Etiological diagnosis, prognostic significance and role of electrophysiological study in patients with Brugada ECG and syncope.

BACKGROUND: Syncope is considered a risk factor for life-threatening arrhythmias in Brugada patients. Distinguishing a benign syncope from one due to ventricular arrhythmias is often difficult, unless an ECG is recorded during the episode. Aim of the study was to analyze the characteristics of syncopal episodes in a large population of Brugada patients and evaluate the role of electrophysiological study (EPS) and the prognosis in the different subgroups. METHODS AND RESULTS: One hundred ninety-five Brugada patients with history of syncope were considered. Syncope were classified as neurally mediated (group 1, 61%) or unexplained (group 2, 39%) on the basis of personal and family history, clinical features, triggers, situations, associated signs, concomitant therapy. Most patients underwent EPS; they received ICD or implantable loop-recorder on the basis of the result of investigations and physician's judgment. At 62±45months of mean follow-up, group 1 showed a significantly lower incidence of arrhythmic events (2%) as compared to group 2 (9%, p<0.001). Group 2 patients with positive EPS showed the highest risk of arrhythmic events (27%). No ventricular events occurred in subjects with negative EPS. CONCLUSION: Etiological definition of syncope in Brugada patients is important, as it allows identifying two groups with different outcome. Patients with unexplained syncope and ventricular fibrillation induced at EPS have the highest risk of arrhythmic events. Patients presenting with neurally mediated syncope showed a prognosis similar to that of the asymptomatic and the role of EPS in this group is unproven

2022: the year in cardiovascular disease - the year of upfront lipid lowering combination therapy

Recent data clearly show that we are extremely ineffective in the use of lipid-lowering therapy (LLT). Furthermore, the problem seems to be the most serious in the group of patients at very high and extremely high-risk – the patients who stand to benefit most from effective therapy

Left atrial function after atrial fibrillation cryoablation concomitant to minimally invasive mitral valve repair: A pilot study on long-term results and clinical implications

Background and Objectives: Surgical atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation concomitant to minimally invasive mitral valve repair has been proven to offer improved short- and long-term sinus rhythm (SR) maintenance compared to mitral valve surgery only. The objective of the present study was to explore, by thorough echocardiographic assessment, long-term morphological and functional left atrial (LA) outcomes after this combined surgical procedure. Materials and Methods: From October 2006 to November 2015, 48 patients underwent minimally invasive mitral valve repair and concomitant surgical AF cryoablation. Results: After 3.8 &plusmn; 2.2 years, 30 (71.4%) of those completing the follow-up (n = 42, 87.5%) presented SR. During follow-up, four (9.5%) patients suffered from cerebrovascular accidents and two of these subjects had a long-standing persistent AF relapse and were in AF at the time of the event, while the other two were in SR. An echocardiographic study focused on LA characteristics was performed in 29 patients (69.0%). Atrial morphology and function (e.g., maximal LA volume indexed to body surface area and total LA emptying fraction derived from volumes) in patients with stable SR (60.6 &plusmn; 13.1 mL/mq and 25.1 &plusmn; 7.3%) were significantly better than in those with AF relapses (76.8 &plusmn; 16.2 mL/mq and 17.5 &plusmn; 7.4%; respectively, p = 0.008 and p = 0.015). At follow-up, patients who suffered from ischemic cerebral events had maximal LA volume indexed to body surface area 61 &plusmn; 17.8 mL/mq, with total LA emptying fraction derived from volumes 23.6 &plusmn; 13.7%; patients with strokes in SR showed very enlarged LA volume (&gt;70 mL/mq). Conclusions: AF cryoablation concomitant with minimally invasive mitral valve repair provides a high rate of SR maintenance and this relates to improved long-term morphological and functional LA outcomes. Further prospective studies are needed to define the cut-off values determining an increase in the risk for thromboembolic complications in patients with restored stable SR

Use and misuse of multivariable approaches in interventional cardiology studies on drug-eluting stents: a systematic review.

Aims: Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are the most reliable evidence, even if they require important resource and logistic efforts. Large, cost-free and real-world datasets may be easily accessed yielding to observational studies, but such analyses often lead to problematic results in the absence of careful methods, especially from a statistic point of view. We aimed to appraise the performance of current multivariable approaches in the estimation of causal treatment and effects in studies focusing on drug-eluting stents (DES). Methods and Results: Pertinent studies published in the literature were searched, selected, abstracted, and appraised for quality and validity features. Six studies with a logistic regression were included, all of them reporting more than 10 events for covariates and different length of follow-up, with an overall low risk of bias. Most of the 15 studies with a Cox proportional hazard analysis had a different follow-up, with less than 10 events for covariates, yielding an overall low or moderate risk of bias. Sixteen studies with propensity score were included: the most frequent method for variable selection was logistic regression, with underlying differences in follow-up and less than 10 events for covariate in most of them. Most frequently, calibration appraisal was not reported in the studies, on the contrary of discrimination appraisal, which was more frequently performed. In seventeen studies with propensity and matching, the latter was most commonly performed with a nearest neighbor-matching algorithm yet without appraisal in most of the studies of calibration or discrimination. Balance was evaluated in 46% of the studies, being obtained for all variables in 48% of them. Conclusions: Better exploitation and methodological appraisal of multivariable analysis is needed to improve the clinical and research impact and reliability of nonrandomized studies. (J Interven Cardiol 2012;**:1-1