American Registry of Ambulatory or acutely decompensated heart failure (AMERICCAASS Registry): First 1000 patients.

BACKGROUND: About 80% of cardiovascular diseases (including heart failure [HF]) occur in low-income and developing countries. However, most clinical trials are conducted in developed countries. HYPOTHESIS: The American Registry of Ambulatory or Acutely Decompensated Heart Failure (AMERICCAASS) aims to describe the sociodemographic characteristics of HF, comorbidities, clinical presentation, and pharmacological management of patients with ambulatory or acutely decompensated HF in America. METHODOLOGY: Descriptive, observational, prospective, and multicenter registry, which includes patients >18 years with HF in an outpatient or hospital setting. Collected information is stored in the REDCap electronic platform. Quantitative variables are defined according to the normality of the variable using the Shapiro-Wilk test. RESULTS: This analysis includes data from the first 1000 patients recruited. 63.5% were men, the median age of 66 years (interquartile range 56.7-75.4), and 77.6% of the patients were older than 55 years old. The percentage of use of the four pharmacological pillars at the time of recruitment was 70.7% for beta-blockers (BB), 77.4% for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI)/angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB II)/angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI), 56.8% for mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRA), and 30.7% for sodium-glucose cotransporter type-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i). The main cause of decompensation in hospitalized patients was HF progression (64.4%), and the predominant hemodynamic profile was wet-warm (68.3%). CONCLUSIONS: AMERICCAASS is the first continental registry to include hospitalized or outpatient patients with HF. Regarding optimal medical therapy, approximately a quarter of the patients still need to receive BB and ACEI/ARB/ARNI, less than half do not receive MRA, and more than two-thirds do not receive SGLT2i.

Risk stratification, prognosis, and survival in a pulmonary arterial hypertension cohort in Latin America. A multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) guidelines suggest that achieving a low-risk profile should be the treatment goal. Our aim was to assess a risk assessment strategy based on three non-invasive variables from the ESC/ERS 2015 guidelines in a Latin American cohort. METHODS: 92 incident patients (mean [SD] age 47, 77% female, 53% idiopathic PAH) were included in this retrospective, multicenter study. Patients were stratified at baseline and at early follow-up, within the first year, using three non-invasive variables (WHO functional class, 6-minute walking distance, BNP/NT-proBNP) from the ESC/ERS 2015 risk assessment instrument. Median (IQR) follow-up was 3.11 years (3.01 years). RESULTS: At baseline assessment, 25% of patients were at low risk, 61.9% at intermediate-risk, and 13% at high-risk. At early follow-up (median 9.5 months), 56.5% of patients were at low-risk, 40.2% at intermediate-risk, and 3.2% at high-risk (p<0.001 vs. baseline). According to risk stratification at early follow-up, one, three and five-year overall survival was 100% in the low-risk group (no deaths at five-year follow-up), and 100%, 84% (95% CI: 72-98%), and 66% (95% CI: 48-90%) respectively in the intermediate-risk group, p = 0.0003. Mortality in the high-risk patients at early follow-up was 1/3 (33.3%). One, three, and five-year event-free survival (death or transplant or first hospitalization due to worsening PAH) based on early follow-up risk assessment was higher in the low-risk group, p = 0.0003. CONCLUSION: Our study validates a risk assessment strategy based on three non-invasive variables and confirms that early achievement of a low-risk profile should be the treatment goal.

Cardiac Rehabilitation in a Patient With Severe Heart Failure and Ventricular Septal Defect Secondary to Acute Myocardial Infarction.

The treatment of choice for patients with advanced heart failure (HF) and with limiting symptoms with evidence of a poor prognosis despite optimal conventional treatment is a heart transplant. However, there is little literature dealing with the effects of cardiovascular prehabilitation with an important change in physical capacity, which can influence the admission on the waiting list for a heart transplant. We presented one young male, smoker, with no prior history of cardiovascular disease, severe ventricular dysfunction, interventricular defect, and HF. It was decided to implant a cardioverter-defibrillator as primary prevention of sudden death and start the pre-cardiac transplant evaluation and subsequent inclusion in the waiting list on an elective basis. While waiting for the transplant, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation (CPR) was indicated. After 15 months of CPR, the patient improved his left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF; 20% to 40%), systolic pulmonary artery pressure (55 to 40 mmHg), and peak oxygen uptake (23.9 to 29.1 ml/kg/min). In this patient, a program of CPR improved cardiac function and physical capacity, allowing him to be removed from the national waiting list for a heart transplant.

[Postpartum pulmonary hypertension]. / Hipertensión pulmonar postparto.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) in pregnancy is a rare disorder that carries a high risk to mother and child, and as such, it is considered a contraindication to becoming pregnant. However, there are few published reports related to the diagnosis of this condition after delivery. We describe three PH cases diagnosed after their normal pregnancies and deliveries. Although the causes are unknown, several mechanisms such as hypercoagulation, placental hypoxia or amniotic fluid embolism have been considered as possible causes. It is difficult to define whether a PH diagnosed in the postpartum period, relates to an earlier asymptomatic PH period that was triggered by the physiological stress of labor or if it is a recently acquired condition. Despite the lack of data to support the absence of PH previous to pregnancy in our three patients, lack of events during this period, asymptomatic and normal deliveries, lead us to believe that they did not suffer this disease prior to pregnancy; considering that high hemodynamic demands impair a ventricle with little reserve, and its subsequent appearance at time of delivery.

