest part of direct costs. For patients discharged with IHD or arrhythmia, symptoms of anxiety or depression, worst heart-specific quality of life or health status, and the highest symptom burden were associated with increased economic expenditure. We found no associations in patients with HF or VHD. Conclusion Patient-reported outcomes at discharge from a heart centre were associated with direct health care costs in patients with IHD and arrhythmia. Registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01926145.

Background: Data on the association between quality of heart failure (HF) care and outcomes among patients with incident HF are sparse. We examined the association between process performance measures and clinical outcomes in patients with incident HF with reduced ejection fraction. Methods: Patients with incident HF with reduced ejection fraction (n=10 966) between January 2008 and October 2015 were identified from the Danish HF Registry. Data from public registries were linked. Multivariable regression analyses were used to assess the association between 6 guideline-recommended HF care processes (New York Heart Association assessment, use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin II receptor blockers, beta-blockers, and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, exercise training, and patient education) and all-cause and HF readmission, all-cause and HF hospital days, and mortality within 3 to 12 months after HF diagnosis. The associations were analyzed according to the percentages of all relevant performance measures fulfilled for the individual patient (0%–50% [reference group], >50%–75%, and >75%–100%) and for the individual performance measures. Results: Fulfilling >75% to 100% of the performance measures (n=5341 [48.7%]) was associated with lower risk of all-cause readmission (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.78 [95% CI, 0.68–0.89]) and HF readmission (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.71 [95% CI, 0.54–0.92]), lower use of all-cause hospital days (adjusted mean ratio, 0.73 [95% CI, 0.70–0.76]) and HF hospital days (adjusted mean ratio, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.70–0.89]), and lower mortality (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.42 [95% CI, 0.32–0.53]). A dose-response relationship was observed between fulfilling more performance measures and mortality (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.62 [95% CI, 0.49–0.77] fulfilling >50%–75% of the measures). Fulfilling individual performance measures, except mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist therapy, was associated with lower adjusted all-cause readmission, lower adjusted use of all-cause and HF hospital days, and lower adjusted mortality. Conclusions: Fulfilling more process performance measures was associated with better clinical outcomes in patients with incident HF with reduced ejection fraction.

Introduction: The diagnosis of acute myocarditis is in daily practice based on symptoms, electrocardiography, elevated myocardial necrosis biomarkers, echocardiography and in selected cases supported by myocardial edema and fibrosis demonstrated by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR). Often conventional echocardiography reveals no obvious changes in global function despite and therefore provides limited diagnostic value. Myocardial deformation imaging by echocardiography is an evolving method to quantitatively characterize myocardial function that may be influenced in acute myocarditis. Hypothesis: The aim of our study was to assess deformation imaging of the left ventricle in patients with CMR verified acute myocarditis. Methods: We included 28 consecutive patients (mean age 32±13 years) with CMR verified diagnosis of acute myocarditis by Lake Louise criteria. The cardiac function was evaluated by a comprehensive assessment of left ventricular (LV) function including 2D speckle tracking echocardiography. Results: We found no correlation between LV function assessed by echocardiographic ejection fraction and the amount of edema. However, we found wall motion score index to be significantly correlated to the amount of myocardial edema, however only observed, in patients with >11% edema of the LV. Global longitudinal systolic strain correlated significantly to the amount of edema (r= 0.65; p Conclusions: In patients with acute myocarditis we found 2D speckle tracking echocardiography to be a useful tools in the diagnostic process of acute myocarditis. Myocardial deformation imaging improved the diagnostic accuracy in acute myocarditis patients, especially when conventional echocardiographic parameters of LV are normal.

Introduction: Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The role of autoimmunity and especially citrullination in the pathogenesis of the increased risk of CVD and the time-course of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction are unknown. Hypothesis: To assess LV function by speckle-tracking echocardiography and the amount of coronary calcium by coronary computer tomography (CCT) in relation to anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (anti-CCP) status during a 2-year follow-up period in a open cohort of treatment-naive RA patients. Methods: Thirty-nine treatment-naive early RA patients (21 women) were included at time of diagnosis and followed for 2 years. Disease activity, IgM rheumatoid factor (IgM-RF) and anti-CCP was assessed at time of diagnosis and at 2-year follow-up. We assessed both the LV deformation by speckle-tracking echocardiography whereby we measured global longitudinal systolic strain (GLS) and coronary calcium score (Agatston′s score) by coronary computer tomography (CCT) at time of diagnosis and at 2-year follow-up. Results: We found GLS similar at baseline and after 2-year follow-up (GLSBASELINE: -16.56±3.1% vs. GLS2-YEAR: -16.27±2.8%; p=0.66). However, in patients with anti-CCP ≥340 at baseline and patients who persistently had an anti-CCP ≥340 at 2-year follow-up (n=10), we observed a significant decrease in deformation compared to patients who did not (n=29); (2.9±3.2% vs. -0.6±2.7%; p=0.002). Furthermore, we observed a significant association between the changes in GLS over 2 years (GLSDELTA: 0.27±3.21%) and anti-CCP (r=0.63; p No significant progression in coronary calcium score was observed in the observation period. Conclusions: LV deformation is reduced in treatment-naive RA patients with persistently elevated anti-CCP and deformation abnormalities is associated with the degree of anti-CCP positivity in a 2-year follow-up period. Our observations make deformation analysis by speckle-tracking echocardiography a strong tool to detect early development of myocardial dysfunction in treatment naive RA.