Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor Initiation and Dose Uptitration in Children With Cardiovascular Disease: A Retrospective Review of Standard Clinical Practice and a Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial

Congenital Heart Disease: The State-of-the-Art on Its Pharmacological Therapeutics

Congenital heart disease is one of the most common causes of death derived from malformations. Historically, its treatment has depended on timely diagnosis and early pharmacological and surgical interventions. Survival rates for patients with this disease have increased, primarily due to advancements in therapeutic choices, but mortality remains high. Since this disease is a time-sensitive pathology, pharmacological interventions are needed to improve clinical outcomes. Therefore, we analyzed the applications, dosage, and side effects of drugs currently used for treating congenital heart disease. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, beta-blockers, and potassium-sparing diuretics have shown a mortality benefit in most patients. Other therapies, such as endothelin receptor antagonists, phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, prostaglandins, and soluble guanylyl cyclase stimulators, have benefited patients with pulmonary artery hypertension. Likewise, the adjunctive symptomatic treatment of these patients has further improved the outcomes, since antiarrhythmics, digoxin, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have shown their benefits in these cases. Conclusively, these drugs also carry the risk of troublesome adverse effects, such as electrolyte imbalances and hemodynamic compromise. However, their benefits for survival, symptom improvement, and stabilization outweigh the possible complications from their use. Thus, cases must be assessed individually to accurately identify interventions that would be most beneficial for patients.

The impact of medical interventions on admission characteristics in children with congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathy

INTRODUCTION

Children with congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathy are a unique patient population. Different therapies continue to be introduced with large practice variability and questionable outcomes. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of various medications on intensive care unit length of stay, total length of stay, billed charges, and mortality for admissions with congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We identified admissions of paediatric patients with cardiomyopathy using the Pediatric Health Information System database. The admissions were then separated into two groups: those with and without inpatient mortality. Univariate analyses were conducted between the groups and the significant variables were entered as independent variables into the regression analyses.

RESULTS

A total of 10,376 admissions were included these analyses. Of these, 904 (8.7%) experienced mortality. Comparing patients who experienced mortality with those who did not, there was increased rate of acute kidney injury with an odds ratio (OR) of 5.0 [95% confidence interval (CI) 4.3 to 5.8, p < 0.01], cardiac arrest with an OR 7.5 (95% CI 6.3 to 9.0, p < 0.01), and heart transplant with an OR 0.3 (95% CI 0.2 to 0.4, p < 0.01). The medical interventions with benefit for all endpoints after multivariate regression analyses in this cohort are methylprednisolone, captopril, enalapril, furosemide, and amlodipine.

CONCLUSIONS

Diuretics, steroids, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, and beta blockers all appear to offer beneficial effects in paediatric cardiomyopathy admission outcomes. Specific agents within each group have varying effects.

Recent and Upcoming Drug Therapies for Pediatric Heart Failure

Pediatric heart failure (HF) is an important clinical condition with high morbidity, mortality, and costs. Due to the heterogeneity in clinical presentation and etiologies, the development of therapeutic strategies is more challenging in children than adults. Most guidelines recommending drug therapy for pediatric HF are extrapolated from studies in adults. Unfortunately, even using all available treatment, progression to cardiac transplantation is common. The development of prospective clinical trials in the pediatric population has significant obstacles, including small sample sizes, slow recruitment rates, challenging endpoints, and high costs. However, progress is being made as evidenced by the recent introduction of ivabradine and of sacubitril/valsartan. In the last 5 years, new drugs have also been developed for HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) in adults. The use of well-designed prospective clinical trials will be fundamental in the evaluation of safety and efficacy of these new drugs on the pediatric population. The aim of this article is to review the clinical presentation and management of acute and chronic pediatric heart failure, focusing on systolic dysfunction in patients with biventricular circulation and a systemic left ventricle. We discuss the drugs recently approved for children and those emerging, or in use for adults with HFrEF.

