Heart failure reviews
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Heart failure reviews · Jul 2015
ReviewReporting of patient-centred outcomes in heart failure trials: are patient preferences being ignored?
Older people often suffer from multiple diseases. Therefore, universal cross-disease outcomes (e.g. functional status, quality of life, overall survival) are more relevant than disease-specific outcomes, and a range of potential outcomes are needed for medical decision-making. To assess how patient-relevant outcomes have penetrated randomized controlled trials (RCTs), reporting of these outcomes was reviewed in heart failure trials that included patients with multimorbidity. ⋯ This review shows increasing attention for more patient-relevant outcomes; this is promising and indicates more awareness of the importance of a variety of outcomes desirable for patients. However, patients' individual goal attainments were universally absent. For continued progress in patient-centred care, efforts are needed to develop these outcomes, study their merits and pitfalls, and intensify their use in research.
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Heart failure reviews · Nov 2014
ReviewMyocyte renewal and therapeutic myocardial regeneration using various progenitor cells.
Whereas the demand on effective treatment options for chronic heart failure is dramatically increasing, the recent recognition of physiological and pathological myocyte turnover in the adult human heart provided a fundamental basis for the therapeutic regeneration. Divergent modalities were experimentally introduced to this field, and selected ones have been applied clinically; the history began with skeletal myoblasts and bone-marrow-derived cells, and lately mesenchymal stem/stromal cells and resident cardiac cells joined the repertoire. ⋯ To further optimize currently available approaches, we have to consider multiple factors, such as the targeting disease, the cell population and number to be administered, and the timing and the route of cell delivery. Exploration of the consequence of the previous clinical trials would allow us to envision an ideal cellular therapy for various cardiovascular disorders.
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Heart failure reviews · Nov 2014
ReviewExtra-corporeal membrane oxygenation for the post-cardiotomy patient.
Extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation remains the last resort in keeping patients alive in those with profound cardiogenic shock following percutaneous interventions or open surgery on the heart. No guidelines exist on the management of patients on such a device despite a high mortality. We attempt to highlight some universal principles that would be relevant to the current practice of those exposed to this challenging field.
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A counterintuitive phenomenon of survival advantage in obese patients with heart failure (HF) is called obesity paradox. In this review, we emphasize that in nearly all research papers on this subject, there were marked differences between the groups with different body mass index (BMI). Surprisingly, these differences are very consistent and mostly in favor of patients with higher BMI. ⋯ None of the studies confirming the obesity paradox were designed as prospective studies with the purpose to find the effects of BMI on survival. All the studies represent post hoc analysis of clinical trials designed for different purposes, or retrospective studies, or analysis of registries. Multiple baseline differences of subgroups with different BMI likely contribute to the obesity paradox, because not all variables influencing the outcomes can be accounted for.
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Heart failure reviews · Aug 2014
ReviewIncremental value of natriuretic peptide measurement in acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF): a systematic review.
The aim of this systematic review was to determine whether B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal proBNP (NT-proBNP) independently add incremental value for predicting mortality and morbidity in patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). Medline(®), Embase™, AMED, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and CINAHL were searched from 1989 to June 2012. We also searched reference lists of included articles, systematic reviews, and the gray literature. ⋯ Three studies used reclassification and model validation computations to establish incremental value; these studies showed less consistency with respect to added value. In conclusion, the literature assessing incremental value of BNP/NT-proBNP in ADHF populations is limited to seven studies evaluating only mortality outcomes and at moderate risk of bias. Although there were differences in the base risk prediction models, assay cutpoints, and lengths of follow-up, there was consistency in BNP/NT-proBNP adding incremental value in prediction models in ADHF patients.