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- Cameli, Matteo, et al.
(författare)
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The analysis of left atrial function predicts the severity of functional impairment in chronic heart failure : The FLASH multicenter study
- 2019
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Ingår i: International Journal of Cardiology. - : ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD. - 0167-5273 .- 1874-1754. ; 286, s. 87-91
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Heart failure (HF) patients presentwith a variety of symptoms at different stages of the disease, but the underlying pathophysiology still is unclear. Left atrial (LA) function might be tightly related to changes in patients' symptoms, more than morphological and anatomic heart features, measurable by ultrasound imaging technique. This study sought to investigate the correlation between LA function, assessed by Speckle Tracking Echocardiography (STE) and Quality of Life (QoL), assessed by theMinnesota Livingwith Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ), in patients with chronic HF. Methods: Clinically stable HF outpatients (n = 369) were enrolled from 7 different international centres and underwent echocardiographic studies. Patients >75 years old and with atrial fibrillation were excluded. LA strain during reservoir phase (LASr) by STE was measured in all subjects by averaging the 6 atrial segments. LA size was assessed using biplane volume and 4-chamber area acquisition. Results: LASr strongly correlated with both MLHFQ total score (r = -0.87; p < 0.0001). Less significant correlations between MLHFQ and either LA volume or left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LV-GLS) were found (r = 0.28; p = 0.05 and r = 0.30; p = 0.01, respectively). No significant correlation was found between MLHFQ score, LVEF (r = -0.15; p = ns), E/E' ratio (r = 0.19; p = ns), and E/A ratio (r = 0.20; p = ns). Among all echocardiographic parameters analyzed, LASr presented the highest diagnostic accuracy (AUC = 0.74) in predicting a poor QoL (>45), when compared with LV-GLS (AUC = 0.61), LA volume (AUC = 0.54) and E/e' ratio (AUC = 0.51). Conclusions: In patients with HF, irrespective of etiology, LA function strongly correlates with patients' QoL. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 2. |
- Devito, Fiorella, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of endothelial function and cardiovascular risk in non-obese patients with slight degree of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome
- 2017
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Ingår i: Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease. - : Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri. - 1122-0643 .- 2532-5264. ; 87:3, s. 112-118
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recently, it has been clearly described an independent relationship between obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and cardiovascular risk, with underlying mechanisms also including endothelial dysfunction. We enrolled 32 consecutive non-obese patients (mean age of 39.5 +/- 11.5 years), of which 16 with mild OSAS and 16 snoring without OSAS. Mild OSAS is defined by an AHI index between 5 and 15. We have investigated if whether there was a relationship between mild OSAS, endothelial function and carotid intima-media thickness (C-IMT). The population was divided into two groups: Group 1 (16 simple snorer patients with an average age of 39.4 +/- 12.1 years) and Group 2 (16 subjects with mild OSAS with an average age of 39.6 +/- 11.2 years). Each group underwent cardiovascular investigation including measurement of flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery and C-IMT. Both groups comprised non-obese subjects. Patients with mild OSAS had serum total cholesterol values statistically significantly higher than simple snores patients (178.6 +/- 24.9 vs 159.2 +/- 25.3; p=0.038). OSAS patients had also a trend towards higher values of maximum C-IMT compared to simple snorer patients (0.70 +/- 0.15 vs 0.65 +/- 0.16), although below the level of significance. Between the two groups, no difference was found for FMD values. The present results on mild OSAS strengthen the importance of a diagnosis of OSAS as soon as possible, in order to encourage all primary prevention interventions to correct risk factors responsible for disease progression and the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases, not excluding the use of therapies of non-invasive ventilation even in the early stages of the disease.
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