Safety of Enalapril in Infants: Data from the Pediatric Heart Network Infant Single Ventricle Trial

OBJECTIVE

To assess the safety profile of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor therapy in infants with single ventricle.

STUDY DESIGN

The Pediatric Heart Network conducted a double-blind trial involving infants with single ventricle physiology randomized to receive enalapril or placebo and followed to 14 months of age. Data including demographics, drug administration, hemodynamic monitoring, laboratory measurements, adverse events, and survival were extracted from the public use data set and compared between the placebo and enalapril-treated groups.

RESULTS

The Infant Single Ventricle trial randomized 230 patients, with 115 patients in each group. Initial enalapril dose was 0.10 mg/kg/d and median maximal dose was 0.38 mg/kg/d. There was no significant difference in change in blood pressure at study drug initiation or when resuming study drug after Glenn surgery. The incidence of hyperkalemia and neutropenia did not differ between groups. Renal dysfunction occurred in 3% of the enalapril group and none of the placebo patients, which was not statistically significant. There was a high frequency of serious adverse events in both groups. There was no difference in the frequency of heart transplant or death between groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Enalapril did not have sustained hemodynamic effects at initiation or up-titration of drug. Creatinine and potassium were not different between groups, although renal dysfunction occurred more often in the patients on enalapril. Although efficacy of enalapril in neonates with single ventricle has not been demonstrated, the safety profile of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors appears to be low risk in infants and children with significant heart disease.

Anti-hypertensive and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitory effects of Radix Astragali and its bioactive peptide AM-1

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

Hypertension is one of the common chronic health problems in the world. Astragalus membranaceus root (AM), also known as Huangqi, is a popular medicinal herb traditionally used to reinforce vital energy and modulate hypertension.

AIM OF THE STUDY

This study was to reveal the anti-hypertensive activities and mechanisms of AM in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Moreover, the presence of bioactive components in AM was further identified.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We analyzed the effects of aqueous extract of AM (AME) on the regulation of blood pressure and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), the major target of anti-hypertensive drugs. Proteomic, bioinformatics, and docking analyses were performed to identify the anti-hypertensive bioactive peptides in AME.

RESULTS

Our data showed that AME inhibited ACE activities in a dose-dependent manner, with an IC₅₀ of 1.85 ± 0.01 μg/ml. In comparison with mock, oral administration of AME reduced systolic blood pressure (SBP) levels in SHRs, and the level of SBP was decreased by 22.33 ± 3.61 mmHg at 200 mg/kg AME. Proteomic analysis identified that an abundant 152-amino-acid putative protein kinase fragment accounted for approximately 11.7% of protein spots in AME. AM-1 (LVPPHA), a gastrointestinal enzyme-resistant peptide cleaved from putative protein kinase fragment, inhibited ACE activities, with an IC₅₀ value of 414.88 ± 41.88 μM. Moreover, oral administration of AM-1 significantly decreased SBP levels by 42 ± 2.65 mmHg at 10 μmol/kg. Docking analysis further showed that AM-1 docked into the active site channel of ACE and interacted with Ala-354 in the active site pocket of ACE.

CONCLUSIONS

the ACE inhibitory effect of AM and the presence of ACE inhibitory phytopeptide in AME supported the ethnomedical use of AM on hypertension.

Understanding the early mortality benefit observed in the PARADIGM-HF trial: considerations for the management of heart failure with sacubitril/valsartan

