Galanin Coordinates Macrophage-Associated Fibro-Inflammatory Response and Mitochondrial Integrity in Myocardial Infarction Reperfusion Injury.

Myocardial infarction activates an intense fibro-inflammatory reaction that is essential for cardiac remodeling and heart failure (HF). Bioactive peptide galanin plays a critical role in regulating cardiovascular homeostasis; however, its specific functional relevance in post-infarction fibro-inflammatory reprogramming remains obscure. Here, we show that galanin coordinates the fibro-inflammatory trajectory and mitochondrial integrity in post-infarction reperfusion injury. Aberrant deposition of collagen was associated with a marked increase in CD68-positive macrophage infiltration in cardiac tissue in mice subjected to myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) for 14 days compared to sham controls. Furthermore, we found that the myocardial expression level of a specific marker of M2 macrophages, CD206, was significantly down-regulated in I/R-challenged mice. In contrast, galanin treatment started during the reperfusion phase blunted the fibro-inflammatory responses and promoted the expression of CD206 in I/R-remodeled hearts. In addition, we found that the anti-apoptotic and anti-hypertrophic effects of galanin were associated with the preservation of mitochondrial integrity and promotion of mitochondrial biogenesis. These findings depict galanin as a key arbitrator of fibro-inflammatory responses to cardiac I/R injury and offer a promising therapeutic trajectory for the treatment of post-infarct cardiovascular complications.

Age-Related Shift in Cardiac and Metabolic Phenotyping Linked to Inflammatory Cytokines and Antioxidant Status in Mice.

Age-related alterations in cardiac function, metabolic, inflammatory and antioxidant profiles are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Here, we examined cardiac and metabolic phenotypes in relation to inflammatory status and antioxidant capacity in young, middle-aged and old mice. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions were performed on myocardium and immunoassays on plasma. Left ventricular (LV) structure and function were assessed by echocardiography using high-frequency ultrasound. Middle-aged mice exhibited an altered metabolic profile and antioxidant capacity compared to young mice, whereas myocardial expression of inflammatory factors (TNFα, IL1ß, IL6 and IL10) remained unchanged. In contrast, old mice exhibited increased expression of inflammatory cytokines and plasma levels of resistin compared to young and middle-aged mice (p < 0.05). The pro-inflammatory signature of aged hearts was associated with alterations in glutathione redox homeostasis and elevated contents of 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), a marker of lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress. Furthermore, echocardiographic parameters of LV systolic and diastolic functions were significantly altered in old mice compared to young mice. Taken together, these findings suggest age-related shifts in cardiac phenotype encompass the spectrum of metabo-inflammatory abnormalities and altered redox homeostasis.

Pulmonary Vein Angioplasty for Pulmonary Vein Stenosis After Ablation Therapy for Atrial Fibrillation　- A Report of 7 Cases.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary vein (PV) stenosis after atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation is rare; however, it remains a serious complication. PV angioplasty is reportedly an effective therapy; however, a dedicated device for PV angioplasty has not been developed, and the detailed procedural methods remain undetermined. This study describes the symptoms, indications, treatment strategies, and long-term outcomes for PV stenosis after AF ablation.Methods and Results: This study retrospectively analyzed 7 patients with PV stenosis after catheter ablation for AF and who had undergone PV angioplasty at our hospital during 2015-2021. PV stenosis occurred in the left superior (5 patients) and left inferior (2 patients) PV. Six patients had hemoptysis, chest pain, and dyspnea. Seven de novo lesions were treated using balloon angioplasty (BA) (3 patients), a bare metal stent (BMS) (3 patients), and a drug-coated balloon (DCB) (1 patient). The restenosis rate was 42.9% (n=3; 2 patients in the BA group and 1 patient in the DCB group). The repeat treatment rate was 28.6% (2 patients in the BA group). Stenting was performed as repeat treatment. One patient with subsequent repeat restenosis development underwent BA. Ten PV angioplasties were performed; there were no major complications. CONCLUSIONS: Regarding PV angioplasty after ablation therapy for AF, stenting showed superior long-term PV patency than BA alone; therefore, it should be considered as a standard first-line approach.

Possible Association Between Body Temperature and B-Type Natriuretic Peptide in Patients With Cardiovascular Diseases.

