Blood Pressure, Congestion and Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction Among Patients with and Without Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. A Cluster Analysis Approach from the Observational Registry DICUMAP.

INTRODUCTION: The association of patients with heart failure (HF) and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is strong and related additionally to blood pressure (BP). AIMS: To analyze distinctive clinical profiles among patients with HFpEF both with and without T2DM. METHODS: The study was based on a Spanish National Registry (multicenter and prospective) of patients with HF (DICUMAP), that enrolled outpatients with HF who underwent an ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) and then were followed-up for 1 year. We categorized patients according to the presence/absence of T2DM then building different clusters based on K-medoids algorithm. RESULTS: 103 patients were included. T2DM was present in 44.7%. The patients with T2DM were grouped into two clusters and those without T2DM into three. All patients with T2DM had kidney disease and anemia. Among them, cluster 2 had higher systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure (PP) with a bad outcome (p = 0.03) regarding HF mortality and readmissions, influenced by eGFR (HR 0.93, 95% CI 0.97-0.87, p = 0.04), and hemoglobin (HR 0.65, 95% CI 0.71-0.63, p = 0.03). Among those without T2DM, cluster 3 had a pathological ABPM pattern with the highest PP, cluster 4 was slightly similar to cluster 2, and cluster 5 expressed a more benign pattern without differences on both, HF mortality and readmissions. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with HFpEF and T2DM expressed two different profiles depending on neurohormonal activation and arterial stiffness with prognostic implications. Patients without T2DM showed three profiles depending on ABPM pattern, kidney disease and PP without prognostic repercussion.

Hemoconcentration as a prognostic factor after hospital discharge in acute heart failure in the RICA registry. / Hemoconcentración como predictor de supervivencia al año de ingreso por insuficiencia cardiaca aguda en el registro RICA.

OBJECTIVE: Several studies have reported that a higher degree of hemoconcentration in patients admitted for the treatment of acute heart failure (HF) constitutes a favorable prognostic factor in the year following the index episode. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the highest degree of hemoconcentration at 3 months after admission for HF is also a prognostic factor for mortality and/or readmission in the 12 months after admission. PATIENTS AND METHOD: The hemoconcentration group was the upper quartile of the sample distributed according to hemoglobin increase at month 3 after discharge with respect to hemoglobin at the time of admission for HF in a multicenter prospective cohort of 1,659 subjects with HF. RESULTS: The mean follow-up until the first event was 294 days, and a total of 487 deaths and 1,125 readmissions were recorded. The hemoconcentration group had a lower risk of mortality or readmission for any cause (RR=0.75, 95% CI: 0.51-1.09 and RR=0.86, 95% CI: 0.70-1.05), although statistical significance was lost after multivariate analysis, while it was retained for other factors with recognized negative impact on the prognosis of patients with HF, such as age and functional class. CONCLUSIONS: The degree of hemoconcentration at 3 months after admission for HF is not prognostic of readmission or death in the subsequent year.

Consensus Document of the Spanish Society of Cardiology and the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine on the diagnosis and treatment of iron deficiency in heart failure. / Documento de consenso de la Sociedad Española de Cardiología y la Sociedad Española de Medicina Interna sobre el diagnóstico y tratamiento del déficit de hierro en la insuficiencia cardíaca.

Iron deficiency in patients with heart failure is a medical problem of recent particular interest. This interest has resulted from the publication of several clinical trials that demonstrated that the administration of intravenous iron to such patients improved their functional capacity and even reduced the number of hospitalisations for heart failure decompensation. However, applying the evidence from these studies in clinical practice is still controversial, both in terms of the diagnostic criteria for iron deficiency (absolute and functional) and the optimal method for iron replenishment. This article is a consensus document that integrates the recommendations of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine and the Spanish Society of Cardiology. The article reviews the scientific evidence and proposes a diagnostic and therapeutic performance protocol for iron deficiency in heart failure.

[Anemia in chronic heart failure]. / Anemia en la insuficiencia cardiaca crónica.

Anemia is one of the most common comorbidities in patients with decompensated chronic heart failure admitted to the Internal Medicine Ward. However, although there is evidence supporting its treatment to improve the functional capacity of the patients and to reduce the new admissions rate, the clinical practice guidelines do not provide any directives regarding its approach. This is an ideal clinical problem for the internist due to its multifactorial origin and the comprehensive point of view needed to approach the group of syndromes that occur in these patients (anemia, heart failure, geriatric syndromes, diabetes, etc.) The choice of treatment strategy, if such treatment is decided, should always begin after correcting the congestive signs in the outpatient with optimal treatment of heart failure.

[Anemia prevalence in heart failure. GESAIC study results]. / Prevalencia de la anemia en la insuficiencia cardiaca. Resultados del estudio GESAIC.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: There is a great variability in the prevalence of anemia in heart failure (HF) according to cohort based studies where the majority of patients have depressed left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Our study has aimed to evaluate the prevalence of anemia in HF within the usual hospital clinical practice. METHODS: An initial analysis was made of a prospective cohort of inpatients with HF admitted during 3 months in 15 Internal Medicine Services including all health system levels. We used the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria to define anemia (hemoglobin [Hb] < 12 g/l in women and < 13 g/l in men) and a value > or = 45% as preserved LVEF. RESULTS: A total of 391 patients with an average age of 77.9 +/- 9.4; 239 women (61.1%). The 52.7% of the cases had anemia. Regarding multiple associated factors to anemia in the bivariant analysis, the regression model indicated the following variables: preserved LVEF (odds ratio [OR] 3.03), not being HF debut (OR 1.85), glomerular filtration (OR 0.97), functional class III-IV of the New York Heart Association (NYHA) (OR 0.53), arterial vascular disease (OR 0.41), antiaggregant treatment (OR 0.56) and treatment with nitrites (OR 0.48). CONCLUSION: Prevalence of anemia in HF is very high in usual clinical practice, that most frequently occurs in subjects with preserved LVEF.

[Reflections in regard to health care management]. / Reflexiones en torno a la gestión sanitaria.

The evolution of management models in the health care centers has often been motivated by an initial change in the head manager of the site and parallelly to an increase in their area of business interest. This way of promoting change is subjected to the risk of detaining and discouraging the human team responsible for attaining good results in the final product of the health care sector. There are signs and symptoms in the organization that make it possible to detect the separation of interests between directors and non-directors in order to avoid an evolution to a non-efficient organization.

[Muscular metastasis in a patient with adenocarcinoma of the colon. An infrequent complication]. / Metástasis muscular en paciente afecta de adenocarcinoma de colon. Una complicación infrecuente.

Muscular metastases are unusual. Primary neoplasm use to be breast or lung, although any neoplastic process can have muscular metastatic potential. The usual location in psoas and paravertebral muscles. For its diagnosis we need a high index of suspicion, and can be helpful, electromyography and magnetic nuclear resonance. The follow up of a patient with colon adenocarcinoma and muscular metastases and a review of the subject is presented.