This review aims to elucidate the optimal dosing of angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) therapy in the heart failure (HF) treatment paradigm through examination of the trial population characteristics and the mortality benefit observed in the Prospective Comparison of ARNI with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) to Determine Impact on Global Mortality and Morbidity in Heart Failure (PARADIGM-HF; NCT01035255) trial. Considerations regarding the initiation and titration of sacubitril/valsartan, a first-in-class ARNI, will also be addressed. The approval of sacubitril/valsartan heralded the first novel pharmacological class in over a decade for the treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). The PARADIGM-HF trial showed that treatment with valsartan/valsartan reduced the risk of first occurrence of either cardiovascular death or HF-related hospitalization (composite primary endpoint) by 20% compared with enalapril in patients with HFrEF. The incremental benefits of treatment with valsartan/valsartan over enalapril demonstrated in the PARADIGM-HF trial led to strong recommendations for its use over ACEIs or angiotensin receptor blockers to further reduce morbidity and mortality in the 2016 and 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association/Heart Failure Society of America updates to the guidelines for the management of HF. Although the optimal timing for the initiation of valsartan/valsartan has yet to be determined, its early use is likely to have a positive impact on patient outcomes.

Effect and safety of treatment with ACE-inhibitor Enalapril and β-blocker metoprolol on the onset of left ventricular dysfunction in Duchenne muscular dystrophy - a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

BACKGROUND

X-linked Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the most frequent human hereditary skeletal muscle myopathy, inevitably leads to progressive dilated cardiomyopathy. We assessed the effect and safety of a combined treatment with the ACE-inhibitor enalapril and the β-blocker metoprolol in a German cohort of infantile and juvenile DMD patients with preserved left ventricular function.

METHODS TRIAL DESIGN

Sixteen weeks single-arm open run-in therapy with enalapril and metoprolol followed by a two-arm 1:1 randomized double-blind placebo-controlled treatment in a multicenter setting.

INCLUSION CRITERIA

DMD boys aged 10-14 years with left ventricular fractional shortening [LV-FS] ≥ 30% in echocardiography. Primary endpoint: time from randomization to first occurrence of LV-FS < 28%. Secondary: changes of a) LV-FS from baseline, b) blood pressure, c), heart rate and autonomic function in ECG and Holter-ECG, e) cardiac biomarkers and neurohumeral serum parameters, f) quality of life, and g) adverse events.

RESULTS

From 3/2010 to 12/2013, 38 patients from 10 sites were centrally randomized after run-in, with 21 patients continuing enalapril and metoprolol medication and 17 patients receiving placebo. Until end of study 12/2015, LV-FS < 28% was reached in 6/21 versus 7/17 patients. Cox regression adjusted for LV-FS after run-in showed a statistically non-significant benefit for medication over placebo (hazard ratio: 0.38; 95% confidence interval: 0.12 to 1.22; p = 0.10). Analysis of secondary outcome measures revealed a time-dependent deterioration of LV-FS with no statistically significant differences between the two study arms. Blood pressure, maximal heart rate and mean-NN values were significantly lower at the end of open run-in treatment compared to baseline. Outcome analysis 19 months after randomization displayed significantly lower maximum heart rate and higher noradrenalin and renin values in the intervention group. No difference between treatments was seen for quality of life. As a single, yet important adverse event, the reversible deterioration of walking abilities of one DMD patient during the run-in period was observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Our analysis of enalapril and metoprolol treatment in DMD patients with preserved left ventricular function is suggestive to delay the progression of the intrinsic cardiomyopathy to left ventricular failure, but did not reach statistical significance, probably due to insufficient sample size.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

DRKS-number 00000115, EudraCT-number 2009-009871-36.

Crowdsourcing the Citation Screening Process for Systematic Reviews: Validation Study

BACKGROUND

Systematic reviews (SRs) are often cited as the highest level of evidence available as they involve the identification and synthesis of published studies on a topic. Unfortunately, it is increasingly challenging for small teams to complete SR procedures in a reasonable time period, given the exponential rise in the volume of primary literature. Crowdsourcing has been postulated as a potential solution.

OBJECTIVE

The feasibility objective of this study was to determine whether a crowd would be willing to perform and complete abstract and full text screening. The validation objective was to assess the quality of the crowd's work, including retention of eligible citations (sensitivity) and work performed for the investigative team, defined as the percentage of citations excluded by the crowd.

