Usefulness of Mavacamten in the Challenging Association of Aortic Stenosis and Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

The association of aortic stenosis (AS) and obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy raises questions about AS quantification, the management of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction, and AS treatment. Recently, mavacamten demonstrated its efficacy in reducing left ventricular outflow tract obstruction gradient. This case reports on mavacamten use in this challenging association.

[Complications of infective endocarditis]. / Complications de l'endocardite infectieuse.

COMPLICATIONS OF INFECTIVE ENDOCARDITIS. The high in-hospital mortality of patients with infective endocarditis (about 20%) is mainly due to its complications. These complications are essentially of cardiac, neurological, and infectious origin. Rapid diagnosis and early antibiotic treatment are of paramount importance and allow drastic reduction of the frequency and severity of such complications. Discussion with all physicians caring for the patients with infective endocarditis in an "endocarditis team" setting is a mandatory step in management optimization and outcome improvement. This "endocarditis team" approach allows faster identification of patients at high risk of acute heart failure and/or cerebral embolism, and selection of those who might benefit from urgent valvular surgery. Factors associated with high embolic risk are the size and mobility of vegetation, mitral valve endocarditis, and infection with Staphylococcus aureus. When neurological complications occur, there is a risk that these may be worsened by the valvular surgery if there is a hemorrhagic component. This risk needs to be careful weighed in a team approach before sending patients to surgery. Persistent sepsis after effective antibiotic treatments prompts to local extension of the disease or to embolic extra cardiac secondary infectious localization.

COMPLICATIONS DE L'ENDOCARDITE INFECTIEUSE. Les complications de l'endocardite infectieuse (EI) sont à l'origine d'une mortalité hospitalière élevée d'environ 20 %. Elles sont essentiellement cardiaques, neurologiques et septiques. Un diagnostic rapide et une antibiothérapie précoce sont essentiels, car ils permettent de réduire la fréquence et la sévérité de ces complications. Une discussion collégiale au sein de l'équipe pluridisciplinaire (endocarditis team) est indispensable pour optimiser la prise en charge et améliorer le pronostic. Elle permet notamment d'identifier rapidement les patients à haut risque d'insuffisance cardiaque aiguë et/ou d'embolie cérébrale et de sélectionner les patients nécessitant une chirurgie valvulaire urgente. Les facteurs prédictifs d'un haut risque embolique sont la taille et la mobilité de la végétation, sa localisation sur la valve mitrale et l'EI à Staphylococcus aureus. La survenue d'une complication neurologique nécessite une évaluation rigoureuse compte tenu des risques d'aggravation de la lésion par la chirurgie valvulaire en présence d'une composante hémorragique. Un sepsis persistant sous traitement antibiotique doit faire rechercher une extension locale de l'endocardite ou des foyers emboliques extracardiaques.

Multimodality imaging in marantic endocarditis associated with cancer: a multicentric cohort study.

AIMS: We aimed to assess the role of multimodality imaging (MMI) in the diagnosis of marantic endocarditis (ME) associated with cancers and to describe the clinical characteristics, management, and outcome of these patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: In a retrospective multicentric study including four tertiary centres for the treatment of endocarditis in France and Belgium, patients with a diagnosis of ME were included. Demographic, MMI [echocardiography, computed tomography (CT), and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT)], and management data were collected. Long-term mortality was analysed. Between November 2011 and August 2021, 47 patients with a diagnosis of ME were included. Mean age was 65 ± 11 years. ME occurred in 43 cases (91%) on native valves. Vegetations were detected by echocardiography in all cases and in 12 cases (26%) by CT. No patient had an increased cardiac 18F-FDG valve uptake. The most common cardiac valve involved was aortic (34 cases, 73%). Twenty-two patients (46%) had a known cancer before ME, and 25 cases (54%) were diagnosed thanks to multimodality imaging. 18FDG PET/CT was performed in 30 patients (64%) and allowed a new diagnosis of cancer in 14 patients (30%). Systemic embolism was frequent (40 patients, 85% of cases). Forty-one patients (87%) were treated medically with anticoagulation therapy. One-year mortality was 55% (26 patients). CONCLUSION: ME remains associated with a high risk of complications and death.

