Contemporary choice of glucose lowering agents in heart failure patients with type 2 diabetes.

Background: The choice of glucose lowering agent in heart failure (HF)-patients can have a strong effect on HF-related adverse events, with some classes increasing and other classes reducing the risk. Little data is available about the choice of glucose lowering agents in HF-patients with type-2-diabetes.Methods: We performed a cross-sectional single centre point analysis of all patients with both a diagnoses of HF and type-2-diabetes followed in a tertiary HF-clinic. Medical records were used to determine the choice of current glucose lowering agent. Data at the time of cross-sectional analysis was used to determine potential eligibility to a sodium-glucose-linked-transporter-2-inhibitor (SGLT2-inhibitor) based on the enrolment criteria of the EMPAREG-OUTCOME-trial.Results: A total of 571 HF-patients with diabetes were assessed on June the first 2017. The majority of patients were either managed with one or two glucose lowering agents (43% respectively 34%), with metformin (N = 391;61%), Insulin (N = 278;49%) and sulfonylurea (N = 259;45%) being the most frequently employed treatments. SGLT2-inhibitor use was low (N = 7;1%). According to trial criteria 184 patients (32%) qualified for an SGLT2-inhibitor. With main reasons for ineligibility being a HbA1C < 7% (N = 324) or a glomerular-filtration-rate <30 ml/min (N = 154; of whom 101 patients overlapped with HbA1C < 7%). However 54% of patients with a HbA1C < 7% were treated with ≥2 glucose lowering agents from a class other than SGLT-2-inhibiton.Conclusion: Despite potential eligibility, SGLT2-inhibition remains an underused glucose lowering agent in this contemporary HF-population. Additional research is necessary on optimising its implementation in clinical practice, which might include switching glucose lowering therapies in patients at HbA1C-target.

Indications and diagnostic yield of endomyocardial biopsies for unexplained cardiomyopathy, a single center experience.

Background: Endomyocardial biopsies (EMBs) remain the golden standard to diagnose underlying pathophysiologic process in heart failure (HF), when potential therapeutic decisions cannot be made by non-invasive techniques. However, changes in the field of non-invasive diagnostic testing might have an impact on the need for performing an EMB in certain scenarios.Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of consecutive EMBs performed in a single, non-academic, tertiary-care centre. EMBs were performed between February 2009 and March 2018. Baseline characteristics including non-invasive imaging and hemodynamic profile were assessed. Indications of EMBs were analysed in accordance with the 2007-AHA/ACC/ESC-scientific statement on EMBs.Results: A total of 57 patients (74% male) were included. The overall diagnostic yield was 58%, with a trend towards a higher yield in left-side (64%) versus right-side EMBs (45%; p = .346). The majority of patients (88%) underwent EMBs for a class IIa-recommendation, 9% for a class-I recommendation and the remaining patients for a class IIb-indication. Of the EMBs for a class IIa indication, 82% (n = 47) was for an unexplained restrictive cardiomyopathy, in which 53% (n = 25) revealed a diagnosis (of whom n = 23 patients had amyloidosis). Subtyping of the EMBs with a pathologic diagnosis of amyloidosis revealed that 52% (n = 12) had transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR) and 43% (n = 10) had light-chain amyloidosis (AL). Overall one major (1.7%) and one minor (1.7%) complication occurred following the EMB-procedure.Conclusions: When following the AHA/ACC/ESC-scientific statement on EMBs, the performance of EMBs had a high diagnostic yield, with acceptable complication rates. However, in patients presenting with an unexplained restricted cardiomyopathy, technetium-labelled bone scanning could offer a non-invasive approach to establishing the diagnosis of ATTR, mitigating the need for EMBs in a subset of patients.