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An abstract of the article "Cystatina C Is a Strong Predictor of a New Onset Heart Failure in Acute Coronary Syndrome Patients," by J. M. Garcia and colleagues is presented.

Background: Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of heart failure (HF), and tools are needed to identify patients with a higher probability of developing HF after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Artificial intelligence (AI) has proven to be useful in identifying variables related to the development of cardiovascular complications., Methods: We included all consecutive patients discharged after ACS in two Spanish centers between 2006 and 2017. Clinical data were collected and patients were followed up for a median of 53months. Decision tree models were created by the model-based recursive partitioning algorithm., Results: The cohort consisted of 7,097 patients with a median follow-up of 53months (interquartile range: 18-77). The readmission rate for HF was 13.6% (964 patients). Eight relevant variables were identified to predict HF hospitalization time: HF at index hospitalization, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, glomerular filtration rate, age, Charlson index, hemoglobin, and left ventricular ejection fraction. The decision tree model provided 15 clinical risk patterns with significantly different HF readmission rates., Conclusions: The decision tree model, obtained by AI, identified 8 leading variables capable of predicting HF and generated 15 differentiated clinical patterns with respect to the probability of being hospitalized for HF. An electronic application was created and made available for free., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The Zwolle risk score was designed to stratify in-hospital mortality risk of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) and for decision-making in the unit where patients are admitted. We assessed the accuracy of Zwolle risk score for in-hospital mortality estimation compared with the GRACE score in all patients (n = 4446) admitted for STEMI in 3 university hospitals. Only one fourth of the patients were classified as high-risk by the Zwolle risk score vs 60% by the GRACE score. In-hospital mortality was 10.6%. A statistically significant increase in in-hospital mortality, adjusted by age, gender, and revascularization, was observed with both scores. The assessment of the optimal cut-off points verified the accuracy of Zwolle score ≥4 as optimal threshold for high-risk categorization. In contrast, GRACE score ≥140 had very low specificity as well as percentage of patients correctly classified; GRACE score ≥175 was fairly better. The reclassification index of the Zwolle score after applying the GRACE score was 35.5%. Selection of high-risk STEMI patients treated with pPCI based on the Zwolle risk score has higher specificity than the GRACE score and might be useful in clinical practice., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Background: Current evidence supports the efficacy of prolonged dual antiplatelet treatment (DAPT) for patients at high-ischemic risk and low bleeding risk as well as the efficacy and safety of short DAPT in high-bleeding risk (HBR) patients., Methods: We evaluated patterns of DAPT candidates in all patients discharged in 2 hospitals after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Patients categorized in 3 groups: 1) short-DAPT candidates if they met 1 major o 2 minor criteria for HBR, by the 2019 ARC-HBR criteria; 2) prolonged-DAPT candidates if were not HBR and had recurrent ACS, complex percutaneous coronary interventions or diabetes; 3) standard 12 months DAPT if were not include in the previous 2 groups. Major bleeding (MB) was registered according to 3 or 5 of the BARC consortium definitions., Results: We included 8252 patients and 3215 (39 %) were candidates for abbreviated DAPT, 3119 (37.8 %) for prolonged DAPT, and 1918 (23.2 %) for 12 m DAPT. Relevant differences were observed between the 3 categories beyond the bleeding risk. Median follow-up was 57 months. Multivariate analysis identified higher risk of all-cause mortality (HR: 1.96 95 % CI 1.45-2.67; p < 0.001), cardiovascular mortality (HR: 2.10 95 % CI 1.39-3.19; p < 0.011), MACE (HR: 1.69 95 % 1.50-2.02; p < 0.001) and MB (sHR: 3.41 95 % CI 1.45-8.02; p = 0.005) in candidates to short DAPT. Candidates to prolonged DAPT had higher risk of MACE (HR: 1.17 95 % CI 1.02-1.35; p = 0.027)., Conclusions: Almost two thirds of patients discharged after an ACS would be candidates for short or prolonged DAPT and these patients are at higher risk of MACE and mortality., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Alberto Cordero reports a) honoraria for lectures from AstraZeneca, AMGEN, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ferrer, Boehringer Ingelheim, MSD, Daichy