Ion channel dysfunction and fibrosis in atrial fibrillation: Two sides of the same coin.

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common heart rhythm disorder that is associated with an increased risk of stroke and heart failure (HF). Initially, an association between AF and ion channel dysfunction was identified, classifying the pathology as a predominantly electrical disease. More recently it has been recognized that fibrosis and structural atrial remodeling play a driving role in the development of this arrhythmia also in these cases. PURPOSE: Understanding the role of fibrosis in genetic determined AF could be important to better comprise the pathophysiology of this arrhythmia and to refine its management also in nongenetic forms. In this review we analyze genetic and epigenetic mechanisms responsible for AF and their link with atrial fibrosis, then we will consider analogies with the pathophysiological mechanism in nongenetic AF, and discuss consequent therapeutic options.

ICD early after myocardial infarction: it is really necessary to wait 40 days before implantation?

ESC Guidelines don't recommend ICD implantation within 40 days after MI, on the basis of old evidence with several limitations. However, a significant number of patients remain at high risk of arrhythmic death also in the early period after ACS, in these patients early ICD implantation or LifeVest may be use with benefit on survival.

Telemedicine for the treatment of heart failure: new opportunities after COVID-19.

ABSTRACT: During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the epidemiology of heart failure significantly changed with reduced access to health system resources and a worsening of patients' outcome. Understanding the causes of these phenomena could be important to refine the management of heart failure during and after the pandemic. Telemedicine was associated with an improvement in heart failure outcomes in several studies; therefore, it may help in refining the out-of-hospital care of heart failure. In this review, the authors describe the changes in heart failure epidemiology during the COVID-19 pandemic; analyse available evidence on use and benefit of telemedicine during the pandemic and prepandemic periods; and discuss approaches to optimize the home-based or outpatient heart failure management in the future, beyond the pandemic.

Left ventricular wall thickness and severity of cardiac disease in women and men with transthyretin amyloidosis.

AIMS: Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is due to a deposition of amyloid fibrils in the heart causing an increase in wall thickness. A left ventricular (LV) wall thickness ≥12 mm plus at least one red flag should raise the suspicion of CA. As normal values of LV wall thickness are lower in women, the adoption or the same cut-off values for men and women could lead to underdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis in women. We investigated the relationship between LV wall thickness and the severity of cardiac involvement in women and men with transthyretin (ATTR) CA. METHODS AND RESULTS: We evaluated 330 consecutive patients diagnosed with ATTR-CA at three centres (Pisa, n = 232; Brescia, n = 69; Trieste, n = 29). Interventricular septum (IVS) and posterior wall (PW) thickness values were lower in women (n = 53, 16%) than men, but most differences were abolished when indexing by body surface area (BSA), height, or height2.7 , suggesting similar disease severity when accounting for the smaller body size of women. PW thickness indexed for height2.7 was even higher in women. We also searched for correlations between IVS and PW thickness and other indicators of the severity of cardiac disease. IVS values indexed by height2.7 displayed tighter associations with N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide values than non-indexed IVS values. Similarly, indexed values displayed closer relationships with relative wall thickness, E/e' ratio, and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion. CONCLUSIONS: Indexed LV wall thickness values, particularly by height2.7 , reflect more accurately the severity of cardiac involvement than non-indexed values.

Value of the HFA-PEFF and H2 FPEF scores in patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction caused by cardiac amyloidosis.

AIMS: The HFA-PEFF and H2 FPEF scores have been developed to diagnose heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), and hold prognostic value. Their value in patients with HFpEF caused by cardiac amyloidosis (CA) has never been investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS: We evaluated the diagnostic and prognostic value of the HFA-PEFF and H2 FPEF scores in 304 patients from three cohorts with HFpEF caused by transthyretin CA (n = 160, 53%) or immunoglobulin light-chain CA (n = 144, 47%). A diagnosis of HFpEF was more likely using the HFA-PEFF score with 2 (1%), 71 (23%), and 231 (76%) patients ranked as having a low (0-1), intermediate (2-4), or high (5, 6) probability of HFpEF, respectively. Conversely, 36 (12%), 179 (59%) and 89 (29%) of patients ranked as having a low (0-1), intermediate (2-5), or high (6-9) probability of HFpEF using the H2 FPEF score. During a median follow-up of 19 months (interquartile range 8-40), 132 (43%) patients died. The HFA-PEFF score, but not the H2 FPEF score, predicted a high risk of all-cause death which remained significant after adjustment for age, AL-CA diagnosis, high-sensitivity troponin T, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, and echocardiographic parameters, including left ventricular global longitudinal strain, left ventricular diastolic function and right ventricular function (hazard ratio 1.51, 95% confidence interval 1.16-1.95, p = 0.002 for every 1-point increase in HFA-PEFF). CONCLUSIONS: The HFA-PEFF score has a higher diagnostic utility in HFpEF caused by CA and holds independent prognostic value for all-cause mortality, while the H2 FPEF score does not.