Hipertensión pulmonar postparto / Postpartum pulmonary hypertension

La presencia de hipertensión pulmonar (HP) en el embarazo es poco frecuente y conlleva un alto riesgo para madres e hijos. Existe escasa bibliografía relacionada al diagnóstico de la misma luego del parto. Se describen tres pacientes a quienes se diagnostica HP luego de cursar sus embarazos y partos libres de eventos. A pesar de desconocerse las causas, son varios los mecanismos propuestos, como la hipercoagulabilidad, la hipoxia placentaria o la embolia de líquido amniótico. Resulta difícil definir si la HP diagnosticada en el puerperio, corresponde a una HP en período asintomático que fue desenmascarada por el estrés fisiológico del parto o es una condición de reciente comienzo. A pesar de la falta de datos que avalen la ausencia de HP previa al embarazo en nuestras tres casos, el curso libre de eventos en sus embarazos, sin síntomas y con partos normales, indican que no padecían esta enfermedad hasta el momento del parto, y que la desarrollaron posteriormente. De haberla padecido antes se hubieran presentado síntomas previos al parto o en el puerperio inmediato, ya que las demandas hemodinámicas deterioran gravemente a un ventrículo con poca reserva.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) in pregnancy is a rare disorder that carries a high risk to mother and child, and as such, it is considered a contraindication to becoming pregnant. However, there are few published reports related to the diagnosis of this condition after delivery. We describe three PH cases diagnosed after their normal pregnancies and deliveries. Although the causes are unknown, several mechanisms such as hypercoagulation, placental hypoxia or amniotic fluid embolism have been considered as possible causes. It is difficult to define whether a PH diagnosed in the postpartum period, relates to an earlier asymptomatic PH period that was triggered by the physiological stress of labor or if it is a recently acquired condition. Despite the lack of data to support the absence of PH previous to pregnancy in our three patients, lack of events during this period, asymptomatic and normal deliveries, lead us to believe that they did not suffer this disease prior to pregnancy; considering that high hemodynamic demands impair a ventricle with little reserve, and its subsequent appearance at time of delivery.

Hipertensión pulmonar postparto

La presencia de hipertensión pulmonar (HP) en el embarazo es poco frecuente y conlleva un alto riesgo para madres e hijos. Existe escasa bibliografía relacionada al diagnóstico de la misma luego del parto. Se describen tres pacientes a quienes se diagnostica HP luego de cursar sus embarazos y partos libres de eventos. A pesar de desconocerse las causas, son varios los mecanismos propuestos, como la hipercoagulabilidad, la hipoxia placentaria o la embolia de líquido amniótico. Resulta difícil definir si la HP diagnosticada en el puerperio, corresponde a una HP en período asintomático que fue desenmascarada por el estrés fisiológico del parto o es una condición de reciente comienzo. A pesar de la falta de datos que avalen la ausencia de HP previa al embarazo en nuestras tres casos, el curso libre de eventos en sus embarazos, sin síntomas y con partos normales, indican que no padecían esta enfermedad hasta el momento del parto, y que la desarrollaron posteriormente. De haberla padecido antes se hubieran presentado síntomas previos al parto o en el puerperio inmediato, ya que las demandas hemodinámicas deterioran gravemente a un ventrículo con poca reserva.(AU)

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) in pregnancy is a rare disorder that carries a high risk to mother and child, and as such, it is considered a contraindication to becoming pregnant. However, there are few published reports related to the diagnosis of this condition after delivery. We describe three PH cases diagnosed after their normal pregnancies and deliveries. Although the causes are unknown, several mechanisms such as hypercoagulation, placental hypoxia or amniotic fluid embolism have been considered as possible causes. It is difficult to define whether a PH diagnosed in the postpartum period, relates to an earlier asymptomatic PH period that was triggered by the physiological stress of labor or if it is a recently acquired condition. Despite the lack of data to support the absence of PH previous to pregnancy in our three patients, lack of events during this period, asymptomatic and normal deliveries, lead us to believe that they did not suffer this disease prior to pregnancy; considering that high hemodynamic demands impair a ventricle with little reserve, and its subsequent appearance at time of delivery.(AU)

Hipertensión pulmonar postparto. / [Postpartum pulmonary hypertension].

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) in pregnancy is a rare disorder that carries a high risk to mother and child, and as such, it is considered a contraindication to becoming pregnant. However, there are few published reports related to the diagnosis of this condition after delivery. We describe three PH cases diagnosed after their normal pregnancies and deliveries. Although the causes are unknown, several mechanisms such as hypercoagulation, placental hypoxia or amniotic fluid embolism have been considered as possible causes. It is difficult to define whether a PH diagnosed in the postpartum period, relates to an earlier asymptomatic PH period that was triggered by the physiological stress of labor or if it is a recently acquired condition. Despite the lack of data to support the absence of PH previous to pregnancy in our three patients, lack of events during this period, asymptomatic and normal deliveries, lead us to believe that they did not suffer this disease prior to pregnancy; considering that high hemodynamic demands impair a ventricle with little reserve, and its subsequent appearance at time of delivery.