Sankio, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Amarin; b) consulting fees from AstraZeneca, Ferrer, Sanofi, AMGEN, Novartis, Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Amarin., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Remnant cholesterol has been identified as one of leading lipid values associated with the incidence of coronary heart disease. There is scarce evidence on its distribution and prognostic value in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients., Methods and Results: We included all consecutive patients admitted for ACS in two different centres. Remnant cholesterol was calculated by the equation: total cholesterol minus LDL cholesterol minus HDL cholesterol, and values ≥30 were considered high. Among the 7479 patients, median remnant cholesterol level was 28 mg/dL (21-39), and 3429 (45.85%) patients had levels ≥30 mg/dL. Age (r: -0.29) and body mass index (r: 0.44) were the variables more strongly correlated. At any given age, patients with overweigh or obesity had higher levels. In-hospital mortality was 3.75% (280 patients). Remnant cholesterol was not associated to higher in-hospital mortality risk (odds ratio: 0.89; P = 0.21). After discharge (median follow-up of 57 months), an independent and linear risk of all-cause mortality and heart failure (HF) associated to cholesterol remnant levels was observed. Remnant cholesterol levels >60 mg/dL were associated to higher risk of mortality [hazard ratio (HR): 1.49 95% CI 1.08-2.06; P = 0.016], cardiovascular mortality (HR: 1.49 95% CI 1.08-2.06; P = 0.016), and HF re-admission (sub-HR: 1.55 95% CI 1.14-2.11; P = 0.005)., Conclusions: Elevated remnant cholesterol is highly prevalent in patients admitted for ACS and is inversely correlated with age and positively with body mass index. Remnant cholesterol levels were not associated to higher in-hospital mortality risk, but they were associated with higher long-term risk of mortality and HF., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: A.C. reports (i) honoraria for lectures from AstraZeneca, AMGEN, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ferrer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, MSD, Daichy Sankio, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Amarin; (ii) consulting fees from AstraZeneca, Ferrer, Sanofi, AMGEN, Novartis, Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Amarin. J.R.G.-J. reports (i) honoraria for lectures from Eli Lilly Co, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc., Bayer, Pfizer, Abbott, Boehringer-Ingelheim, MSD, Ferrer, and Bristol-Myers Squibb; (ii) consulting fees from AstraZeneca, Ferrer, Bayer, Boehringer-Ingelheim; (iii) research grants from AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim and Daichii-Sankyo., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: The characteristics and outcome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-positive patients with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) are still poorly known., Methods: The PANDEMIC study was an investigator-initiated, collaborative, individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis of registry-based studies. MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, Web of Sciences, and SCOPUS were searched to identify all registry-based studies describing the characteristics and outcome of SARS-CoV-2-positive STEMI patients undergoing PPCI. The control group consisted of SARS-CoV-2-negative STEMI patients undergoing PPCI in the same time period from the ISACS-STEMI COVID 19 registry. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality; the secondary outcome was postprocedural reperfusion assessed by TIMI flow., Results: Of 8 registry-based studies identified, IPD were obtained from 6 studies including 941 SARS-CoV-2-positive patients; the control group included 2005 SARS-CoV-2-negative patients. SARS-CoV-2-positive patients showed a significantly higher in-hospital mortality (p < 0.001) and worse postprocedural TIMI flow (<3, p < 0.001) compared with SARS-CoV-2-negative subjects. The increased risk for SARS-CoV-2-positive patients was significantly higher in males compared to females for both the primary (p interaction  = 0.001) and secondary outcome (p interaction  = 0.023). In SARS-CoV-2-positive patients, age ≥ 75 years (OR = 5.72; 95%CI: 1.77-18.5), impaired postprocedural TIMI flow (OR = 11.72; 95%CI: 2.64-52.10), and cardiogenic shock at presentation (OR = 11.02; 95%CI: 2.84-42.80) were independent predictors of mortality., Conclusions: In STEMI patients undergoing PPCI, SARS-CoV-2 positivity is independently associated with impaired reperfusion and with a higher risk of in-hospital mortality, especially among male patients. Age ≥ 75 years, cardiogenic shock, and impaired postprocedural TIMI flow independently predict mortality in this high-risk population., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: In elderly patients