Does coronary Atherosclerosis Deserve to be Diagnosed earlY in Diabetic patients? The DADDY-D trial. Screening diabetic patients for unknown coronary disease.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate if screening and treatment of asymptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD) are effective in preventing first cardiac event in diabetics. METHODS: Diabetic patients without known CAD were randomly assigned to undergo a screening for silent myocardial ischemia followed by revascularization or to continue follow-up. The reduction of cardiac death (CD) or nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) represented the primary aim; secondary aim was the prevention of heart failure (HF). RESULTS: From September 2007 to May 2012, 520 patients (62 years; 104 female) were enrolled. Silent CAD was found in 20 of 262 patients (7.6%), revascularization was performed in 12 (4.6%). After a mean follow-up of 3.6 years 12 events (4.6%) occurred in the study group and 14 (5.4%) in the follow-up (HR=0.849, 95% CI: 0.393-1.827, P=0.678). The occurrence of first HF episode did not differ between groups: 2 (0.8%) in screened and 7 (2.7%) in follow-up (HR=0.273, 95% CI: 0.057-1.314, P=0.083). Subgroup analysis revealed a significantly lower HF episodes among patients with intermediate cardiovascular risk (Log rank P=0.022). Additionally, when CD and MI were analysed within subgroups, a significant lower number of CDs was observed among older than 60 years (P=0.044). CONCLUSION: Screening and revascularization of silent CAD in diabetics, failed to demonstrate a significant reduction in cardiac events and HF episodes. However, our data indicate that further research is warranted in patients older than 60 years and those with an intermediate cardiovascular risk. CLINICALTRIALS.GOV: NCT00547872.

Meal-induced blood pressure variation and cardiovascular mortality in ambulatory hypertensive elderly patients: preliminary results.

OBJECTIVES: This prospective cohort study was designed to investigate the prevalence and the prognostic value of postprandial hypotension (PPH) in ambulatory hypertensive elderly patients without overt heart diseases, an issue that has never been evaluated so far. METHODS: All patients consecutively referred to our cardiologic clinic in the period from January 2005 to August 2009, were enrolled in the study and underwent a 24-h ambulatory arterial blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). PPH has been defined as a decrease in SBP of 20  mmHg within 2  h after a meal. RESULTS: Four hundred and one patients were enrolled (mean age 77.7  ±  11 years, males 47.7%). Hypertension was not adequately controlled in 290 (72.3%) patients. PPH was found in 292 of 401 (72.8%) patients. A value of 10  mmHg or higher of SD SBP was predictive of PPH, with a sensitivity and specificity of 87 and 57%, respectively. At each meal, patients with higher SBP readings before meal had the greatest decrease in SBP (P  <  0.001). During the follow-up, 34 patients died for cardiovascular causes. Breakfast BP variation was the most predictive variable of cardiovascular mortality (B  =  0.020, P  =  0.04, HR 1.020, IC 1.001-1.040). CONCLUSION: In our population, PPH was common. A diurnal standard deviation of SBP of 10  mmHg or higher was suggestive of its presence. ABPM identified breakfast BP decrease as a possible new risk factor for cardiovascular mortality.

Bleeding rates in patients older than 90 years of age on vitamin K antagonist therapy for nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.

Extremely elderly patients are being treated with anticoagulant therapy with increasing frequency. We sought to assess the rates of bleeding in such patients and to carefully examine risk factors that might predict this bleeding. This was a prospective cohort study conducted from 1 January 2007 to 29 February 2008 at an anticoagulation clinic in Modena, Italy. Ninety patients, 90 years or older, among 1635 patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation were studied; 69 (77%) were women with a median age of 91.71 years (range 90-98). During the enrolment period, all the patients were interviewed during an ambulatory visit and were followed in the outpatient setting. Hemorrhagic, thromboembolic and fatal events over 1 year of follow-up were monitored. Six (7%) patients discontinued vitamin K antagonists (three due to bleeding, two due to noncompliance, two due to physician recommendation). Twenty-one (23%) patients died, and 35 (39%) were admitted to hospital. One patient had an intracranial hemorrhage [1%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.27-6.0], two patients had a major extracranial hemorrhage (2%, 95% CI 0.7-8.0). One patient had an ischemic stroke (1%, 95% CI 0.27-6.0), two patients had embolic arterial ischemia (2%, 95% CI 0.7-8.0). All the events occurred when the international normalized ratio was outside the target range, or after oral anticoagulation had been stopped. In our study of extremely elderly anticoagulated patients, we found low rates of bleeding and thromboembolism. These findings support the use of oral anticoagulants in such patients.