Kommentar zu den Leitlinien der Europäischen Gesellschaft für Kardiologie (ESC) zur Diagnostik und Behandlung der akuten und chronischen Herzinsuffizienz

Iron deficiency across chronic inflammatory conditions: International expert opinion on definition, diagnosis, and management

Iron deficiency, even in the absence of anemia, can be debilitating, and exacerbate any underlying chronic disease, leading to increased morbidity and mortality. Iron deficiency is frequently concomitant with chronic inflammatory disease; however, iron deficiency treatment is often overlooked, partially due to the heterogeneity among clinical practice guidelines. In the absence of consistent guidance across chronic heart failure, chronic kidney disease and inflammatory bowel disease, we provide practical recommendations for iron deficiency to treating physicians: definition, diagnosis, and disease‐specific diagnostic algorithms. These recommendations should facilitate appropriate diagnosis and treatment of iron deficiency to improve quality of life and clinical outcomes.

[Electrophysiologic procedure complications in the elderly]

Published registries give limited information on age-dependent complication rates. There are several reasons for this, including limited numbers of patients in subgroups (e.g., contractility management), experience-dependent procedures (e.g., catheter ablation), or in changing indications (e.g., resynchronization). Finally, severely ill and very old patients with limited prognosis are often excluded from electrophysiologic procedures. Therefore, published data are difficult to interpret. Meta-analyses of randomized trials give more precise information on included patient cohorts, but do not necessarily reflect daily practice because elderly patients are often excluded from trials. Therefore, the individual risk of elderly patients has to be estimated on an individual case basis. In summary, the age of patients is not relevant regarding possible complications; thus, there is no age limit for electrophysiologic interventions. Therefore, there is no alternative to the individual estimation of procedural risks of interventions of an informed patient by an experienced cardiologist.

Usefulness of Iron Deficiency Correction in Management of Patients With Heart Failure [from the Registry Analysis of Iron Deficiency-Heart Failure (RAID-HF) Registry]

Iron deficiency (ID) has been identified as an important co-morbidity in patients with heart failure (HF). Intravenous iron therapy reduced symptoms and rehospitalizations of iron-deficient patients with HF in randomized trials. The present multicenter study investigated the "real-world" management of iron status in patients with HF. Consecutive patients with HF and ejection fraction ≤40% were recruited and analyzed from December 2010 to October 2015 by 11 centers in Germany and Switzerland. Of 1,484 patients with HF, iron status was determined in only 923 patients (62.2%), despite participation of the centers in a registry focusing on ID and despite guideline recommendation to determine iron status. In patients with determined iron status, a prevalence of 54.7% (505 patients) for ID was observed. Iron therapy was performed in only 8.5% of the iron-deficient patients with HF; 2.6% were treated with intravenous iron therapy. The patients with iron therapy were characterized by a high rate of symptomatic HF and anemia. In conclusion, despite strong evidence of beneficial effects of iron therapy on symptoms and rehospitalizations, diagnostic and therapeutic efforts on ID in HF are low in the actual clinical practice, and the awareness to diagnose and treat ID in HF should be strongly enforced.

[Recommendations for the treatment of heart failure : What's new?]

Treatment escalation of chronic systolic heart failure depends on left ventricular function and symptoms of the patients. In symptomatic patients with severely reduced left ventricular function (ejection fraction ≤ 30 %), the following therapeutic approaches are recommended: (1) angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (angiotensin receptor blocker in case of ACE inhibitor intolerance); (2) β-blockers; (3) mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists; (4) diuretics in case of signs and symptoms of congestion; (5) digitalis, in particular in patients with atrial fibrillation; (6) ivabradine in patients with sinus rhythm and a heart rate ≥ 75/min; (7) an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD); (8) in case of left bundle branch block or wide QRS complex, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT; in most cases in combination with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator); (9) intravenous administration of iron in case of iron deficiency; (10) exercise training should be strongly recommended in patients with stable heart failure.