Is "moderate" aortic stenosis still the right name? A review of the literature.

Current guidelines recommend aortic valve replacement for symptomatic or selected asymptomatic high-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis. Conversely, a watchful waiting attitude applies to patients with moderate aortic stenosis, regardless of their risk profile and symptoms, until the echocardiographic thresholds of severe aortic stenosis are reached. This strategy is based on data reporting high mortality in untreated severe symptomatic aortic stenosis, whereas moderate aortic stenosis has always been perceived as a non-threatening condition, with a benefit-risk balance against surgery. Meanwhile, numerous studies have reported a worrying event rate in these patients, surgical techniques and outcomes have improved significantly and the use of transcatheter aortic valve replacement has become more widespread and extended to lower-risk patients, leaving this strategy open to question, especially for patients with moderate aortic stenosis and left ventricular dysfunction. In this review, we summarize the current state of knowledge about moderate aortic stenosis progression and prognosis. We also discuss the particular case of moderate aortic stenosis associated with left ventricular dysfunction, and the ongoing trials that that might change our paradigm for the management of this "moderate" valvular heart disease.

Impact of cardiac surgery on left-sided infective endocarditis with intermediate-length vegetations.

OBJECTIVE: The best strategy to manage patients with left-sided infective endocarditis (IE) and intermediate-length vegetations (10-15 mm) remains uncertain. We aimed to evaluate the role of surgery in patients with intermediate-length vegetations and no other European Society of Cardiology guidelines-approved surgical indication. METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled 638 consecutive patients admitted to three academic centres (Amiens, Marseille and Florence University Hospitals) between 2012 and 2022 for left-sided definite IE (native or prosthetic) with intermediate-length vegetations (10-15 mm). We compared four clinical groups: medically (n=50) or surgically (n=345) treated complicated IE, medically (n=194) or surgically (n=49) treated uncomplicated IE. RESULTS: Mean age was 67±14 years. Women were 182 (28.6%). The rate of embolic events on admission was 40% in medically treated and 61% in surgically treated complicated IE, 31% in medically treated and 26% in surgically treated uncomplicated IE. The analysis of all-cause mortality showed the lowest 5-year survival rate for medically treated complicated IE (53.7%). We found a similar 5-year survival rate for surgically treated complicated IE (71.4%) and medically treated uncomplicated IE (68.4%). The highest 5-year survival rate was observed in surgically treated uncomplicated IE group (82.4%, log-rank p<0.001). The analysis of the propensity score-matched cohort estimated an HR of 0.23 for uncomplicated IE treated surgically compared with medical therapy (p=0.005, 95% CI: 0.079 to 0.656). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that surgery is associated with lower all-cause mortality than medical therapy in patients with uncomplicated left-sided IE with intermediate-length vegetations even in the absence of other guideline-based indications.

Unsupervised clustering of patients with severe aortic stenosis: A myocardial continuum.

