Predictors of relapse, death or heart transplantation in myocarditis before the introduction of immunosuppression: negative prognostic impact of female gender, fulminant onset, lower ejection fraction and serum autoantibodies.

AIMS: Outcome predictors in myocarditis are not well defined; we aimed at identifying predictors of death, heart transplantation (HTx) and relapse before the introduction of immunosuppression. METHODS AND RESULTS: From 1992 to 2012, 466 consecutive patients (68% male, mean age 37 ± 17 years, single centre recruitment, median follow-up 50 months) were included, of whom 216 had clinically suspected and 250 biopsy-proven myocarditis. Serum anti-heart (AHA) and anti-intercalated disk (AIDA) autoantibodies were measured by indirect immunofluorescence. Univariable and multivariable analyses of clinical and diagnostic features at diagnosis were performed. Survival free from death or HTx at 10 years was 83% in the whole study population and was lower in biopsy-proven versus clinically suspected myocarditis (76% vs. 94%, p < 0.001). Female gender (hazard ratio [HR] 2.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1-6.5), fulminant presentation (HR 13.77, 95% CI 9.7-261.73), high-titre organ-specific AHA (HR 4.2, 95% CI 1.2-14.7) and anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) (HR 5.2, 95% CI 2.1-12.8) were independent predictors of death or HTx; higher echocardiographic left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) at diagnosis was protective, with a 0.93-fold risk reduction for each 1% LVEF increase (95% CI 0.89-0.96). History of myocarditis at diagnosis (HR 8.5, 95% CI 3.5-20.7) was an independent predictor of myocarditis relapse at follow-up; older age was protective (HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.91-0.99). Predictors of death, HTx and relapse did not differ in biopsy-proven versus clinically suspected myocarditis. CONCLUSIONS: Young age and a previous myocarditis were independent relapse predictors; female gender, fulminant onset, lower LVEF at presentation and high-titre organ-specific AHA and ANA were independent predictors of death and HTx, suggesting that autoimmune features predict worse prognosis.

Time course of the survival advantage of transcatheter over surgical aortic valve replacement: Interplay between sex and patient risk profile.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore the time course of survival advantage of TAVR over SAVR as function of the patients' risk and sex. BACKGROUND: Women have been reported to have better survival than men undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). However, scant data on the sex-based survival benefit of TAVR over surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) are available. METHODS: A systematic review of studies reporting clinical outcomes of men and women undergoing TAVR or SAVR was performed. Studies were divided into two groups according to average patient's risk score and the interplay of surgical risk and sex on outcomes were analyzed. RESULTS: Eight studies involving 6,596 women and 7,204 men patients were extracted. Unlike mens, women patients had survival advantage from TAVR over SAVR that became substantial at 1 year from index procedure and persisted at 2-year of follow-up. Moreover, this sex-based TAVR survival advantage was mainly observed in higher surgical risk patients. Men showed a significantly lower rate of residual paravalvular leak after SAVR. CONCLUSIONS: Women patients had a selective mortality benefit from TAVR compared to SAVR. This sex-based TAVR benefit was mainly observed in high surgical risk patients beyond 1 year from procedure.

[Endomyocardial biopsy should be performed in every patient with suspected myocarditis]. / La biopsia endomiocardica nella miocardite acuta: per tutti i pazienti.

The diagnosis of myocarditis is difficult because there is no pathognomonic clinical presentation and the disease may mimic other non-inflammatory diseases. Thus, current classifications on cardiomyopathies (e.g., the World Health Organization and the International Society and Federation of Cardiology [WHO/ISFC], the European Society of Cardiology [ESC], and the 2013 Expert Myocarditis ESC Task Force) define myocarditis as an inflammatory disease of the myocardium, which is diagnosed on endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) based upon histological, immunological, immunohistochemical and molecular tools. This will identify etiology, and differentiate between infectious, mainly viral, and non-infectious, immune-mediated forms. The term "inflammatory cardiomyopathy" may be applied in biopsy-proven myocarditis with associated left, right or biventricular dysfunction. Myocarditis may resolve spontaneously, relapse or become chronic progressing to dilated cardiomyopathy, death or heart transplantation. The 2013 Myocarditis ESC Task Force consensus document recommends consideration of EMB and selective coronary angiography in all patients with clinically suspected myocarditis according to the Task Force criteria. It is recommended that EMB analysis includes not only histology (Dallas criteria), but also immunohistology and detection of the genome of infectious agents by molecular tools. EMB should be performed by expert teams. The rationale for this diagnostic effort is the availability of a wide range of immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory agents that, as shown in systemic extracardiac autoimmune disease and in many clinical studies, can be used in infection-negative myocarditis patients to stop or at least stabilize chronic cardiac tissue damage mediated by the immune system, and thus prevent fibrosis and progression to irreversible end-stage dilated cardiomyopathy.