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Al-Khayatt B, Perera D, Rahman H. The role of coronary microvascular dysfunction in the pathogenesis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. AMERICAN HEART JOURNAL PLUS : CARDIOLOGY RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2024; 41:100387. [PMID: 38680204 PMCID: PMC11045873 DOI: 10.1016/j.ahjo.2024.100387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2024] [Revised: 03/16/2024] [Accepted: 03/18/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024]
Abstract
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a common condition with few effective therapies and hence represents a major healthcare burden. The clinical syndrome of HFpEF can be caused by varying pathophysiological processes, with coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) proposed as one of the aetiologies, although confirming causality has been challenging. CMD is characterised by the inability of the coronary vasculature to augment blood flow in response to a physiological stressor and has been established as the driver of angina in patients with non-obstructed coronaries (ANOCA), and this has subsequently led to efficacious endotype-directed therapies. CMD is also highly prevalent among sufferers of HFpEF and may represent a novel treatment target for this particular endotype of this condition. This review aims to discuss the role of the microcirculation in the healthy heart how it's dysfunction may precipitate HFpEF and explore the current diagnostic tools available. We also discuss the gaps in evidence and where we believe future research should be focussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Becker Al-Khayatt
- The British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, School of Cardiovascular Medicine and Sciences, King's College London, St Thomas' Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7EH, United Kingdom
| | - Divaka Perera
- The British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, School of Cardiovascular Medicine and Sciences, King's College London, St Thomas' Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7EH, United Kingdom
| | - Haseeb Rahman
- The British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, School of Cardiovascular Medicine and Sciences, King's College London, St Thomas' Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7EH, United Kingdom
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Gevaert AB, Kataria R, Zannad F, Sauer AJ, Damman K, Sharma K, Shah SJ, Van Spall HGC. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: recent concepts in diagnosis, mechanisms and management. Heart 2022; 108:1342-1350. [PMID: 35022210 DOI: 10.1136/heartjnl-2021-319605] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 33.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2021] [Accepted: 11/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
It is estimated that half of all patients with heart failure (HF) have HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Yet this form of HF remains a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Differentiating HFpEF from other causes of dyspnoea may require advanced diagnostic methods, such as exercise echocardiography, invasive haemodynamics and investigations for 'HFpEF mimickers'. While the classification of HF has relied heavily on cut-points in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), recent evidence points towards a gradual shift in underlying mechanisms, phenotypes and response to therapies as LVEF increases. For example, among patients with HF, the proportion of hospitalisations and deaths due to cardiac causes decreases as LVEF increases. Medication classes that are efficacious in HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) have been less so at higher LVEF ranges, decreasing the risk of HF hospitalisation but not cardiovascular or all-cause death in HFpEF. These observations reflect the burden of non-cardiac comorbidities as LVEF increases and highlight the complex pathophysiological mechanisms, both cardiac and non-cardiac, underpinning HFpEF. Treatment with sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors reduces the risk of composite cardiovascular events, driven by a reduction in HF hospitalisations; renin-angiotensin-aldosterone blockers and angiotensin-neprilysin inhibitors result in smaller reductions in HF hospitalisations among patients with HFpEF. Comprehensive management of HFpEF includes exercise as well as treatment of risk factors and comorbidities. Classification based on phenotypes may facilitate a more targeted approach to treatment than LVEF categorisation, which sets arbitrary cut-points when LVEF is a continuum. This narrative review summarises the pathophysiology, diagnosis, classification and management of patients with HFpEF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andreas B Gevaert
- Research Group Cardiovascular Diseases, GENCOR Department, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.,Department of Cardiology, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.,Department of Cardiology, Antwerp University Hospital (UZA), Edegem, Belgium
| | - Rachna Kataria
- Department of Cardiology-Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation, Corrigan Minehan Heart Center, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Faiez Zannad
- Université de Lorraine, INSERM, Centre d'Investigations Cliniques-1433 and INSERM U1116, Centre Hospitalier Regional Universitaire de Nancy, Nancy, France.,Investigation Network Initiative-Cardiovascular and Renal Clinical Trialists, French Clinical Research Infrastructure Network, Nancy, France
| | - Andrew J Sauer
- Center for Advanced Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation, The University of Kansas Health System, Kansas City, Kansas, USA
