Long-term outcomes of percutaneous tricuspid annuloplasty with Cardioband device.

AIMS: Severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR) has adverse effects on outcomes, with limited therapeutic options. We report the outcomes of patients undergoing percutaneous annuloplasty as a treatment of ≥severe functional TR in a single centre. METHODS AND RESULTS: Prospective, single-arm, single-centre study that enrolled 24 consecutive patients with at least severe functional TR undergoing percutaneous annuloplasty with Cardioband system between 2019 and 2021. Clinical and echocardiographic data were prospectively collected, with a mean follow-up of 279 ± 246 days. At baseline, 66.6% were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) Classes III and IV and 100% had significant oedema. Technical success was 91.6%. At the end of follow-up, there was one death. Echocardiography showed a significant reduction in septolateral annular diameter of 10.4 mm (P < 0.001) that remained stable at the end of follow-up. The severity of the TR was also reduced. About 81.8% of patients were in NYHA Classes I and II. The number of patients with significant oedema decreased to 46% (P = 0.01). Six-minute walk distance improved by 68.8 m (P = 0.12). CONCLUSION: Percutaneous annuloplasty with Cardioband system is an effective and safe treatment for patients with symptomatic, ≥severe functional TR. Annular reduction and TR severity reduction remained significant and sustained for 1 year. Patients experienced improvements in quality of life and exercise capacity.

Echocardiographic guidance in transcatheter structural cardiac interventions.

Catheter-based treatment of structural heart diseases (SHD) has seen tremendous advances in the past decades, thanks to the development of new devices and advances in imaging techniques. Today, we have an extensive armamentarium of imaging tools for preprocedural planning, intraprocedural guidance and follow-up of SHD. Intraprocedural guidance is based mainly on transoesophageal echocardiography; however, other imaging modalities are used as complementary or alternative techniques, each of them with its strengths and weaknesses. Thus, a multimodality imaging approach provides added values in this setting. As the field of imaging parallels the continuous technical improvements, this review will describe the state of the art imaging techniques, focusing on echocardiography during procedural guidance of the most common catheter-based interventions, providing tips and tricks for interventional cardiologists: in particular, how to guide transseptal crossing; left atrial appendage closure; transcatheter mitral or tricuspid valve repair or replacement; percutaneous closure of patent foramen ovale and atrial defects; and percutaneous closure of paravalvular leaks. Open challenges for the near future are the need for physicians with specific technical skills and competencies in SHD imaging, more attention to high levels of radiation exposure, and optimisation of intraprocedural and post-procedural evaluation.

Cardiovascular Oncology: The Need for a Multidisciplinary Approach.

Improved cancer survivorship has led to an increase in cardiovascular (CV) complications in the oncologic population, mainly associated with therapeutic regimens. Hence, cardio-oncology has grown toward unifying the cancer care process in which the best prevention, early detection, treatment, and CV surveillance are offered to patients. This multidisciplinary approach allows us to optimize and agree upon clinical decisions to enhance clinical outcomes. Atrial fibrillation is one of the hot topics in the field because it is still challenging in cancer patients. The optimal antithrombotic therapy remains unclear. Nevertheless, evidence supports that specific recommendations are needed due to a hemorrhagic/thrombotic disbalance present within this subgroup of patients and a low rate of anticoagulation treatments compared with the general population. Further, cardiotoxicity management is currently transforming. Increasingly, early detection of subclinical alterations is raising awareness. When medical therapy is initiated early, fewer patients progress to ventricular dysfunction and the rate of patients completing cancer therapy gradually increases. New approaches are demonstrating better outcomes and these strategies will expectedly be established in clinical practice. Cardio-oncology enables us to find the best balance between cancer treatment and CV health protection. Nowadays, more and more physicians are being instructed in this discipline, which gradually exhibits a greater presence in conferences and scientific journals. However, given the need for physicians thoroughly trained in cardio-oncology, this subspecialty must be promoted further.

