American Heart Association
Frustrated by limited, single small center risk scores for RV failure? Kiernan and colleagues analyzed the Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS) to identify factors associated with RV failure following continuous flow left ventricular assist device (CF-LVAD) support.
A young Latin American female patient walks into clinic with signs and symptoms of HF, a right bundle branch block on 12-lead EKG, and reduced EF on echo. She has Chagas disease and HFrEF, but what is her prognosis?
Despite its high prevalence in South America, reports of morbidity and mortality of this disease have been variant. Using post-hoc analysis, McMurray et al evaluated outcomes in 2552 Latin American patients from the PARADIGM-HF and ATMOSPHERE trials where 195 (7.6%) had Chagasic HFrEF. The authors discovered that despite younger age and fewer comorbidities, the Chagasic HFrEF cohort had higher CV death and hospitalization when compared to ischemic and non-ischemic groups. Chagasic HFrEF patients had worse quality of life compared to the non-ischemic group, measured using the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ).
Quality not quantity. Why not both? It is established that sacubitril/valsartan is superior to enalapril (or dose-equivalent ACE-I) when it comes to mortality and morbidity in HFrEF. But what about quality of life (QoL)? Patients enrolled in PARADIGM-HF had increased quality of life when randomized to sacubitril/valsartan.
Less is more when it comes to heart rate in HF. Ivabradine, a sinus node inhibitor, lowers heart rate, thereby decreasing myocardial demand. Some beta blockers have mortality benefit in HFrEF as shown by the MERIT-HF and COPERNICUS trials, and a side effect of these drugs is heart rate lowering. Thus, beta-blockers are standard of care in HFrEF; however, at maximally indicated doses, undesired side effects often occur. Since ivabradine targets very specific ion channels within the SA node, further heart rate reduction is possible. But which patients are eligible for this therapy? Read on.