Cardiac failure review
-
Cardiac failure review · Mar 2020
ReviewCardiovascular Clinical Trials in a Pandemic: Immediate Implications of Coronavirus Disease 2019.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic started in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019, and by 24 April 2020, it had affected >2.73 million people in 185 countries and caused >192,000 deaths. Despite diverse societal measures to reduce transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, such as implementing social distancing, quarantine, curfews and total lockdowns, its control remains challenging. ⋯ Nevertheless, new or ongoing clinical trials, not related to the disease itself, remain important for the development of new therapies, and require interactions among patients, clinicians and research personnel, which is challenging, given isolation measures. In this article, the authors summarise the acute effects and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on current cardiovascular trials.
-
Cardiac failure review · Mar 2020
ReviewCardiac Transthyretin-derived Amyloidosis: An Emerging Target in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction?
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) comprises half of the heart failure population. A specific, but underdiagnosed, cause for HFpEF is transthyretin-derived (ATTR) amyloidosis. This article reviews the clinical characteristics of cardiac ATTR amyloidosis. ⋯ Scintigraphy with a diphosphonate tracer is a diagnostic tool for the early detection of cardiac ATTR amyloidosis with high sensitivity and specificity. First treatment options for ATTR amyloidosis recently emerged, and showed a reduction in morbidity and mortality, especially if treatment was started in the early stages of disease. In light of these results, screening for ATTR amyloidosis in the general HFpEF population with left ventricular hypertrophy might be useful.