Segment-specific association of carotid-intima-media thickness with cardiovascular risk factors - findings from the STAAB cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The guideline recommendation to not measure carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) for cardiovascular risk prediction is based on the assessment of just one single carotid segment. We evaluated whether there is a segment-specific association between different measurement locations of CIMT and cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: Subjects from the population-based STAAB cohort study comprising subjects aged 30 to 79 years of the general population from Würzburg, Germany, were investigated. CIMT was measured on the far wall of both sides in three different predefined locations: common carotid artery (CCA), bulb, and internal carotid artery (ICA). Diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, smoking, and obesity were considered as risk factors. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, odds ratios of risk factors per location were estimated for the endpoint of individual age- and sex-adjusted 75th percentile of CIMT. RESULTS: 2492 subjects were included in the analysis. Segment-specific CIMT was highest in the bulb, followed by CCA, and lowest in the ICA. Dyslipidemia, hypertension, and smoking were associated with CIMT, but not diabetes and obesity. We observed no relevant segment-specific association between the three different locations and risk factors, except for a possible interaction between smoking and ICA. CONCLUSIONS: As no segment-specific association between cardiovascular risk factors and CIMT became evident, one simple measurement of one location may suffice to assess the cardiovascular risk of an individual.

Establishing a cardiac training group for patients with heart failure: the "HIP-in-Würzburg" study.

BACKGROUND: Exercise training in heart failure (HF) is recommended but not routinely offered, because of logistic and safety-related reasons. In 2020, the German Society for Prevention&Rehabilitation and the German Society for Cardiology requested establishing dedicated "HF training groups." Here, we aimed to implement and evaluate the feasibility and safety of one of the first HF training groups in Germany. METHODS: Twelve patients (three women) with symptomatic HF (NYHA class II/III) and an ejection fraction ≤ 45% participated and were offered weekly, physician-supervised exercise training for 1 year. Patients received a wrist-worn pedometer (M430 Polar) and underwent the following assessments at baseline and after 4, 8 and 12 months: cardiopulmonary exercise test, 6-min walk test, echocardiography (blinded reading), and quality of life assessment (Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire, KCCQ). RESULTS: All patients (median age [quartiles] 64 [49; 64] years) completed the study and participated in 76% of the offered 36 training sessions. The pedometer was worn ≥ 1000 min per day over 86% of the time. No cardiovascular events occurred during training. Across 12 months, NT-proBNP dropped from 986 pg/ml [455; 1937] to 483 pg/ml [247; 2322], and LVEF increased from 36% [29;41] to 41% [32;46]%, (p for trend = 0.01). We observed no changes in exercise capacity except for a subtle increase in peak VO2% predicted, from 66.5 [49; 77] to 67 [52; 78]; p for trend = 0.03. The physical function and social limitation domains of the KCCQ improved from 60 [54; 82] to 71 [58; 95, and from 63 [39; 83] to 78 [64; 92]; p for trend = 0.04 and = 0.01, respectively. Positive trends were further seen for the clinical and overall summary scores. CONCLUSION: This pilot study showed that the implementation of a supervised HF-exercise program is feasible, safe, and has the potential to improve both quality of life and surrogate markers of HF severity. This first exercise experiment should facilitate the design of risk-adopted training programs for patients with HF.

Prevalence and determinants of the precursor stages of heart failure: results from the population-based STAAB cohort study.

AIMS: Prevention of heart failure relies on the early identification and control of risk factors. We aimed to identify the frequency and characteristics of individuals at risk of heart failure in the general population. METHODS AND RESULTS: We report cross-sectional data from the prospective Characteristics and Course of Heart Failure Stages A-B and Determinants of Progression (STAAB) cohort study investigating a representative sample of residents of Würzburg, Germany. Sampling was stratified 1:1 for sex and 10:27:27:27:10 for age groups of 30-39/40-49/50-59/60-69/70-79 years. Heart failure precursor stages were defined according to American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association: stage A (risk factors for heart failure), stage B (asymptomatic cardiac dysfunction). The main results were internally validated in the second half of the participants. The derivation sample comprised 2473 participants (51% women) with a distribution of 10%/28%/25%/27%/10% in respective age groups. Stages A and B were prevalent in 42% and 17% of subjects, respectively. Of stage B subjects, 31% had no risk factor qualifying for stage A (group 'B-not-A'). Compared to individuals in stage B with A criteria, B-not-A were younger, more often women, and had left ventricular dilation as the predominant B qualifying criterion (all P < 0.001). These results were confirmed in the validation sample (n = 2492). CONCLUSION: We identified a hitherto undescribed group of asymptomatic individuals with cardiac dysfunction predisposing to heart failure, who lacked established heart failure risk factors and therefore would have been missed by conventional primary prevention. Further studies need to replicate this finding in independent cohorts and characterise their genetic and -omic profile and the inception of clinically overt heart failure in subjects of group B-not-A.