BACKGROUND: In addition to various biological effects of natriuretic peptides (NP) on cardiovascular systems, we recently reported that NP raises intracellular temperature in cultured adipocytes. We herein examined the possible thermogenic action of NP in consideration of hemodynamic parameters and inflammatory reaction by proposing structural equation models. METHODS AND RESULTS: The study population consisted of 1985 consecutive patients who underwent cardiac catheterization. Covariance structure analyses were performed to clarify the direct contribution of plasma B-type NP (BNP) to body temperature (BT) by excluding other confounding factors. A hierarchical path model showed increase in BNP, increase in C-reactive protein and decrease in left ventricular ejection fraction were mutually associated. As expected, C-reactive protein was positively correlated with BT. Importantly, despite a negative correlation between BNP and left ventricular ejection fraction, a decrease in the left ventricular ejection fraction was associated with BT decrease, whereas elevation in BNP level was associated with BT increase independently of C-reactive protein level (P = .007). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with LV dysfunction tend to manifest a decrease in BT, whereas BNP elevation is associated with an increase in BT independently of inflammatory response. These findings suggest the adaptive heat-retaining property of NP (and/or NP-associated factors) when BT falls owing to unfavorable hemodynamic conditions in a state of impaired cardiac function.

A review of the conservative versus invasive management of ischemic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.

Heart failure is increasing in terms of prevalence, morbidity, and mortality rates. Clinical trials and studies are focusing on heart failure as it is the destiny end-stage for several cardiovascular disorders. Recently, medical therapy has dramatically progressed with novel classes of medicines providing better quality of life and survival outcomes. However, heart failure remains a heavy impactful factor on societies and populations. Current guidelines from the American and European cardiac societies are not uniform with respect to the class and level of treatment recommendations for coronary artery disease patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction. The discrepancy among international recommendations, stemming from the lack of evidence from adequately powered randomized trials, challenges physicians in choosing the optimal strategy. Hybrid therapy including optimal medical therapy with revascularization strategies are commonly used for the management of ischemic heart failure. Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) has proved its efficacy on improving long term outcome and prognosis while no large randomized clinical trials for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are still available. Regardless of the lack of data and recommendations, the trends of performing PCI in ischemic heart failure prevailed over CABG whereas lesion complexity, chronic total occlusion and complete revascularization achievement are limiting factors. Lastly, regenerative medicine seems a promising approach for advanced heart failure enhancing cardiomyocytes proliferation, reverse remodeling, scar size reduction and cardiac function restoration.

Mortality rate after coronary revascularization in heart failure patients with coronary artery disease.

AIMS: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a common cause of heart failure (HF). It remains unclear who, when and why to direct towards coronary revascularization. The outcomes of coronary revascularization in HF patients are still a matter of debate nowadays. This study aims to evaluate the effect of revascularization strategy on all-cause of death in the context of ischaemic HF. METHODS AND RESULTS: An observational cohort was conducted on 692 consecutive patients who underwent coronary angiography at the University Hospital of Toulouse between January 2018 and December 2021 for either a recent diagnosis of HF or a decompensated chronic HF, and in whom coronary angiograms showed at least 50% obstructive coronary lesion. The study population was divided into two groups according to the performance or not of a coronary revascularization procedure. The living status (alive or dead) of each of the study's participants was observed by April 2022. Seventy-three per cent of the study population underwent coronary revascularization either by percutaneous coronary intervention (66.6%) or coronary artery bypass grafting (6.2%). Baseline characteristics including age, sex and cardiovascular risk factors did not differ between the invasive and conservative groups, respectively. Death occurred in 162 study participants resulting in an all-cause mortality rate of 23.5%; 26.7% of observed deaths have occurred in the conservative group versus 22.2% in the invasive group (P = 0.208). No difference in survival outcomes has been observed over a mean follow-up period of 2.5 years (P = 0.140) even after stratification by HF categories (P = 0.132) or revascularization modalities (P = 0.366). CONCLUSIONS: Findings from the present study showed comparable all-cause mortality rates between groups. Coronary revascularization does not modify short-term survival outcomes in HF patients compared with optimal medical therapy alone outside the setting of acute coronary syndrome.

A case of cardiac strangulation following epicardial pacemaker implantation in an adult: a case report.