Coronary microvascular dysfunction assessed by continuous intracoronary thermodilution: A comparative study with index of microvascular resistance.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to assess the correlation between the standard of care, the index of microvascular resistance (IMR) versus the novel microvascular resistance (Rmicro) and to determine the pathologic cut-off value in a selected population with suspected coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD). METHODS: One-hundred and twenty patients with high clinical suspicion of CMD due to ischemic symptoms in the absence of significant epicardial coronary lesions were prospectively included. Following a standardized systematic protocol, coronary flow reserve, IMR, fractional flow reserve, Q and Rmicro were measured in the left anterior descending coronary artery using a temperature/pressure sensor-tipped guidewire and a dedicated infusion catheter. RESULTS: There was a high prevalence of CMD with 50 (42%) patients showing an IMR ≥ 25. Median IMR was 23 [IQR: 14-34] and median Rmicro was 464 Woods Units (WU) [IQR: 354-636WU]. ROC analyses identified 500 WU as the optimal Rmicro cut-off to identify patients with an IMR ≥ 25, with an area under the ROC curve (C statistic) of 0.83 (95% CI: 0.74 to 0.89, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Rmicro derived from continuous intracoronary thermodilution is an accurate index to measure microvascular resistances enabling the invasive diagnostic of CMD.

Malignant Left Atrial Appendage Morphology: Current Classification vs H-L System.

INTRODUCTION: In previous studies the risk of stroke recurrence has been associated with the left atrial appendage (LAA) morphology (non-chicken wing (NCW)), knowing those with a greater risk as malignant LAA. Recently, a simpler morphological classification has been suggested with two categories: Low-risk (LAA-L) and High-risk (LAA-H); which could be easier to apply and may correlate better with the risk of embolic stroke. METHODS: Retrospective analysis from a registry of patients with recurrent cardioembolic strokes despite appropriate anticoagulant therapy, in which LAA morphology was studied with cardiac CT scan. LAA morphology was classified according to the four current categories and H-L morphology by the same cardiologist. Other variables associated with a high risk of stroke were also assessed, such as CHA2DS2-VASc score and left atrial (LA) size. RESULTS: Twenty-six cases were included in the analysis. We identified 22 (84.6%) chicken wing (CW), 1 (3.8%) windsock and 3 (11.5%) cactus by the current classification system, while 15 (57.7%) were classified as LAA-H and 11 (42.3%) as LAA-L by the new system. Half of the 22 cases with CW morphology were considered LAA-H, whereas all NCW were also classified as LAA-H. LA diameter and area were significantly higher in cases with LAA-H morphology (p=0.03 and 0.014), and also in those CW and LAA-H, compared to those CW with LAA-L (p=0.035). CONCLUSIONS: With this new classification system more than half of the cases of our malignant LAAs were classified as high-risk morphology. This morphology was also associated with an increased LA size.

New-onset atrial fibrillation during COVID-19 infection predicts poor prognosis.

BACKGROUND: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has led to a paradigm shift in healthcare worldwide. Little is known about the impact on the cardiovascular system, and the incidence and consequences of new onset of atrial fibrillation (AF) in infected patients remain unclear. The aim of this study was to analyze the cardiovascular outcomes of patients with newonset AF and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. METHODS: This observational study analyzed a sample of 160 consecutive patients hospitalized due to COVID-19. A group with new-onset AF (n = 12) was compared with a control group (total: n = 148, sinus rhythm: n = 118, previous AF: n = 30). New-onset AF patients were significantly older and hypertensive, as well as presenting more frequently with a history of acute coronary syndrome and renal dysfunction. This group showed a higher incidence of thromboembolic events (41.7% vs. 4.1%; p < 0.001), bleeding (33.3% vs. 4.7%, p = 0.005), a combined endpoint of thrombosis and death (58.3% vs. 19.6%, p = 0.006) and longer hospital stays (16.4 vs. 8.6 days, p < 0.001), with no differences in all-cause mortality. RESULTS: In multivariate analysis, adjusted by potential confounding factors, new-onset AF demonstrated a 14.26 odds ratio for thromboembolism (95% confidence interval 2.86-71.10, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: New-onset AF in COVID-19 patients presumably has a notable impact on prognosis. The appearance of new-onset AF is related to worse cardiovascular outcomes, considering it as an independent predictor of embolic events. Further studies are needed to identify patients with COVID-19 at high risk of developing "de novo" AF, provide early anticoagulation and minimize the embolic risk of both entities.