METHODS

We performed a prospective study evaluating crowdsourcing essential components of an SR, including abstract screening, document retrieval, and full text assessment. Using CrowdScreenSR citation screening software, 2323 articles from 6 SRs were available to an online crowd. Citations excluded by less than or equal to 75% of the crowd were moved forward for full text assessment. For the validation component, performance of the crowd was compared with citation review through the accepted, gold standard, trained expert approach.

RESULTS

Of 312 potential crowd members, 117 (37.5%) commenced abstract screening and 71 (22.8%) completed the minimum requirement of 50 citation assessments. The majority of participants were undergraduate or medical students (192/312, 61.5%). The crowd screened 16,988 abstracts (median: 8 per citation; interquartile range [IQR] 7-8), and all citations achieved the minimum of 4 assessments after a median of 42 days (IQR 26-67). Crowd members retrieved 83.5% (774/927) of the articles that progressed to the full text phase. A total of 7604 full text assessments were completed (median: 7 per citation; IQR 3-11). Citations from all but 1 review achieved the minimum of 4 assessments after a median of 36 days (IQR 24-70), with 1 review remaining incomplete after 3 months. When complete crowd member agreement at both levels was required for exclusion, sensitivity was 100% (95% CI 97.9-100) and work performed was calculated at 68.3% (95% CI 66.4-70.1). Using the predefined alternative 75% exclusion threshold, sensitivity remained 100% and work performed increased to 72.9% (95% CI 71.0-74.6; P<.001). Finally, when a simple majority threshold was considered, sensitivity decreased marginally to 98.9% (95% CI 96.0-99.7; P=.25) and work performed increased substantially to 80.4% (95% CI 78.7-82.0; P<.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Crowdsourcing of citation screening for SRs is feasible and has reasonable sensitivity and specificity. By expediting the screening process, crowdsourcing could permit the investigative team to focus on more complex SR tasks. Future directions should focus on developing a user-friendly online platform that allows research teams to crowdsource their reviews.

ACE inhibition for severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia - an approach based on physiology

Premature infants have a high incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Systemic hypertension, arterial thickness and stiffness, and increased systemic afterload may all contribute to BPD pathophysiology by altering left ventricular (LV) function and increasing pulmonary venous congestion by lowering end-diastolic compliance. This case series studied the usefulness of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition by measuring clinical and echocardiographic improvements in six consecutive infants with "severe" BPD unresponsive to conventional therapy. The range of gestation and birthweight were 23-29 weeks and 505-814 g, respectively. All required mechanical ventilation (including high-frequency oscillation) and all but one were administered postnatal corticosteroids. Other treatments including sildenafil and diuretics made no clinical improvements. Captopril was started for systemic hypertension after cardiac and vascular ultrasounds which were repeated 5 weeks later. A significant reduction in oxygen (55 ± 25 to 29 ± 3%, two-tailed P = 0.03) and ventilator requirements, and improved cardiovascular parameters were noted. This included a trend toward reduction in aorta intima media thickness [840 ± 94 to 740 ± 83 μm, P = 0.07] and an increased pulsatile diameter [36 ± 14 to 63 ± 25 μm, P = 0.04]). Improvements were observed for both systolic (increased LV output, 188 ± 13 to 208 ± 13 mL/kg/min, P = 0.046 and mean velocity of circumferential fiber shortening, 1.6 ± 0.2 to 2.5 ± 0.3 [circ/sec], P = 0.0004) and diastolic (decreased isovolumic relaxation time, 69.6 ± 8.2 to 59.4 ± 5 msec, P = 0.044) function which was accompanied by increased pulmonary vein flow. Right ventricular output increased accompanied by a significant lowering of pulmonary vascular resistance. These findings suggest that improving respiratory and cardiac indices (especially diastolic function) warrants further exploration of ACE inhibition in BPD infants unresponsive to conventional therapy.