Patient with heart failure: importance to treat valvular diseases.

COVID-19 pandemic is causing an unprecedented burden on healthcare resources and this includes treatment of heart failure and valvular heart diseases (VHD). Percutaneous procedures have broadened the number of patients with VHD who could be treated. However, COVID-19 pandemic has challenged their implementation. The risk of in-hospital infection, resources reallocation, reduced access to hospital caused a substantial delay of VHD treatment with an increased risk of clinical worsening and mortality. Now, the pandemic is not ended and subsequent waves are likely. Reorganization of our healthcare resources is needed, including a proper algorithm for patients' prioritization, based on the severity of their valve disease, their life expectancy, complexity of the intervention, and the resources available. A wider use of telemedicine for patients' selection and follow-up and any measurement that can shorten the duration of the hospital stay must be adopted. Patients' and healthcare staff screening for COVID-19 and all needed procedures to prevent infection will continue to be mandatory. Percutaneous procedures, compared to surgery, are associated with a lower risk of infection and a lower need for in-hospital resources, including a shorter duration of hospital stay. This may favour their adoption when the risk of viral infection is high.

Glucagon-like Peptide 1 Receptor Agonists, Diabetic Retinopathy and Angiogenesis: The AngioSafe Type 2 Diabetes Study.

AIMS: Recent trials provide conflicting results on the association between glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) and diabetic retinopathy (DR). The aim of the AngioSafe type 2 diabetes (T2D) study was to determine the role of GLP-1RA in angiogenesis using clinical and preclinical models. METHODS: We performed two studies in humans. In study 1, we investigated the effect of GLP-1RA exposure from T2D diagnosis on the severity of DR, as diagnosed with retinal imaging (fundus photography). In study 2, a randomized 4-week trial, we assessed the effect of liraglutide on circulating hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs), and angio-miRNAs.We then studied the experimental effect of Exendin-4, on key steps of angiogenesis: in vitro on human endothelial cell proliferation, survival and three-dimensional vascular morphogenesis; and in vivo on ischemia-induced neovascularization of the retina in mice. RESULTS: In the cohort of 3154 T2D patients, 10% displayed severe DR. In multivariate analysis, sex, disease duration, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), micro- and macroangiopathy, insulin therapy and hypertension remained strongly associated with severe DR, while no association was found with GLP-1RA exposure (o 1.139 [0.800-1.622], P = .47). We further showed no effect of liraglutide on HPCs, and angio-miRNAs. In vitro, we demonstrated that exendin-4 had no effect on proliferation and survival of human endothelial cells, no effect on total length and number of capillaries. Finally, in vivo, we showed that exendin-4 did not exert any negative effect on retinal neovascularization. CONCLUSIONS: The AngioSafe T2D studies provide experimental and clinical data confirming no effect of GLP-1RA on angiogenesis and no association between GLP-1 exposure and severe DR.

The impact of the development of transcatheter aortic valve implantation on the management of severe aortic stenosis in high-risk patients: treatment strategies and outcome.

OBJECTIVES: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has reoriented the treatment of aortic stenosis (AS) for high-risk patients. Little is known about late outcome after TAVI, surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) or medical treatment in a single centre. We report patients' characteristics, early and 6-year survival rates after the three therapeutic strategies, and the evolution over time. We also analysed predictive factors of mortality after TAVI or surgical AVR. METHODS: Between October 2006 and December 2010, 478 high-risk consecutive patients were referred for severe symptomatic AS. After Heart Team evaluation, 253 underwent a TAVI, 102 a surgical AVR and 123 medical treatment including 33 compassionate percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasties (PBAVs). Follow-up was complete in 98% of patients. RESULTS: Medically treated patients had higher risk scores than the other two groups. They presented a significantly worse survival (P < 0.001), with a 1-year rate of only 30%. The 33 patients who underwent compassionate PBAV presented the lowest survival rate, even lower than patients receiving drug therapy alone. In the TAVI group, patients had more comorbidities than those in the surgical group. There was no difference in 30-day survival rates [91 ± 2% for TAVI and 88 ± 3% for surgical AVR, hazard ratio (HR) for TAVI: 1.37; 95% CI: 0.73-2.58, P = 0.32]. Predictive factors of 30-day mortality were mainly postintervention complications illustrated by higher troponin levels and infection. The 6-year survival rates were 32 ± 4 and 40 ± 6% for TAVI and surgical AVR, respectively (HR for TAVI: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.53-0.97, P = 0.03), but the difference was no longer significant after adjustment on the Charlson comorbidity index (HR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.68-1.29, P = 0.68). Predictive factors of late mortality were patients' comorbidities for both groups and paraprosthetic aortic regurgitation ≥2/4 for the TAVI group. The number of interventions (TAVI or surgery) increases over years, driven by the number of TAVI procedures without any decrease in surgical AVR. CONCLUSIONS: In this single-centre study, medically treated patients with severe AS have a higher risk profile than those undergoing surgery or TAVI. Their survival is particularly poor and not improved by compassionate PBAV. When comparing TAVI and surgical AVR, there was no difference in 30-day and 6-year survival rates after adjusting for comorbidities.

Early and late outcomes after trans-catheter aortic valve implantation in patients with previous chest radiation.

OBJECTIVE: Surgery for aortic stenosis in patients with thoracic radiation therapy is associated with high morbi-mortality. Trans-catheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) represents an alternative but has never been studied in this population. We aimed to compare outcomes in radiation and matched control patients undergoing TAVI and to identify predictive factors of survival. METHODS: Between 2006 and 2011, 288 consecutive patients underwent TAVI in our institution, of whom 26 had previous chest radiation. They were matched 1:1 for age, sex and TAVI approach with controls. RESULTS: In both groups, median age was 73 years, 50% of patients were male and 15% had a transapical approach. Procedural success was 88% in the radiation group versus 100% in controls (p<0.001) and 30-day survival was 92% in both groups. Five-year survival was 33%±10% in the radiation group and 42%±11% in controls (p=0.26). In radiation patients, the main cause of death was respiratory insufficiency in 40%. We identified four independent predictive factors of death in the radiation group: extracardiac arteriopathy (p=0.002) and the absence of ß-blocker therapy (p=0.005) as preprocedural variables, and infectious complications (p=0.009) and a higher peak creatinine level (p=0.009) as postprocedural variables. In the radiation group, 89% of survivors were in New York Heart Association class I-II at last follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Patients in the radiation group displayed high mortality rates although not significantly different from the controls. Respiratory failure was the main cause of death, emphasising the need for a careful pulmonary evaluation. Finally, we show a sustained improvement in functional results after TAVI in this population.