Beneficial effects of ramipril on myocardial diastolic function in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, normal LV systolic function and without coronary artery disease: a prospective study using tissue Doppler

The "CHEOPS" bundle for the management of Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction in critically ill patients: an experts' opinion

The impact of left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction (DD) on the outcome of patients with heart failure was established over three decades ago. Nevertheless, the relevance of LVDD for critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit has seen growing interest recently, and LVDD is associated with poor prognosis. Whilst an assessment of LV diastolic function is desirable in critically ill patients, treatment options for LVDD are very limited, and pharmacological possibilities to rapidly optimize diastolic function have not been found yet. Hence, a proactive approach might have a substantial role in improving the outcomes of these patients. Recalling historical Egyptian parallelism suggesting that Doppler echocardiography has been the "Rosetta stone" to decipher the study of LV diastolic function, we developed a potentially useful acronym for physicians at the bedside to optimize the management of critically ill patients with LVDD with the application of the bundle. We summarized the bundle under the acronym of the famous ancient Egyptian pharaoh CHEOPS: Chest Ultrasound, combining information from echocardiography and lung ultrasound; HEmodynamics assessment, with careful evaluation of heart rate and rhythm, as well as afterload and vasoactive drugs; OPtimization of mechanical ventilation and pulmonary circulation, considering the effects of positive end-expiratory pressure on both right and left heart function; Stabilization, with cautious fluid administration and prompt fluid removal whenever judged safe and valuable. Notably, the CHEOPS bundle represents experts' opinion and are not targeted at the initial resuscitation phase but rather for the optimization and subsequent period of critical illness.

Induced pluripotent stem cell reprogramming-associated methylation at the GABRA2 promoter and chr4p12 GABAA subunit gene expression in the context of alcohol use disorder

Twin studies indicate that there is a significant genetic contribution to the risk of developing alcohol use disorder (AUD). With the exception of coding variants in ADH1B and ALDH2, little is known about the molecular effects of AUD-associated loci. We previously reported that the AUD-associated synonymous polymorphism rs279858 within the GABAA α2 receptor subunit gene, GABRA2, was associated with gene expression of the chr4p12 GABAA subunit gene cluster in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neural cultures. Based on this and other studies that showed changes in GABRA2 DNA methylation associated with schizophrenia and aging, we examined methylation in GABRA2. Specifically, using 69 iPSC lines and neural cultures derived from 47 of them, we examined whether GABRA2 rs279858 genotype predicted methylation levels and whether methylation was related to GABAA receptor subunit gene expression. We found that the GABRA2 CpG island undergoes random stochastic methylation during reprogramming and that methylation is associated with decreased GABRA2 gene expression, an effect that extends to the GABRB1 gene over 600 kb distal to GABRA2. Further, we identified additive effects of GABRA2 CpG methylation and GABRA2 rs279858 genotype on expression of the GABRB1 subunit gene in iPSC-derived neural cultures.

Practical approach to diastolic dysfunction in light of the new guidelines and clinical applications in the operating room and in the intensive care

There is growing evidence both in the perioperative period and in the field of intensive care (ICU) on the association between left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) and worse outcomes in patients. The recent American Society of Echocardiography and European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging joint recommendations have tried to simplify the diagnosis and the grading of LVDD. However, both an often unknown pre-morbid LV diastolic function and the presence of several confounders-i.e., use of vasopressors, positive pressure ventilation, volume loading-make the proposed parameters difficult to interpret, especially in the ICU. Among the proposed parameters for diagnosis and grading of LVDD, the two tissue Doppler imaging-derived variables e' and E/e' seem most reliable. However, these are not devoid of limitations. In the present review, we aim at rationalizing the applicability of the recent recommendations to the perioperative and ICU areas, discussing the clinical meaning and echocardiographic findings of different grades of LVDD, describing the impact of LVDD on patients' outcomes and providing some hints on the management of patients with LVDD.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity in young adults: the extreme phenotype with early cardiovascular dysfunction

AIM

A pilot study to phenotype young adults (< 40 years) with Type 2 diabetes mellitus.

METHODS

Twenty people with Type 2 diabetes (aged 18-40 years), 10 lean and 10 obese control subjects underwent detailed assessment, including tagged cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, inflammatory proteins, lipids, vitamin D and maximal oxygen uptake. Outcomes were compared between the group with Type 2 diabetes and the control group.

RESULTS

Mean (standard deviation) age, Type 2 diabetes duration and BMI in the group with Type 2 diabetes were 31.8 (6.6) years, 4.7 (4.0) years and 33.9 (5.8) kg/m(2) respectively. Compared with lean control subjects, those with Type 2 diabetes had more deleterious profiles of hyperlipidaemia, vitamin D deficiency, inflammation and maximal oxygen uptake relative to body mass. However, there was no difference between the group with Type 2 diabetes and the obese control group. The group with Type 2 diabetes had a higher left ventricular mass and a trend towards concentric remodelling compared with the lean control group (P = 0.002, P = 0.052) but not the obese control group (P > 0.05). Peak early diastolic strain rate was reduced in the group with Type 2 diabetes [1.51 (0.24)/s] compared with the lean control [1.97 (0.34)/s, P = 0.001] and obese control [1.78 (0.39)/s, P = 0.042] group.

CONCLUSIONS

Young adults with Type 2 diabetes and those with obesity have similar adverse cardiovascular risk profiles, higher left ventricular mass and a trend towards left ventricular concentric remodelling. In addition, those with Type 2 diabetes demonstrate diastolic dysfunction, a known risk marker for future heart failure and mortality.

Diastolic dysfunction in diabetes and the metabolic syndrome: promising potential for diagnosis and prognosis

Cardiac disease in diabetes mellitus and in the metabolic syndrome consists of both vascular and myocardial abnormalities. The latter are characterised predominantly by diastolic dysfunction, which has been difficult to evaluate in spite of its prevalence. While traditional Doppler echocardiographic parameters enable only semiquantitative assessment of diastolic function and cannot reliably distinguish perturbations in loading conditions from altered diastolic functions, new technologies enable detailed quantification of global and regional diastolic function. The most readily available technique for the quantification of subclinical diastolic dysfunction is tissue Doppler imaging, which has been integrated into routine contemporary clinical practice, whereas cine magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) remains a promising complementary research tool for investigating the molecular mechanisms of the disease. Diastolic function is reported to vary linearly with age in normal persons, decreasing by 0.16 cm/s each year. Diastolic function in diabetes and the metabolic syndrome is determined by cardiovascular risk factors that alter myocardial stiffness and myocardial energy availability/bioenergetics. The latter is corroborated by the improvement in diastolic function with improvement in metabolic control of diabetes by specific medical therapy or lifestyle modification. Accordingly, diastolic dysfunction reflects the structural and metabolic milieu in the myocardium, and may allow targeted therapeutic interventions to modulate cardiac metabolism to prevent heart failure in insulin resistance and diabetes.