ABSTRACT
Statins are effective in the prevention of coronary events and the treatment of acute coronary syndromes. However, their efficacy and safety in patients with heart failure (HF) is still a matter of debate. On the basis of literature evidence from subgroup analysis, retrospective, prospective cohort studies, and randomized controlled trials, in this review we try to answer the following question: Is statin therapy in HF patients for good, for bad, or indifferent? Some studies showed a negative impact of low cholesterol levels in patients with severe HF (endotoxin-lipoprotein hypothesis and coenzyme Q10 hypothesis). On the other hand, a large amount of literature demonstrates that in patients with HF, statins have a positive impact on survival and other outcomes, regardless of whether the HF was of ischemic or nonischemic origin, which is related to a combination of mechanisms (pleiotropic effects and cholesterol reduction). Much of this evidence, however, comes from observational and retrospective studies and subgroup analyses of statin use in patients with HF. Randomized clinical trials examining the efficacy of statins in HF (GISSI-HF and CORONA) did not show a benefit in mortality for patients with HF randomized to receive statins. Nevertheless, a meta-analysis found that statin therapy does not decrease all-cause or cardiovascular mortality but significantly decreases the rate of hospitalization for worsening HF and increased left ventricular ejection fraction compared with placebo.
Subject(s)
Heart Failure/drug therapy , Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors/pharmacology , Animals , Clinical Trials as Topic , Humans , Treatment Outcome , Ubiquinone/analogs & derivatives , Ubiquinone/metabolismSubject(s)
Electrocardiography , Myocardial Infarction/diagnosis , Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy/diagnosis , Ventricular Function, Left/physiology , Adrenergic beta-Antagonists/therapeutic use , Aged , Diagnosis, Differential , Female , Humans , Recurrence , Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy/physiopathology , Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy/prevention & controlABSTRACT
We report the case of an 86-year-old man referred for abdominal pain and ECG signs of inferior myocardial infarction. Transthoracic, transoesophageal and contrast echocardiographs showed a septal intra-mural haematoma, dissecting the right ventricle wall and partially obliterating the right ventricle lumen. A patent communication with left ventricle with extensive wall thrombosis was present at Doppler examination within dissecting haematoma. Although the patient refused any surgical treatment, a 3-month follow-up was uneventful.