with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTEACS), while routine invasive management is established in high-risk NSTEACS patients, there is still uncertainty regarding the optimal timing of the procedure., Methods: This study analyzes the association of early coronary angiography with all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, heart failure (HF) hospitalization, and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients older than 75 years old with NSTEACS. This retrospective observational study included 7811 consecutive NSTEACS patients who were examined between the years 2003 and 2017 at two Spanish university hospitals. There were 2290 patients older than 75 years old. We compared their baseline characteristics according to the early invasive strategy used (coronarography ≤24 h vs. coronarography >24 h) after the diagnosis of NSTEACS., Results: Among the study participants, 1566 patients (68.38%) underwent early invasive coronary intervention. The mean follow-up period was 46 months (interquartile range 18-71 months). This association was also maintained after propensity score matching: early invasive strategy was significantly related to lower all-cause mortality [HR 0.61 (95% CI 0.51-0.71)], cardiovascular mortality [HR 0.52 (95% CI 0.43-0.63)], and MACE [HR 0.62 (CI 95% 0.54-0.71)]., Concusions: In a contemporary real-world registry of elderly NSTEACS patients, early invasive management significantly reduced all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and MACE during long-term follow-up., Brief Summary: In this real-world retrospective observational study that included 2451 patients older than 75 years old, 1566 patients (68.38%) underwent early invasive coronary intervention. After performing a propensity score matching, the early invasive strategy was still associated with lower all-cause mortality [HR (hazard ratio) 0.61, 95% CI (95% confidence interval) (0.51-0.71)], cardiovascular mortality [HR 0.52 (95%CI 0.43-0.63)], and MACE [HR 0.62 (95%CI 0.54-0.71)] during long-term follow-up., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: The objective of our work is to evaluate the prognostic benefit of an early invasive strategy in patients with high-risk NSTACS according to the recommendations of the 2020 clinical practice guidelines during long-term follow-up., Methods: This retrospective observational study included 6454 consecutive NSTEACS patients. We analyze the effects of early coronary angiography (< 24 h) in patients with: (a) GRACE risk score > 140 and (b) patients with "established NSTEMI" (non ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction defined by an increase in troponins) or dynamic ST-T-segment changes with a GRACE risk score < 140., Results: From 2003 to 2017, 6454 patients with "new high-risk NSTEACS" were admitted, and 6031 (93.45%) of these underwent coronary angiography. After inverse probability of treatment weighting, the long-term cumulative probability of being free of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality and MACE differed significantly due to an early coronary intervention in patients with NSTEACS and GRACE > 140 [HR 0.62 (IC 95% 0.57-0.67), HR 0.62 (IC 95% 0.56-0.68), HR 0.57 (IC 95% 0.53-0.61), respectively]. In patients with NSTEACS and GRACE < 140 with established NSTEMI or ST/T-segment changes, the benefit of the early invasive strategy is only observed in the reduction of MACE [HR 0.62 (IC 95% 0.56-0.68)], but not for total mortality [HR 0.96 (IC 95% 0.78-1.2)] and cardiovascular mortality [HR 0.96 (IC 95% 0.75-1.24)]., Conclusions: An early invasive management is associated with reduced all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality and MACE in NSTEACS with high GRACE risk score. However, this benefit is less evident in the subgroup of patients with a GRACE score < 140 with established NSTEMI or ST/T-segment changes., (© 2021. Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Objectives: To determine security and benefits of high pressure postdilatation (HPP) of bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS) in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of complex lesions whatever its indication is., Background: Acute scaffold disruption has been proposed as the main limitation of BVS when they are overexpanded. However, clinical implications of this disarray are not yet clear and more evidence is needed., Methods: A total of 25 BVS were deployed during PCI of 14 complex lesions after mandatory predilatation. In all cases HPP was performed with NC balloon in a 1:1 relation to the artery. After that, optical coherence tomography (OCT) analyses were performed., Results: Mean and maximal postdilatation pressure were 17±3.80 and 20 atmospheres (atm) respectively. Postdilatation balloon/scaffold diameter ratio was 1.01. A total of 39,590 struts were analyzed. Mean, minimal and maximal scaffold diameter were respectively: 3.09±0.34mm, 2.88±0.31mm and 3.31±0.40mm. Mean eccentricity index was 0.13±0.05. ISA percentage was 1.42% with a total of 564 malapposed struts. 