Functional versus morphological assessment of vascular age in patients with coronary heart disease.

Communicating cardiovascular risk based on individual vascular age (VA) is a well acknowledged concept in patient education and disease prevention. VA may be derived functionally, e.g. by measurement of pulse wave velocity (PWV), or morphologically, e.g. by assessment of carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether both approaches produce similar results. Within the context of the German subset of the EUROASPIRE IV survey, 501 patients with coronary heart disease underwent (a) oscillometric PWV measurement at the aortic, carotid-femoral and brachial-ankle site (PWVao, PWVcf, PWVba) and derivation of the aortic augmentation index (AIao); (b) bilateral cIMT assessment by high-resolution ultrasound at three sites (common, bulb, internal). Respective VA was calculated using published equations. According to VA derived from PWV, most patients exhibited values below chronological age indicating a counterintuitive healthier-than-anticipated vascular status: for VAPWVao in 68% of patients; for VAAIao in 52% of patients. By contrast, VA derived from cIMT delivered opposite results: e.g. according to VAtotal-cIMT accelerated vascular aging in 75% of patients. To strengthen the concept of VA, further efforts are needed to better standardise the current approaches to estimate VA and, thereby, to improve comparability and clinical utility.

Speckle tracking derived reference values of myocardial deformation and impact of cardiovascular risk factors - Results from the population-based STAAB cohort study.

AIMS: We aimed to provide reference values for speckle-tracking derived systolic and diastolic myocardial deformation markers, and to determine their relation with age, sex, and cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS AND RESULTS: The Characteristics and Course of Heart Failure STAges A/B and Determinants of Progression (STAAB) cohort study recruited a representative sample of the population of Würzburg, Germany, aged 30-79 years. In a sample of 1818 participants (52% female, mean age 54±12 years) global longitudinal peak systolic strain (GL-PSS, n = 1218), systolic (GL-SSR, n = 1506), and early (GL-EDSR, n = 1506) and late diastolic strain rates (GL-LDSR, n = 1500) were derived from 2D speckle tracking analysis. From a subgroup of 323 individuals without any cardiovascular risk factor, sex- and age-specific reference values were computed. GL-PSS, GL-SSR, and GL-EDSR were associated with sex, GL-EDSR decreased and GL-LDSR increased with age. In the total sample, dyslipidemia was associated with altered GL-PSS, GL-SSR, and GL-EDSR in women but not in men, whereas obesity was associated with less favorable GL-PSS and GL-EDSR in either sex. Hypertension impacted more adversely on systolic and diastolic myocardial deformation in women compared to men (all p<0.01). CONCLUSION: The female myocardium appeared more vulnerable to high blood pressure and dyslipidemia when compared to men, while obesity was associated with adverse myocardial deformation in either sex. The reference values for echocardiographic myocardial deformation provided for a non-diseased population and their here reported associations with cardiovascular risk factors will inform future observational and intervention studies regarding i) effect sizes and power calculation, ii) cross-study comparisons, and iii) categorization of myocardial deformation in specific patient groups.