BACKGROUND: Traditional statistics, based on prediction models with a limited number of prespecified variables, are probably not adequate to provide an appropriate classification of a condition that is as heterogeneous as aortic stenosis (AS). AIMS: To investigate a new classification system for severe AS using phenomapping. METHODS: Consecutive patients from a referral centre (training cohort) who met the echocardiographic definition of an aortic valve area (AVA) ≤ 1 cm2 were included. Clinical, laboratory and imaging continuous variables were entered into an agglomerative hierarchical clustering model to separate patients into phenogroups. Individuals from an external validation cohort were then assigned to these original clusters using the K nearest neighbour (KNN) function and their 5-year survival was compared after adjustment for aortic valve replacement (AVR) as a time-dependent covariable. RESULTS: In total, 613 patients were initially recruited, with a mean±standard deviation AVA of 0.72±0.17 cm2. Twenty-six variables were entered into the model to generate a specific heatmap. Penalized model-based clustering identified four phenogroups (A, B, C and D), of which phenogroups B and D tended to include smaller, older women and larger, older men, respectively. The application of supervised algorithms to the validation cohort (n=1303) yielded the same clusters, showing incremental cardiac remodelling from phenogroup A to phenogroup D. According to this myocardial continuum, there was a stepwise increase in overall mortality (adjusted hazard ratio for phenogroup D vs A 2.18, 95% confidence interval 1.46-3.26; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Artificial intelligence re-emphasizes the significance of cardiac remodelling in the prognosis of patients with severe AS and highlights AS not only as an isolated valvular condition, but also a global disease.

Clinical and Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Predictors of Early and Long-Term Clinical Outcome in Acute Myocarditis.

Introduction: The natural history of acute myocarditis (AM) remains partially unknown and predictors of outcome are debated. We sought to assess the impact of various cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) parameters on early and long-term prognosis in a population of patients with AM. Materials and Methods: In a two-center longitudinal study, we included consecutive patients with diagnosis of AM based on CMR and without hemodynamic compromise. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of an event in the acute phase (≤15 days). Secondary endpoints were the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and recurrence of AM during follow-up. Results: Three hundred and eighty-eight patients were included [mean age 38.5 years, 77.3% male, mean ejection fraction (EF):56%] of which 82% (317) presented with chest pain. CMR was performed 4 ± 2 days after index presentation. Overall, 38 patients (9.8%) had an event at the acute phase, 41 (10.6%) presented at least one MACE during follow-up (median 7.5 years, 6.6-8.9) and 30 (7.7%) experienced a recurrence of AM. By multivariate analysis, the independent predictors of initial complications were absence of chest pain (OR [95%CI] = 0.35 [0.15-0.82]), presence of syncope/pre-syncope (OR [95%CI] = 3.56 [1.26-10.02]), lower EF (OR [95%CI] = 0.94 [0.91-0.98] per%), myocardial extent of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) (OR [95%CI] = 1.05 [1.002-1.100] per%) and absence of edema (OR [95%CI] = 0.44 [0.19-0.97]). Only age (HR [95%CI] = 1.021 [1.001-1.041] per year) and an initial alteration of EF (HR [95%CI] = 0.94 [0.91-0.97] per%) were associated with MACE during follow-up. Factors independently associated with AM recurrence were myocarditis prior to the index episodes (HR [95%CI] = 5.74 [1.72-19.22]) and viral syndrome at the index episode (HR [95%CI] = 4.21 [1.91-9.28]). Conclusion: In routine consecutive hemodynamically stable patients with diagnosis of AM based on CMR, absence of edema, reduced EF, and extent of LGE were associated with early adverse outcome. Only age and EF were associated with long-term events.

Reproducibility of the 2016 American Society of Echocardiography-European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging Algorithm for Estimation of Left Ventricular Filling Pattern: Not Perfect but Good Enough.

The 2016 American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) guidelines for the evaluation of left ventricular diastolic function reported a new algorithm to assess diastolic function and to estimate left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP). At least five to six different parameters were necessary to conclude, each of them with their own inter-observer variability. This article examines the reproducibility of each parameter of the algorithm and its influence on the final decision of the clinician. Echocardiographic exams of 12 non-selected patients without any known cardiac disease or follow-up but addressed to the hospital for symptoms were analyzed by two readers (one junior and one senior) in five French cardiologic tertiary centers. Inter-observer reproducibility at each step of the algorithm and final decision were analyzed. There was mild agreement on the final decision. The main reasons of discrepancy were disagreement on the significance of mitral annular calcifications and measured values that are just around the cut-off (despite good reproducibility, a slight variation could lead to misclassification of a dichotomous choice between a normal measure and a pathologic measure). Without considering performance, this multicentric French study puts forward limits to the actual algorithm recommended for LVFP pattern assessment. Agreement is excellent in caricatural (easy) cases (left ventricular pressure clearly normal or clearly elevated) but a great discordance exists in the gray zone. Improvement in the algorithm and in the method for LVFP determination is proposed.