89 struts were identified as disrupted, which represents a percentage of disrupted struts of 0.22%. At 30days, none of our patients died, suffered from stroke, stent thrombosis or needed target lesion revascularization (TLR)., Conclusions: NC balloon HPP of BVS at more than 17atm (up to 20atm) is safe during PCI and allows to achieve better angiographic and clinical results., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To evaluate immediate transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) results and medium-term follow-up in very elderly patients with severe and symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS)., Methods: This multicenter, observational and prospective study was carried out in three hospitals. We included consecutive very elderly (> 85 years) patients with severe AS treated by TAVI. The primary endpoint was to evaluate death rates from any cause at two years., Results: The study included 160 consecutive patients with a mean age of 87 ± 2.1 years (range from 85 to 94 years) and a mean logistic EuroSCORE of 18.8% ± 11.2% with 57 (35.6%) patients scoring ≥ 20%. Procedural success rate was 97.5%, with 25 (15.6%) patients experiencing acute complications with major bleeding (the most frequent). Global mortality rate during hospitalization was 8.8% (n = 14) and 30-day mortality rate was 10% (n = 16). Median follow up period was 252.24 ± 232.17 days. During the follow-up period, 28 (17.5%) patients died (17 of them due to cardiac causes). The estimated two year overall and cardiac survival rates using the Kaplan-Meier method were 71% and 86.4%, respectively. Cox proportional hazard regression showed that the variable EuroSCORE ≥ 20 was the unique variable associated with overall mortality., Conclusions: TAVI is safe and effective in a selected population of very elderly patients. Our findings support the adoption of this new procedure in this complex group of patients.

Introduction and Objectives: There is little information on the use of transcatheter aortic valve implantation in patients with severe aortic stenosis and porcelain aorta. The primary aim of this study was to analyze death from any cause after CoreValve(®) implantation in patients with severe aortic stenosis, with and without porcelain aorta., Methods: In this multicenter, observational prospective study, carried out in 3 hospitals, percutaneous aortic valves were implanted in 449 patients with severely calcified aortic stenosis. Of these, 36 (8%) met the criteria for porcelain aorta. The primary end-point was death from any cause at 2 years., Results: Patients with porcelain aorta more frequently had extracardiac vascular disease (11 [30.6%] vs 49 [11.9%]; P=.002), prior coronary revascularization (15 [41.7%] vs 98 [23.7%]; P=.017), and dyslipidemia (26 [72.2%] vs 186 [45%]; P=.02). In these patients, there was greater use of general anesthesia (15 [41.7%] vs 111 [16.9%]; P=.058) and axillary access (9 [25%] vs 34 [8.2%]; P=.004). The success rate of the procedure (94.4 vs 97.3%; P=.28) and the incidence of complications (7 [19.4%] vs 48 [11.6%]; P=.20) were similar in both groups. There were no statistically significant differences in the primary end point at 24 months of follow-up (8 [22.2%] vs 66 [16%]; P=.33). The only predictive variable for the primary end point was the presence of complications during implantation (hazard ratio=2.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.5-4.5; P=.001)., Conclusions: In patients with aortic stenosis and porcelain aorta unsuitable for surgery, percutaneous implantation of the CoreValve(®) self-expanding valve prosthesis is safe and feasible., (Copyright © 2013 Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.)

We evaluated the incidence, clinical predictors, and outcomes of contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) after coronary angiography in patients with myocardial infarction and normal kidney function. We studied 202 consecutive patients with glomerular filtration rate >60 mL/min/1.73 m(2). The CIN was defined according to 3 definitions: increases in serum creatinine (sCr) ≥25%, ≥0.3 mg/dL, and ≥0.5 mg/dL. The CIN occurred in 56 (27.7%), 42 (20.8%), and 13 (6.4%) patients, respectively. In multivariate analysis, the presence of a high Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) risk score (>140) was an independent predictor of CIN in its milder forms (≥25% and ≥0.3 mg/dL of rise in sCr). Increase in sCr ≥0.3 mg/dL was an independent predictor of bleeding. Increase in sCr ≥0.5 mg/dL was an independent predictor of in-hospital cardiac events (mortality, myocardial infraction [MI], and heart failure). As conclusion, the GRACE score is a useful tool to predict CIN in patients with MI and normal renal function.

