Abnormal liver function tests (LFTs) are known to be associated with impaired clinical outcomes in heart failure (HF) patients. However, this implication varies with each single LFT panel. We aim to evaluate the long-term outcomes of acute HF (AHF) p...
Background: The 6-Min Walking Test (6MWT) has been proposed to assess functional aerobic capacity in patients with heart failure, but many older adults with heart failure cannot complete it. The adequacy of the 5-repetition Sit-To-Stand (5-STS), a si...
Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can cause persistent cardiovascular alterations, including autonomic dysfunction. Heart rate (HR) recovery (HRR) after exercise is a simple marker of autonomic modulation associated with functional ca...
29 November 2019
Chronic-phase worsening renal function (WRF) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has been associated with poor prognosis. However, there is no consensus on either the method of prevention or the cause. The aim of this study was to dete...
It is a challenge to manage and assess heart failure with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (HFpEF) patients. Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) is used in this clinical population as a functional test. The objective of the study was to assess ga...
Background and Objectives: Analyzing the cardiac autonomic function in COVID-19 patients can provide insights into the impact of the virus on the heart’s regulatory mechanisms and its recovery. The autonomic nervous system plays a crucial role...
Heart failure is a clinical syndrome with significant heterogeneity in presentation and severity. Serial risk-stratification and prognostication can guide management decisions, particularly in advanced heart failure, when progression toward advanced...
This study aimed to investigate the relationship between pulmonary function and cardiac autonomic function parameters in clinically stable myasthenia gravis (MG) patients. A total of 22 MG patients and 22 healthy controls (HCs) were evaluated. Pulmon...
The soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) is a marker of tissue iron status, which could indicate an increased iron demand at the tissue level. The impact of sTfR levels on functional capacity and quality of life (QoL) in non-anemic heart failure (HF)...
Background: Heart rate recovery (HRR) is a marker of vagal tone, which is a powerful predictor of mortality in patients with cardiovascular disease. Sacubitril/valsartan (S/V) is a treatment for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), w...
About 15% of congenital heart disease (CHD) patients have a known pathogenic copy number variant. The majority of their chromosomal microarray (CMA) tests are deemed normal. Diagnostic interpretation typically ignores microdeletions smaller than 100...
Background: There have been several pathologic data that support an association between postural instability (PI) and autonomic dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease (PD). The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation of PI and auto...
12 May 2022
Objective: To propose and evaluate an adapted NYHA classification for children with congenital heart disease (CHD) as a feasible clinical tool for classifying patients’ fitness, cardiorespiratory efficiency and functional limitations during the...
Background: In patients with prior Takotsubo syndrome (TTS), long-lasting functional cardiac limitations were described as compared with normal subjects. Emotion-triggered Takotsubo syndrome (E-TTS) has more favorable outcomes than TTS preceded by a...
Background: It has been recently reported that liver stiffness assessed by transient elastography reflects right atrial pressure (RAP) and is associated with worse outcomes in patients with heart failure (HF). However, the relationship between shear...
Tidal volume (TV), defined as the amount of air that moves in or out of the lungs with each respiratory cycle, is important in evaluating the respiratory function. Although TV can be reliably measured in laboratory settings, this information is hardl...
28 July 2022
The assessment of functional abilities reflects the ability to perform everyday life activities that require specific endurance and physical fitness. The Fullerton functional fitness test (FFFT) seems to be the most appropriate for assessing physical...
Exercise stress testing (EST) is commonly used to evaluate chest pain, with some labs using 85% of age-predicted maximum heart rate (APMHR) as an endpoint for EST. The APMHR is often calculated using the formula 220-age. However, the accuracy of this...
Background: Reduced cardiorespiratory fitness along with poor exercise tolerance are regarded as potential morbidity and mortality predictors within the heart failure (HF) population. Despite the reliability and accuracy of the gold-standard cardiopu...
For the past 40 years, the methodology for stress echocardiography (SE) has remained basically unchanged. It is based on two-dimensional, black and white imaging, and is used to detect regional wall motion abnormalities (RWMA) in patients with known...
Introduction: Post-Coronavirus disease 2019 (Post-COVID-19) syndrome has neurological symptoms related to the dysfunction of the autonomous nerve system. However, a pathogenic relationship between post-COVID-19 syndrome and dysautonomia still remains...
Background: Chest pain is a prevalent and critical complaint among patients in emergency departments (EDs) across the United States. Professional societies have refined clinical guidelines to establish the most effective diagnostic pathways for ident...
Introduction: Heart failure (HF) remains a leading cause of morbidity and hospitalization among elderly patients. Therefore, identifying reliable prognostic indicators is crucial for improving clinical outcomes in this population. The aim of this stu...
Background: Enkephalins are endogenous opioid peptides that modulate cardiovascular and renal function and are overexpressed in patients with acute heart failure (AHF). Although biologically active enkephalins lack a favorable biomarker profile, thei...