Background: Cardiac strangulation (CS) is a rare but potentially devastating complication caused by the leads of an epicardial pacemaker (EP). Most cases have been reported in paediatric patients, and there has been no report wherein the diagnosis was made in a living, adult patient, and treated successfully. Case summary: A 31-year-old woman with a history of atrial septal defect (ASD) patch closure and EP implantation for congenital atrial stand-still presented with dyspnoea on exertion. The blood investigation of the patient showed liver dysfunction, chest radiography showed pulmonary artery dilatation, and transthoracic echocardiography showed right chambers dysfunction. Right heart catheterization showed haemodynamics similar to those of constrictive pericarditis, eventually leading to the diagnosis of CS due to EP leads. The patient was successfully operated upon. Discussion: We reported the first case where CS was diagnosed in adulthood and successfully treated with surgical intervention. Cardiac strangulation is challenging to diagnose because of the small number of cases reported and the lack of definitive diagnostic algorithms or criteria. Surgical EP lead removal should be performed without hesitation in cases where CS is considered the primary aetiology of critical symptoms or complications because surgical removal is the only fundamental treatment for CS. In addition, paediatric patients undergoing EP implantation need for close follow-up.

A Rare Complication of Chronic Active Epstein-Barr Virus Infection.

A 42-year-old man with a 6-month-long fever was found to have chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection complicated by aneurysmal coronary arteries with other arteries. In adult patients with this infection, coronary aneurysms are rare but are a poor prognostic factor. (Level of Difficulty: Intermediate.).

The Usefulness and Limitations of Point-of-care Cardiac Troponin Measurement in the Emergency Department.

Objective This study was carried out to examine the usefulness of point-of-care (POC) cardiac troponin in diagnosing acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and to understand the limitations of a POC cardiac troponin I/T-based diagnoses. Methods Patients whose cardiac troponin levels were measured in the emergency department using a POC system (AQT System; Radiometer, Tokyo, Japan) between January and December 2016 were retrospectively examined (N=1,449). Patients who were < 20 years of age or who were admitted with cardiopulmonary arrest were excluded. The sensitivity and specificity of the POC cardiac troponin levels for the diagnosis of ACS were determined. Result One hundred and twenty of 1,449 total patients had ACS (acute myocardial infarction, n=88; unstable angina n=32). On comparing the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, the area under the curve (AUC) values for POC cardiac troponin I and cardiac troponin T were 0.833 and 0.786, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of POC cardiac troponin I when using the 99th percentile (0.023 ng/mL) as the diagnostic cut-off value were 69.0% and 88.1%, respectively. The sensitivity of POC cardiac troponin I (99th percentile) was higher in the patients sampled > 3 hours after symptom onset (83.3%) than in those sampled ≤ 3 hours after symptom onset (58.8%, p < 0.01). Conclusion When sampled > 3 hours after the onset of symptoms, the POC cardiac troponin I level is considered to be suitable for use in diagnosing ACS. However, when sampled ≤ 3 hours after the onset of symptoms, careful interpretation of POC cardiac troponins is therefore required to rule out ACS.

Transcatheter embolization for hemoptysis associated with anomalous systemic artery in a patient with scimitar syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Scimitar syndrome can present with a wide clinical spectrum of symptoms either early in the neonatal period or later in life. CASE DESCRIPTION: We report a case of a 62-year-old woman with anomalous systemic arterial supply to the basal lung with scimitar syndrome presenting as recurrent hemoptysis. Bronchoscopy revealed normal major bronchial branches without bronchial atresia, indicating that sequestration of the lung was not confirmed. The anomalous drainage of the scimitar vein was to the inferior vena cava, and an anomalous artery from the aorta supplied the right basal lung. There were no findings of pulmonary hypertension and arteriovenous malformation such as an anomalous artery to the scimitar vein. The distal portions of anomalous arteries were embolized using gelatin sponge particles and the proximal portion was embolized using fibered detachable coils. Although a small pulmonary infarction was observed as a complication, the patie nt has not experienced any subsequence recurrence of the hemoptysis during a follow-up period of 6 months. DISCUSSION AND EVALUATION: Deformities of the blood vessels and the lungs are frequently complex in scimitar syndrome. Although patients treated with surgical repair of this disorder may be at higher risk than those treated less invasively, we believe that transcatheter embolization was a useful strategy for the treatment of the anomalous systemic arterial supply to the basal lung, particularly in this patient with scimitar syndrome. CONCLUSION: Hemoptysis in a patient with scimitar syndrome associated with anomalous systemic arterial supply to the basal lung was successfully treated with transcatheter arterial embolization. However, it might be better to avoid the use of gelatin sponge particles in patients with a similar anomaly without pulmonary artery distribution because of the possibility of causing severe pulmonary infarction.