Introduction and Objectives: Percutaneous aortic valve implantation for patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis and a high surgical risk is currently well established. We report our experience in terms of safety and effectiveness of transcatheter aortic valve implantation in other clinical context like the degenerated aortic homografts., Methods: We report our initial experience in four hospitals and five patients with degenerated aortic homograft and severe aortic regurgitation, refused for surgery for a heart team, that underwent percutaneous implantation of CoreValve(®) aortic prosthesis., Results: We included three males and two females. The mean age was 70 (3.5) years. All patients were symptomatic in New York Heart Association class III or IV. Procedures were performed through one of the femoral arteries in all patients and under sedation in three patients. The implant was successfully carried out in all cases. There were no major complications during the procedure or admission and the valvular defect was solved in all cases. In-hospital and 30-days mortality was 0. All patients had clinical improvement during follow-up with a reduction in at less two grades in the New York Heart Association functional scale., Conclusions: In our experience the treatment of degenerated aortic homografts and aortic insufficiency with transcatheter aortic valve implantation showed to be safe and effective. The current challenge is to convey the good results of transcatheter aortic valve implantation in symptomatic aortic stenosis and high surgical risk to others disorders of the aortic valve. In the future, it is possible that transcatheter aortic valve implantation will expand its indications to majority of aortic valve disorders and patients with less surgical risk., (Copyright © 2011 Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.)

Background and Objectives: Chronic renal failure (CRF) is an emergent pathology in industrialized countries and is associated with high prevalence of coronary artery disease. Our aim is to determine the influence of CRF in the appearance of adverse cardiovascular events after sirolimus-eluting stent implantation in a non selected cohort., Patients and Methods: Observational retrospective study with a cohort of 461 patients who received one or more sirolimus-eluting stent between September 2002 and December 2005 at our institution. We evaluated the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events during the follow-up period and their relation with chronic kidney disease. We used the abbreviated Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equation to calculate the GFR., Results: The mean follow-up was 42 months (SD ± 13) and the mean age was 61 ± 11 years and 85 percent of the group were men. Chronic renal failure was present in 50 patients, 11 percent of the cohort. In a multivariate model, after adjustment for age, sex, left ventricle election fraction, anemia, diabetes, hypertension, Killip class and stent thrombosis, chronic renal failure was an independent predictive factor of death from any cause (hazard ratio, 3.82; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.41-10.33, p = 0.008), and an significant risk factor for restenosis (hazard ratio 3.47; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.01-11.97, p = 0.045). Significant differences were not found in thrombosis between patients with or without CRF (8% vs 3.4%, p = 0,109), although a trend was observed in the CRF group. There no were statistical association with need for a new target vessel revascularization (TVR) after coronary intervention either (18.8% versus 10.5%, p = 0.094)., Conclusions: The presence of chronic renal failure in patients with coronary disease is associated with higher risk of restenosis and is a potent predictor of mortality after sirolimus-eluting stent implantation., (Copyright © 2009 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.)

Background: In patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), increased plasma glucose levels are associated with worse outcome. Our aim is to ascertain the values of admission and fasting glucose for prediction of death among patients with ACS; and to compare their predictive capacities., Methods: The relationships of mortality to plasma glucose levels among 811 consecutive patients hospitalized with ACS were estimated using spline Cox models. Blood samples were obtained upon admission and after overnight fast. The predictive capacities of fasting and admission glucose were compared using time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves., Results: Fasting and admission glucose levels were higher among the 151 patients who died (18.6%) than among survivors (P < .001). Among the 558 patients with no history of diabetes (68.8%) there was a J-shaped dependence of the all-time mortality hazard ratio on fasting glucose that persisted when adjusted for covariates: hazard was lowest at 110 mg/dL (6.1 mmol/L), and significantly greater at levels <90 mg/dL (5.0 mmol/L) or >117 mg/dL (6.5 mmol/L). Likewise among non-diabetic patients, the predictive capacities of admission and fasting glucose were similar for forecast times of up to about 1 year, but for later times the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was larger for fasting glucose than admission glucose (P < .05). Neither admission nor fasting glucose levels discriminated among diabetic patients in regard to risk of death., Conclusions: Both admission and fasting glucose may be used for triage of nondiabetic ACS patients; fasting glucose may additionally be useful for long-term management, for which the relationship with the all-time mortality hazard ratio is J-shaped.