Background: Many COVID-19 survivors still experience long-term effects of an acute infection, most often characterised by neurological, cognitive and psychiatric sequelae. The treatment of this condition is challenging, and many hypotheses have been...
Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are major contributors to global morbidity and mortality, and their association with cognitive impairment has gained increasing attention. Recent studies indicate that the prevalence of post-myocardial infarc...
Background: SGLT2 inhibitors are key therapies in heart failure (HF), but their combined multidomain effects have not been analyzed together. Methods: We conducted a PROSPERO-registered (CRD420251235850) systematic review and meta-analysis of all ran...
Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is released during tissue injury and systemic inflammation, but its association with postoperative organ injury following pediatric cardiac surgery remains incompletely defined. We evaluated the relationship between...
Background/Objectives: Acute heart failure (AHF) is the leading cause of hospitalization among patients over 65 years and is frequently associated with frailty. Sodium-glucose cotransporter type 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) currently represent the only drug...
16 June 2020
The current evidence for a relation between children’s heart rate measures and their academic performance and executive functioning is infancy. Despite several studies observing dose-response effects of physical activity on academic performance...
Right heart catheterization remains necessary for the diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension and, therefore, for the prognostic evaluation of patients with chronic heart failure. The non-invaSive Assessment of Pulmonary vasculoPathy in Heart failure (SA...
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) may play a role in the distribution of body fat and the development of obesity and its complications. Features of individuals with Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) impacted by PWS molecular genetic classes suggest...
In this paper, a new approach for the periodical testing and the functionality evaluation of a fetal heart rate monitor device based on ultrasound principle is proposed. The design and realization of the device are presented, together with the descri...
Reperfusion is the only feasible therapy following myocardial infarction, but reperfusion has been shown to damage mitochondrial function and disrupt energy production in the heart. Adenine nucleotide translocase 1 (ANT1) facilitates the transfer of...
Congestive heart failure is a fatal cardiovascular disease resulting in tissue necrosis and loss of cardiac contractile function. Inotropic drugs such as milrinone are commonly used to improve the myocardial contractility and heart function. However,...
Multicenter trials have demonstrated that in patients with sinus rhythm ivabradine is effective in the therapy of ischemic heart disease and of impaired left ventricular systolic function. Ivabradine is ineffective in atrial fibrillation. Many patien...
Background/Objectives: Adolescents with autonomic disorders who attend Intensive Interdisciplinary Pain Treatment (IIPT) programs report improvements in functioning. However, it is unclear whether they experience corresponding improvements in physiol...
Background: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women worldwide. The treatments may also cause neuromuscular and skeletal disorders; therefore, the aim of this study was to verify the existence of a relationship between heart rate varia...
The growing possibilities of non-invasive heart rate and blood pressure measurement with mobile devices allow vital data to be continuously collected and used to assess patients’ health status. When it comes to the risk assessment of abdominal...
The utility of physical exercise in congestive heart failure is not yet well known in the field of veterinary cardiology, despite many studies already published, unlike in human medicine where the benefits and safety of exercise training have been wi...
Objectives: Connective tissue dysplasia (CTD) is associated with disorders of collagen synthesis and is widely spread among the healthy population and people with disabilities. In the heart, primarily in the left ventricle (LV), CTD manifests itself...
Coronary heart disease is one of the most extreme and leading causes of death globally. Heart disease’s correct and timely prognosis is crucial to prevent further morbidity and mortality. In recent years, the appearance of present-day healthcar...
The heart is the first functional organ to form during vertebrate development. Congenital heart defects are the most common type of human birth defect, many originating as anomalies in early heart development. The zebrafish model provides an accessib...
Background: The Fontan procedure has provided pediatric patients suffering from severe congenital heart disease the opportunity to reach adulthood. Increasingly, we encounter the liver repercussions of Fontan circulation, alongside a decline in heart...
The effects of resveratrol (RES) in heart failure have already been evaluated in animal models; however, in human clinical trials, they have not been confirmed yet. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of resveratrol treatment in systolic...
(1) Background: Heart failure is a complex disease leading to functional disability. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is the gold standard in assessing aerobic capacity and formulating function-based prognostic stratification; however, patient...
Assess and restore programs such as Humber’s Elderly Assess and Restore Team (HEART) provide short-term restorative care to prevent functional decline in hospitalized older adults. The aim of this retrospective observational study was to determ...
Introduction: Optimization of guideline-directed medical therapy in chronic heart failure remains challenging in real-world practice, particularly outside settings with routine cardiopulmonary exercise testing. In this context, cardiovascular rehabil...
Interleukin-1β converting enzyme (ICE, caspase-1) is a thiol protease that cleaves the pro-inflammatory cytokine precursors of IL-1β and IL-18 into active forms. Given the association between caspase-1 and cardiovascular pathology, we analy...
Heart transplantation is the gold-standard treatment for terminal heart failure. Despite being successful, pre- and post-transplant limitations interfere with patients’ functional capacity, self-care, and quality of life post-surgery. Rehabilit...
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