| | - Kevin Damman
- Department of Cardiology, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Kavita Sharma
- Division of Cardiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Sanjiv J Shah
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine and Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Harriette G C Van Spall
- Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada .,Research Institute of St. Joe's and Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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Bauersachs J, de Boer RA, Lindenfeld J, Bozkurt B. The year in cardiovascular medicine 2021: heart failure and cardiomyopathies. Eur Heart J 2022; 43:367-376. [PMID: 34974611 PMCID: PMC9383181 DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehab887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2021] [Revised: 10/27/2021] [Accepted: 11/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
In the year 2021, the universal definition and classification of heart failure (HF) was published that defines HF as a clinical syndrome with symptoms and/or signs caused by a cardiac abnormality and corroborated by elevated natriuretic peptide levels or objective evidence of cardiogenic congestion. This definition and the classification of HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), mildly reduced, and HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is consistent with the 2021 ESC Guidelines on HF. Among several other new recommendations, these guidelines give a Class I indication for the use of the sodium–glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors dapagliflozin and empagliflozin in HFrEF patients. As the first evidence-based treatment for HFpEF, in the EMPEROR-Preserved trial, empagliflozin reduced the composite endpoint of cardiovascular death and HF hospitalizations. Several reports in 2021 have provided novel and detailed analyses of device and medical therapy in HF, especially regarding sacubitril/valsartan, SGLT2 inhibitors, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists, ferric carboxymaltose, soluble guanylate cyclase activators, and cardiac myosin activators. In patients hospitalized with COVID-19, acute HF and myocardial injury is quite frequent, whereas myocarditis and long-term damage to the heart are rather uncommon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johann Bauersachs
- Department of Cardiology and Angiology, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Straße 1, 30625 Hannover, Germany
| | - Rudolf A de Boer
- Department of Cardiology, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - JoAnn Lindenfeld
- Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
| | - Biykem Bozkurt
- Winters Center for Heart Failure, Cardiology, Baylor College of Medicine and Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston TX, USA
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Asselbergs FW, Fraser AG. Artificial intelligence in cardiology: the debate continues. EUROPEAN HEART JOURNAL. DIGITAL HEALTH 2021; 2:721-726. [PMID: 36713089 PMCID: PMC9708032 DOI: 10.1093/ehjdh/ztab090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2021] [Accepted: 10/12/2021] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
In 1955, when John McCarthy and his colleagues proposed their first study of artificial intelligence, they suggested that 'every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it'. Whether that might ever be possible would depend on how we define intelligence, but what is indisputable is that new methods are needed to analyse and interpret the copious information provided by digital medical images, genomic databases, and biobanks. Technological advances have enabled applications of artificial intelligence (AI) including machine learning (ML) to be implemented into clinical practice, and their related scientific literature is exploding. Advocates argue enthusiastically that AI will transform many aspects of clinical cardiovascular medicine, while sceptics stress the importance of caution and the need for more evidence. This report summarizes the main opposing arguments that were presented in a debate at the 2021 Congress of the European Society of Cardiology. Artificial intelligence is an advanced analytical technique that should be considered when conventional statistical methods are insufficient, but testing a hypothesis or solving a clinical problem-not finding another application for AI-remains the most important objective. Artificial intelligence and ML methods should be transparent and interpretable, if they are to be approved by regulators and trusted to provide support for clinical decisions. Physicians need to understand AI methods and collaborate with engineers. Few applications have yet been shown to have a positive impact on clinical outcomes, so investment in research is essential.
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Affiliation(s)
- Folkert W Asselbergs
- Division Heart and Lungs, Department of Cardiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX Utrecht, Netherlands,Institute of Health Informatics and Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University College London, 222 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DA, UK,NIHR BRC Clinical Research Informatics Unit, University College London Hospital, London, UK
| | - Alan G Fraser
- School of Medicine, Cardiff University, University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff CF14 4XW, UK,Cardiovascular Imaging and Dynamics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, UZ Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium,Corresponding author. Tel: +44 (0)29 2184 5366, Fax: +44 (0)29 2184 4473,
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