Cardiac cachexia in sub-Saharan Africa.

Cachexia is a public health challenge around the Globe but data on prevalence rates in developing countries are very scarce. In sub-Saharan Africa wasting syndrome is mainly related to malaria, HIV infections, tuberculosis and end-stage heart disease and always associated with high-mortality and dismal quality of life regardless of age, urban or rural setting. We report two different cases affected by cardiac cachexia related to end-stage heart disease. The large age gap between patients highlights the current impact of medical services in Uganda ranging from low-resource rural settings to urban areas of the capital city under epidemiologic transition. The wasting syndrome occurring in both patients emphasizes as cachexia remains largely neglected and underestimated in most sub-Saharan African countries.

Downgrading mitral regurgitation in the echo laboratory: a case of rheumatic mitral restricted motion unmasked by emotional stress.

We report the case of a 76-year-old woman with mild-to-moderate mitral regurgitation due to rheumatic disease, severe dyspnoea, pulmonary hypertension and a recent episode of heart failure with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Transthoracic echocardiography at rest showed a mild-to-moderate mitral regurgitation, which was unable to justify the acute worsening of heart failure symptoms. During transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), deep anxiety induced sinus tachycardia and high SBP followed by pulmonary subedema. The TEE study ascertained a new-onset transient severe mitral regurgitation induced by stress and tachycardia. We speculate that the mechanism underlying the increasing of mitral regurgitation was related to the restricted motion of the posterior leaflet worsened by tachycardia. A further TEE, performed in the operating room under general anesthesia, thus without the emotional involvement of the patient, was not able to provoke a heart failure, even after dobutamine infusion, thus, downgrading the anatomical and functional mitral regurgitation severity.

Cardiac surgery for patients with heart failure due to structural heart disease in Uganda: access to surgery and outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: Few data are available on heart failure (HF) in sub-Saharan Africa. We aimed to provide a current picture of HF aetiologies in urban Uganda, access to heart surgery, and outcomes. METHODS: We prospectively collected clinical and echocardiographic data from 272 consecutive patients referred for suspected heart disease to a tertiary hospital in Kampala during seven non-governmental organisation (NGO) missions from 2009 to 2013. We focused the analysis on 140 patients who fulfilled standardised criteria of HF by echocardiography. RESULTS: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) was the leading cause of HF in 44 (31%) patients. Among the 50 children included (age ≤ 16 years), congenital heart disease (CHD) was the first cause of HF (30 patients, 60%), followed by RHD (16 patients, 32%). RHD was the main cause of HF (30%) among the 90 adults. All 85 patients with RHD and CHD presented with an indication for heart surgery, of which 74 patients were deemed fit for intervention. Surgery was scheduled in 38 patients with RHD [86%, median age 19 years (IQR: 12-31)] and in 36 patients with CHD [88%, median age 4 years (IQR 1-5)]. Twenty-seven candidates (32%) were operated on after a median waiting time of 10 months (IQR 6-21). Sixteen (19%) had died after a median of 38 months (IQR 5-52); 19 (22%) were lost to follow up. CONCLUSION: RHD still represents the leading cause of HF in Uganda, in spite of cost-efficient prevention strategies. The majority of surgical candidates, albeit young, do not have access to treatment and present high mortality rates.