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Objectives: In this study, the authors sought to assess the relationship between AFF and outcomes, the treatment response to sacubitril/valsartan and first-detected AFF in patients with HFpEF enrolled in the PARAGON-HF trial. Background: Atrial fibrillation and flutter (AFF) are common in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and increase the risk of adverse outcomes. Methods: A total of 4,776 patients formed 3 groups: those with AFF according to electrocardiography (ECG) at enrollment (n = 1,552; 33%), those with history of AFF but without AFF on ECG at enrollment (n = 1,005; 21%), and those without history of AFF or AFF on ECG at enrollment (n = 2,219, 46%). We assessed outcomes, treatment response to sacubitril/valsartan in each group, and the risk associated with first-detected AFF in patients without any known AFF. The primary outcome was a composite of total heart failure hospitalizations and cardiovascular death. Results: History of AFF and AFF at enrollment were associated with higher risk of the primary outcome (risk ratio [RR]: 1.36 [95% CI: 1.12-1.65] and RR: 1.31 [1.11-1.54], respectively), than no AFF. Neither history of AFF nor AFF at enrollment modified the treatment effect of sacubitril/valsartan. Post randomization AFF occurred in 12% of patients without previous AFF and was associated with 2.8-fold higher risk of the primary outcome, but it was not influenced by sacubitril/valsartan. Conclusions: History of AFF and AFF on ECG at enrollment were associated with a higher risk of the primary outcome. First-detected AFF was not influenced by sacubitril/valsartan, yet it was associated with increased risk of all subsequent outcomes and may represent a potential target for future HFpEF trials. (Efficacy and Safety of LCZ696 Compared to Valsartan, on Morbidity and Mortality in Heart Failure Patients With Preserved Ejection Fraction [PARAGON-HF]; NCT01920711)

These are the clinical practice guidelines from the European Society of Cardiology on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice, from 2021.

These are the clinical practice guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology on cardiac pacing and cardiac resynchronization therapy, from 2021.

Cardiovascular research is in an ongoing quest for a superior imaging method to integrate gross-anatomical information with microanatomy, combined with quantifiable parameters of cardiac structure. In recent years, synchrotron radiation-based X-ray Phase Contrast Imaging (X-PCI) has been extensively used to characterize soft tissue in detail. The objective was to use X-PCI to comprehensively quantify ischemic remodeling of different myocardial structures, from cell to organ level, in a rat model of myocardial infarction. Myocardial infarction-induced remodeling was recreated in a well-established rodent model. Ex vivo rodent hearts were imaged by propagation based X-PCI using two configurations resulting in 5.8 µm and 0.65 µm effective pixel size images. The acquired datasets were used for a comprehensive assessment of macrostructural changes including the whole heart and vascular tree morphology, and quantification of left ventricular myocardial thickness, mass, volume, and organization. On the meso-scale, tissue characteristics were explored and compared with histopathological methods, while microstructural changes were quantified by segmentation of cardiomyocytes and calculation of cross-sectional areas. Propagation based X-PCI provides detailed visualization and quantification of morphological changes on whole organ, tissue, vascular as well as individual cellular level of the ex vivo heart, with a single, non-destructive 3D imaging modality.

Sacubitril-Valsartan in Acute Myocardial Infarction In a randomized trial, 5661 patients with acute myocardial infarction and a reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, pulmonary congestion, or both were assigned to receive either sacubitril-valsartan or ramipril. At a median of 22 months, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the incidence of death from cardiovascular causes or incident heart failure. Background In patients with symptomatic heart failure, sacubitril-valsartan has been found to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from cardiovascular causes more effectively than an angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor. Trials comparing the effects of these drugs in patients with acute myocardial infarction have been lacking. Methods We randomly assigned patients with myocardial infarction complicated by a reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, pulmonary congestion, or both to receive either sacubitril-valsartan (97 mg of sacubitril and 103 mg of valsartan twice daily) or ramipril (5 mg twice daily) in addition to recommended therapy. The primary outcome was death from cardiovascular causes or incident heart failure (outpatient symptomatic heart failure or heart failure leading to hospitalization), whichever occurred first. Results A total of 5661 patients underwent randomization; 2830 were assigned to receive sacubitril-valsartan and 2831 to receive ramipril. Over a median of 22 months, a primary-outcome event occurred in 338 patients (11.9%) in the sacubitril-valsartan group and in 373 patients (13.2%) in the ramipril group (hazard ratio, 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.78 to 1.04; P=0.17). Death from cardiovascular causes or hospitalization for heart failure occurred in 308 patients (10.9%) in the sacubitril-valsartan group and in 335 patients (11.8%) in the ramipril group (hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.78 to 1.07); death from cardiovascular causes in 168 (5.9%) and 191 (6.7%), respectively (hazard ratio, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.71 to 1.08); and death from any cause in 213 (7.5%) and 242 (8.5%), respectively (hazard ratio, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.73 to 1.05). Treatment was discontinued because of an adverse event in 357 patients (12.6%) in the sacubitril-valsartan group and 379 patients (13.4%) in the ramipril group. Conclusions Sacubitril-valsartan was not associated with a significantly lower incidence of death from cardiovascular causes or incident heart failure than ramipril among patients with acute myocardial infarction. (Funded by Novartis; PARADISE-MI ClinicalTrials.gov number, .)