Resting Left Ventricular Global Longitudinal Strain to Identify Silent Myocardial Ischemia in Asymptomatic Patients with Diabetes Mellitus.

BACKGROUND: Screening for silent coronary artery disease in asymptomatic patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) is challenging and controversial. In this context, it seems crucial to identify early markers of coronary artery disease. METHODS: The aim of this study was to investigate the incremental value of resting left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) for the prediction of positive results on stress (exercise or dobutamine) transthoracic echocardiography in 273 consecutive asymptomatic high-risk patients with DM. Positive results on stress transthoracic echocardiography were defined as stress-induced LV wall motion abnormalities (new or worsening preexisting abnormalities). RESULTS: Compared with patients with negative stress results, those with positive stress results (n = 28 [10%]) more frequently had cardiovascular risk factors, complications of DM, vascular disease, moderate and severe calcification of the aortic valve and mitral annulus, and worse resting LV GLS (-16.7 ± 2.9% vs -19.0 ± 1.9%, P < .001). On multivariable logistic regression analysis, DM duration > 10 years, diabetic retinopathy, LV hypertrophy, and impaired LV GLS (odds ratio, 1.39 [95% CI, 1.14-1.70] per percentage increase; odds ratio, 5.16 [95% CI, 1.96-13.59] for LV GLS worse than -18%) were independently associated with positive results on stress transthoracic echocardiography. The area under the curve to predict positive results was 0.74 for LV GLS with a cutoff of -18.0% (sensitivity 68%, specificity 78%). The area under the curve of the multivariable model to predict test results was improved by the addition of LV GLS (P < .001), with a bias-corrected area under the curve after bootstrapping of 0.842 [95% CI, 0.753-0.893]. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings show that resting LV GLS is associated with the presence of silent ischemia and could be useful to better identify asymptomatic patients with DM who might benefit from coronary artery disease screening.

Reproducibility of reading echocardiographic parameters to assess severity of mitral regurgitation. Insights from a French multicentre study.

BACKGROUND: Poor reproducibility in assessment of mitral regurgitation (MR) has been reported. AIM: To investigate the robustness of echocardiographic MR assessment in 2019, based on improvements in technology and the skill of echocardiographists regarding MR quantification. METHODS: Reproducibility in parameters of MR severity and global rating were tested using transthoracic echocardiography in 25 consecutive patients independently analysed by 16 junior and senior cardiologists specialized in echocardiography (400 analyses per parameter). RESULTS: Overall interobserver agreement for mechanism definition, effective regurgitant orifice area (EROA) and regurgitant volume (RVol) was moderate, and was lower in secondary MR. Interobserver agreement was substantial for EROA [0.61, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.45-0.75] and moderate for RVol with the PISA method (0.50, 95% CI 0.33-0.56) in senior physicians and was fair in junior physicians (0.33, 95% CI 0.19-0.51 and 0.36, 95% CI 0.36-0.43, respectively). Using a multiparametric approach, overall interobserver agreement for grading MR severity was fair (0.30), was slightly better in senior than in junior physicians (0.31 vs. 0.28, respectively) with substantial or almost perfect agreement more frequently observed in senior versus junior physicians (52% vs. 36%, respectively). CONCLUSION: Reproducible transthoracic echocardiography MR quantification remains challenging in 2019, despite the expected high skills of echocardiographers regarding MR at the time of dedicated percutaneous intervention. The multiparametric approach does not entirely alleviate the substantial dispersion in measurement of MR severity parameters, whereas reader experience seems to partially address the issue. Our study emphasizes the continuing need for multimodality imaging and education in the evaluation of MR among cardiologists.