European journal of heart failure
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Eur. J. Heart Fail. · Jun 2012
Impact of heart failure and changes to volume status on liver stiffness: non-invasive assessment using transient elastography.
The impact of cardiac dysfunction on the liver is known as cardiac hepatopathy. In certain instances this can result in significant hepatic fibrosis or cirrhosis. The validity of non-invasive tools to assess hepatic fibrosis, such as FibroScan(®) which measures liver stiffness (LSM), has not been established in this setting. We examined the impact of cardiac dysfunction on LSM using FibroScan(®) and the influence of volume changes on LSM. ⋯ Our findings support the concept of increased LSM in the cardiac failure population. LSM was not altered to a statistically significant level with acute volume changes.
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Eur. J. Heart Fail. · Jun 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialLong-term mortality with cardiac resynchronization therapy in the Cardiac Resynchronization-Heart Failure (CARE-HF) trial.
The Cardiac Resynchronization-Heart Failure (CARE-HF) study helped establish an important role for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in the management of selected patients with heart failure. We now report the long-term outcome during and subsequent to the randomized trial. ⋯ The effect of CRT on mortality observed during the randomized CARE-HF trial persisted during long-term follow-up. A high rate of CRT device implantation in the control group after completion of the randomized phase of the study may have prevented further divergence of the survival curves.
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Eur. J. Heart Fail. · May 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyA randomized double-blind crossover trial of triventricular versus biventricular pacing in heart failure.
A significant proportion of patients implanted with biventricular (BiV) devices fail to respond. Clinical response may be improved by additional ventricular stimulation sites. This single-centre, double-blinded randomized crossover trial aimed to determine whether long-term multisite ventricular pacing is superior to conventional BiV pacing in heart failure patients. ⋯ TriV pacing was associated with significant improvements in clinical and echocardiographic parameters compared with BiV pacing.
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Eur. J. Heart Fail. · May 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyA randomized study of haemodynamic effects and left ventricular dyssynchrony in right ventricular apical vs. high posterior septal pacing in cardiac resynchronization therapy.
The effect on left ventricular (LV) systolic function and LV dyssynchrony by alternative right ventricular (RV) lead position in cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is unclear. In the present study, RV apical (RV-A) was compared with RV high posterior septal (RV-HS) lead position in CRT. ⋯ RV-A and RV-HS in CRT demonstrated similar LV reverse remodelling and LV reverse dyssynchrony at 6-month follow-up. Concordant LV leads provided superior LV reverse remodelling and LV reverse dyssynchrony.
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Eur. J. Heart Fail. · May 2012
Screening to prevent heart failure (STOP-HF): expanding the focus beyond asymptomatic left ventricular systolic dysfunction.
We evaluated the extent to which left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) contributes to the high false-positive rates observed when natriuretic peptides (NPs) are used to screen for left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD), and the use of NPs in combination with electrocardiogram (ECG) to screen for pre-clinical ventricular dysfunction (PCVD). ⋯ A significant number of patients at risk for LVSD and labelled false positive with screening were found to have LVDD. Identifying this at-risk cohort may improve outcomes, but the clinical and economic benefit of this screening strategy requires formal assessment.