BACKGROUND: Echocardiography provides complex data on cardiac function that can be integrated into patterns of dysfunction related to the severity of cardiac disease. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of applying machine learning (ML) to automate the integration of echocardiographic data from the whole cardiac cycle and to automatically recognize patterns in velocity profiles and deformation curves, allowing the identification of functional phenotypes. METHODS: Echocardiography was performed in 189 clinically managed patients with hypertension and 97 healthy individuals without hypertension. Speckle-tracking analysis of the left ventricle and atrium was performed, and deformation curves were extracted. Aortic and mitral blood pool pulsed-wave Doppler and mitral annular tissue pulsed-wave Doppler velocity profiles were obtained. These whole-cardiac cycle deformation and velocity curves were used as ML input. Unsupervised ML was used to create a representation of patients with hypertension in a virtual space in which patients are positioned on the basis of the similarity of their integrated whole-cardiac cycle echocardiography data. Regression methods were used to explore patterns of echocardiographic traces within this virtual ML-derived space, while clustering was used to define phenogroups. RESULTS: The algorithm captured different patterns in tissue and blood-pool velocity and deformation profiles and integrated the findings, yielding phenotypes related to normal cardiac function and others to advanced remodeling associated with pressure overload in hypertension. The addition of individuals without hypertension into the ML-derived space confirmed the interpretation of normal and remodeled phenotypes. CONCLUSIONS: ML-based pattern recognition is feasible from echocardiographic data obtained during the whole cardiac cycle. Automated algorithms can consistently capture patterns in velocity and deformation data and, on the basis of these patterns, group patients into interpretable, clinically comprehensive phenogroups that describe structural and functional remodeling. Automated pattern recognition may potentially aid interpretation of imaging data and diagnostic accuracy.

Background: Currently, there is no consensus on the optimal medical therapy for patients after left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation, but usually the HFrEF therapy is continued beyond implant. We compared NT-proBNP values in LVAD patients treated with ramipril or sacubitril/valsartan (sac/val).Patient sand Methods: A single centre, retrospective study included data from 26 patients(88% male, mean age 59±11 years). 54% were continuously treated with ramipril, and 46% were switched to sac/val. The median follow-up was 13.3 months(IQR 8.5-15.4).Results:Baseline patient data are presented in Table 1. Throughout the followup, the mean arterial blood pressure, creatinine and glomerular filtration rate (GFR)values did not change significantly (Figure 1a). A decrease in NT-proBNP values was noted in both groups, although without significant difference between them. However, a difference in trends expressed as negative logarithms of ratios of NT- proBNPat 3 months follow up and at baseline is seen in the sac/val group compared to those on ramipril, achieving significance (p=0.009) for the low medication doses(Figure 1b). During follow-up, 3 patients died in the ramipril subgroup and none in the sac/val group, but the sample size precluded survival analyses.Conclusion: Our data suggest a good safety profile of sac/val in LVAD recipients. A decrease in NT-proBNP values is seen in patients in both treatment groups, with results suggestive of a decrease in the biomarker with sac/val. However, a larger prospective randomized study is required to establish the consistency of this finding and its translation to treatment benefit.

International audience; no abstract

Document Reviewers: Victor Aboyans (CPG Review Coordinator) (France), Antonio Vaz Carneiro (CPG Review Coordinator) (Portugal), Stephan Achenbach (Germany), Stefan Agewall (Norway), Yannick Allanore (France), Riccardo Asteggiano (Italy), Luigi Paolo Badano (Italy), Joan Albert Barbera (Spain), Helene Bouvaist (France), Hector Bueno (Spain), Robert A. Byrne (Germany), Scipione Carerj (Italy), Graca Castro (Portugal), Cetin Erol (Turkey), Volkmar Falk (Germany), Christian Funck-Brentano (France), Matthias Gorenflo (Germany), John Granton (Canada), Bernard Iung (France), David G. Kiely (UK), Paulus Kirchhof (Germany/UK), Barbro Kjellstrom (Sweden), Ulf Landmesser (Switzerland), John Lekakis (Greece), Christos Lionis (Greece), Gregory Y. H. Lip (UK), Stylianos E. Orfanos (Greece), Myung H. Park (USA), Massimo F. Piepoli (Italy), Piotr Ponikowski (Poland), Marie-Pierre Revel (France), David Rigau (ERS methodologist) (Switzerland), Stephan Rosenkranz (Germany), Heinz Voller (Germany), and Jose Luis Zamorano (Spain)

Purpose:Heart failure with preserved EF (HFpEF) is characterized by phenotypicheterogeneity. Loss of atrial function is of relevance in HFpEF, and interatrialdyssynchrony (IAD) appears to be one of its aspects. The prevalence of IAD hasnot been compared between patients with HF and various categories of LVEF.Methods:Data from 51 patients (24 HFpEF, 6 HFmrEF, 21 HFrEF) diagnosed with HFper current guidelines were analyzed retrospectively. IAD was measured from echoDoppler traces as the difference between the time of transmitral and transtricuspidA wave onsets.Results:IAD>60 ms was present in 8 HFpEF pts. (33.3%), 1 HFrEF (4.8%) and1 HFmrEF patient (16.7%) (p=0.039). Compared to pts. with LVEF