The omega-3 index in patients with heart failure: A prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic studies on the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in heart failure are scarce, while one large intervention trial demonstrated a modest benefit. METHODS: This is a secondary analysis from the Interdisciplinary Network Heart Failure (INH) program. Patients hospitalized for systolic heart failure were enrolled and followed for 36 months. At baseline, whole blood samples from 899 patients were analyzed for fatty acid composition using a standardized analytical procedure (HS-Omega-3 Index®, O3-I). Associations of the O3-I with markers of heart failure severity, clinical characteristics, biomarkers, and mortality were analyzed. RESULTS: The mean O3-I was 3.7 ±â€¯1.0%. Patient mean age was 68 ±â€¯12 years (72% male, 43% in New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III or IV, mean LVEF 30 ±â€¯8%). During follow-up 258 patients (28.7%) died. After adjustment for potential confounders, the O3-I showed weak associations with uncured malignancy, end-systolic diameter of the left atrium, left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic diameters, and blood lipids and other laboratory parameters (all p < 0.05), but not with NYHA class, left ventricular ejection fraction, and the underlying cause of heart failure. The O3-I did not predict the 3-year mortality risk. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show a marked depletion of omega-3 fatty acids in patients hospitalized for decompensated heart failure (suggested target range 8-11%). Although the O3-I was associated with a panel of established risk indicators in heart failure, it did not predict mortality risk. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: www.controlled-trials.com; ISRCTN23325295.

Impact of acquisition and interpretation on total inter-observer variability in echocardiography: results from the quality assurance program of the STAAB cohort study.

Variability related to image acquisition and interpretation is an important issue of echocardiography in clinical trials. Nevertheless, there is no broadly accepted standard method for quality assessment of echocardiography in clinical research reports. We present analyses based on the echocardiography quality-assurance program of the ongoing STAAB cohort study (characteristics and course of heart failure stages A-B and determinants of progression). In 43 healthy individuals (mean age 50 ± 14 years; 18 females), duplicate echocardiography scans were acquired and mutually interpreted by one of three trained sonographers and an EACVI certified physician, respectively. Acquisition (AcV), interpretation (InV), and inter-observer variability (IOV; i.e., variability between the acquisition-interpretation sequences of two different observers), were determined for selected M-mode, B-mode, and Doppler parameters. We calculated Bland-Altman upper 95% limits of absolute differences, implying that 95% of measurement differences were smaller/equal to the given value: e.g. LV end-diastolic volume (mL): 25.0, 25.0, 27.9; septal e' velocity (cm/s): 3.03, 1.25, 3.58. Further, 90, 85, and 80% upper limits of absolute differences were determined for the respective parameters. Both, acquisition and interpretation, independently and sizably contributed to IOV. As such, separate assessment of AcV and InV is likely to aid in echocardiography training and quality-assurance. Our results further suggest to routinely determine IOV in clinical trials as a comprehensive measure of imaging quality. The derived 95, 90, 85, and 80% upper limits of absolute differences are suggested as reproducibility targets of future studies, thus contributing to the international efforts of standardization in quality-assurance.

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging findings in 20-year survivors of mediastinal radiotherapy for Hodgkin's disease.

PURPOSE: The recognition of the true prevalence of cardiac toxicity after mediastinal radiotherapy requires very long follow-up and a precise diagnostic procedure. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) permits excellent quantification of cardiac function and identification of localized myocardial defects and has now been applied to a group of 20-year Hodgkin's disease survivors. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Of 143 patients treated with anterior mediastinal radiotherapy (cobalt-60, median prescribed dose 40 Gy) for Hodgkin's disease between 1978 and 1985, all 53 survivors were invited for cardiac MRI. Of those, 36 patients (68%) presented for MRI, and in 31 patients (58%) MRI could be performed 20-28 years (median, 24) after radiotherapy. The following sequences were acquired on a 1.5-T MRI: transversal T1-weighted TSE and T2-weighted half-fourier acquisition single-shot turbo-spin-echo sequences, a steady-state free precession (SSFP) cine sequence in the short heart axis and in the four-chamber view, SSFP perfusion sequences under rest and adenosine stress, and a SSFP inversion recovery sequence for late enhancement. The MRI findings were correlated with previously reconstructed doses to cardiac structures. RESULTS: Clinical characteristics and reconstructed doses were not significantly different between survivors undergoing and not undergoing MRI. Pathologic findings were reduced left ventricular function (ejection fraction <55%) in 7 (23%) patients, hemodynamically relevant valvular dysfunction in 13 (42%), late myocardial enhancement in 9 (29%), and any perfusion deficit in 21 (68%). An association of regional pathologic changes and reconstructed dose to cardiac structures could not be established. CONCLUSIONS: In 20-year survivors of Hodgkin's disease, cardiac MRI detects pathologic findings in approximately 70% of patients. Cardiac MRI has a potential role in cardiac imaging of Hodgkin's disease patients after mediastinal radiotherapy.