CARDIOCARE: An integrated platform for the management of elderly multimorbid patients with breast cancer therapy induced cardiac toxicity

Breast cancer (BC) remains the most diagnosed cancer in women, accounting for 12% of new annual cancer cases in Europe and worldwide. Advances in surgery, radiotherapy and systemic treatment have resulted in improved clinical outcomes and increased survival rates in recent years. However, BC therapy-related cardiotoxicity, may severely impact short- and long-term quality of life and survival. This study presents the CARDIOCARE platform and its main components, which by integrating patient-specific data from different categories, data from patient-oriented eHealth applications and wearable devices, and by employing advanced data mining and machine learning approaches, provides the healthcare professionals with a valuable tool for effectively managing BC patients and preventing or alleviating treatment induced cardiotoxicity.Clinical Relevance- Through the adoption of CARDIOCARE platform healthcare professionals are able to stratify patients for their risk for cardiotoxicity and timely apply adequate interventions to prevent its onset.

Myocardial strain indices and coronary flow reserve are only mildly affected in healthy hypertensive patients

 

Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is associated with functional and structural changes in the heart and the vessels.

Left ventricular deformation imaging with 2D Strain Echocardiography (2DSTE) and stress echocardiography with a vasodilator,such as dipyridamole (DIPSE), are useful tools for the detection of early myocardial abnormalities in hypertensive patients

The aim of the current study was to investigate whether early (relatively healthy) hypertensive patients with normal left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction may differ in 2D Strain indices at baseline and in response to a stress test such as dipyridamole, compared to healthy controls. In the current study, the associations of 2DSTE indices and their changes following DIPSE with other studied parameters were also assessed.

Forty-seven male hypertensive patients (aged 57±9 years) with normal ejection fraction and without left ventricular hypertrophy and 20 healthy male subjects were studied with conventional and 2D Strain echocardiography at rest and post DIPSE. Coronary flow reserve (CFR) in the left anterior descending artery following DIPSE was also evaluated.

Global longitudinal strain (GLS) and TWIST were higher while UNTWIST rate was lower in hypertensives versus controls (p<0.05 for all). TWIST remained higher in hypertensives (p=0.021) after adjustment for differences in age and body mass index (BMI) between the groups. CFR was higher in controls compared to hypertensives even after adjustment for confounders (4.14 vs. 2.53, p=0.001).

DIPSE-induced changes did not differ between the groups after adjustment for age and BMI (p>0.05 for all).

DIPSE-induced improvement in GLS was associated with higher CFR only in hypertensive patients (r −0.372, p=0.010).

The current study showed that well controlled hypertensive patients have mild echocardiographic differences compared to controls. Some of these differences appear to depend on age and Body mass index. A “hyper-rotation” phenomenon (higher TWIST) early in hypertension may be a compensatory mechanism to preserve global systolic LV function. Coronary microcirculatory function was impaired in hypertensive patients, albeit within normal range, and was associated with DIPSE-induced changes in myocardial long-axis systolic function.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: None.

Classical and myocardial deformation echocardiographic indices in chronic kidney disease patients; effects of aging and comparison to healthy controls

Funding Acknowledgements

Type of funding sources: None.

Background Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at high risk for cardiovascular disease compared to the general population. Classic echocardiographic indices of left ventricular (LV) function may not be sensitive enough in detecting early myocardial deterioration in CKD patients while LV speckle tracking (2DSTE) analysis has shown promising results. Dipyridamole stress echocardiography (DIPSE), mostly used to measure coronary flow reserve (CFR), assesses coronary macrovascular and/or microvascular dysfunction in a non-invasive way.

Purpose To investigate differences in classic, 2DSTE-related indices, CFR and other DIPSE-induced changes in various echocardiographic parameters between 1) healthy controls and age-matched (younger) CKD patients, 2) younger versus older CKD patients with similar clinical characteristics.

Methods We prospectively evaluated 30 healthy controls and 60 consecutive CKD patients 40-75 years old who were followed-up at the CKD outpatient clinic of a University Hospital in Western Greece. A standard echocardiographic analysis including 2DSTE analysis was performed in all subjects before and after dipyridamole infusion. CFR in left anterior descending artery was also assessed.

Results The median age of the CKD patients was 63 years and most of them were males (70%). Younger patients with CKD (i.e. <60 years old) had higher E/e" ratio (7.80 ± 2.71 vs 6.06 ± 1.37, p = 0.019), LVMI (114.7 ± 41.1 vs 89.6 ± 21.2, p = 0.017) and relative wall thickness (0.47 ± 0.08 vs 0.40 ± 0.06, p = 0.031) and lower E" (10.6 ± 2.6 vs 2.3 ± 2.9 cm/s, p = 0.045) compared to age and gender-matched healthy controls. Older CKD patients had lower E/A (0.80 ± 0.19 vs 1.03 ± 0.33, p = 0.007) and E" (8.5 ± 1.8 vs 10.6 ± 2.6 cm/s, p = 0.003) compared to younger CKD patients. CFR was higher in healthy controls compared to both younger (3.93 ± 1.25 versus 3.1 ± 0.75, p = 0.009) and older CKD patients (3.93 ± 1.25 versus 2.89 ± 0.88, p < 0.001); no significant difference in CFR was observed between younger and older CKD patients. Dipyridamole-induced changes in other studied echocardiographic indices did not differ significantly among groups. Conclusions In the current study, impaired coronary microcirculation, LV diastolic function and increased LV mass with concentric remodeling were shown to be the principal findings early in the process of CKD. These results may have pathophysiological implications for cardiorenal syndrome type 4 and targeted cardiac assessment in CKD patients. Future studies are needed to assess whether any therapeutic efforts aiming to delay or reverse these changes may have an impact on the cardiovascular prognosis in CKD patients.

Differences in cardiac structure assessed by echocardiography between renal transplant recipients and chronic kidney disease patients

BACKGROUND

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in predialysis chronic kidney disease (CKD) and dialysis patients as well as in renal transplant recipients (RTRs). Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) starts early during the course of CKD and is a strong predictor of CVD in this population. Regression of LVH after a successful renal transplantation remains a debatable issue among investigators, whereas there is little data comparing echocardiographic measurements between patients with predialysis CKD and RTRs.

AIM

The aim of this study was to compare echocardiographic measurements of LV structure and function between predialysis CKD patients and RTRs of similar renal function level.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We conducted a case control study with individual (1:2) matching from the Renal Transplant and the predialysis CKD Outpatient Clinic. For each of the 36 RTRs, two matched for gender, age and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) predialysis CKD outpatients (72 patients) were included. All patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography and LV mass, LV mass index [LVM and LVMI = LVM/BSA g/m(2)] and indices of systolic function were measured. In a subgroup of 12 RTRs we retrospectively assessed and compared the LVMI measurements at three different time points, during predialysis, dialysis and post transplant period.

RESULTS

The prevalence of LVH was 33% in RTRs and 52% in CKD patients (ns). RTRs had significantly lower LVM and LVMI levels compared with predialysis CKD patients (P = .006 and P = .008) while the other echocardiographic indices did not differ. In the subgroup of 12 RTRs, post-transplant LVMI levels (105 ± 25 g/m(2)) were significantly lower in comparison with predialysis (147 ± 57 g/m(2)) and dialysis LVMI levels (169 ± 72 g/m(2)) (P = .01, P = .01, respectively).

CONCLUSION

RTRs had significantly lower LVMI compared with predialysis CKD patients of similar age, renal function, hemoglobin and blood pressure level.