Cardiopulmonary exercise testing for cardiovascular risk assessment in patients undergoing gastric and oesophageal cancer surgery: results from a prospective interventional cohort study.

BACKGROUND Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) has shown to be useful for preoperative risk stratification in various types of intra-abdominal and thoracic surgery. However, data about the predictive value of CPET for cardiovascular outcome after gastric or oesophageal cancer surgery are inconclusive. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of CPET parameters for the prediction of cardiovascular complications in patients with this type of surgery. METHODS This is a prospective single-centre interventional cohort study including 200 consecutive patients who underwent elective surgery for oesophageal and/or gastric cancer. Symptom-limited CPET was performed preoperatively to evaluate the potential of various test-derived parameters including anaerobic threshold (AT) to predict cardiovascular complications within 30 days after surgery. RESULTS 200 patients (mean age 68±14.2 years) met inclusion and exclusion criteria: oesophageal surgery 54 pts, gastric surgery 132 pts and combined oesophageal/gastric surgery 14 pts. 41/200 pts (20.5%) experienced cardiovascular complications during and within 30 days after surgery including 4 non-fatal myocardial infarctions (2%), 1 stroke (0.5%); 6 dead from cardiovascular causes (3%) and less serious complications in 30 patients (15%) including angina attacks and antiarrhythmic therapy for ventricular arrhythmias or for atrial fibrillation/flutter. Results from preoperative CPET indicate that an AT level below 11 mL/kg/min was highly predictive for any cardiovascular complication (p=0.02, OR 6.33, 95% CI 1.78 to 22.47). An AT level <9.5 had the best predictive accuracy for major perioperative cardiac complications (sensitivity 93%, specificity 68%, positive predicative value 75%, negative predicative value 98.8%). CONCLUSION CPET is a useful perioperative risk assessment tool for patients undergoing surgery for oesophageal and gastric cancer, which carries a particularly high risk for cardiovascular complications. An AT <9.5 mL/kg/min turned out to be the most reliable predictor for major cardiovascular complications

In-hospital electrical muscle stimulation for patients early after heart failure decompensation: results from a prospective randomised controlled pilot trial.

BACKGROUND Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) is being evaluated as a possible alternative to exercise training to improve functional capacity in severely deconditioned patients with heart failure (HF). However, there is insufficient data on delayed effects of EMS starting early after decompensation. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of a short inpatient EMS intervention in severely deconditioned patients with HF on functional capacity and quality of life (QoL) over a follow-up period of 1 month. METHODS This is a prospective randomised sham-controlled pilot study. 45 patients hospitalised for decompensated systolic HF (58% men, mean age 66.4±10.2 years) were randomised to EMS (n=22) or sham stimulation (n=23) of lower limbs starting within 3 days after admission. The intervention included 7-10 sessions lasting from 30 to 90 min. The 6-minute walking test distance (6-MWTD), Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) and Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) were evaluated at baseline, discharge and after 1 month. RESULTS All patients completed the programme with good EMS tolerance. 37 patients were included in the final analysis. At discharge, 6-MWTD improved from 206,1±61,3 to 299.5±91 m, DASI from 12.1±5.6 to 18.3±7.2 and MLHFQ from 55.6±8.5 to 34.2±9 with EMS compared with smaller improvements in the sham group (p<0.05 for all). One month after discharge, improvements in the EMS group remained significant for MLHFQ (p=0.004) and DASI (p=0.042) and statistically non-significant for 6-MWTD compared with the sham group. CONCLUSIONS Short-term in-hospital EMS leads to improvements in functional capacity and QoL in selected patients early after HF decompensation that are retained over 1 month after discharge and therefore may serve as initial intervention to improve physical capacity or as a bridge to further conventional exercise training. Larger studies are required to evaluate individual responses to an early initiation of EMS in decompensated HF as well as long-term effects

Exudative pericarditis with tamponade after COVID-19. Case report

A description of a COVID-19 patient with the development of exudative pericarditis complicated by cardiac tamponade is provid. A peculiarity of this case is the presence of an underlying disease in the patient (chronic lymphocytic leukemia), which was in remission for 1.5 years after chemotherapy. Another feature of the patient was the relatively small area of lung damage and the hemorrhagic nature of the pericardial effusion, which persisted for a long time. The insignificant activity of inflammatory markers was noteworthy. Possible mechanisms of development and features of the course of exudative pericarditis in the described patient, issues of diagnosis and treatment of this category of patients are discusse

Real-world experience of feasibility and efficacy of electrical muscle stimulation in elderly patients with acute heart failure: A randomized controlled study.

BACKGROUND Reduced aerobic capacity and deconditioning contributes to morbidity and mortality in elderly acute heart failure (AHF) patients. Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) has shown to be a suitable alternative to exercise in AHF. However, feasibility and efficacy are unknown in a real-world setting. METHODS This is a prospective, open label blinded, randomized, controlled study, investigating feasibility and efficacy of high-intensity versus low-intensity EMS versus controls in elderly AHF patients. Patients and investigators were blinded to the intervention. EMS was offered to >60 years old AHF patients, initiated during hospitalization and continued at home. Outcome measures included changes in 6-min walk distance (6-MWTD), functional capacity and quality-of-life at 3 and 6 weeks. RESULTS Among 97 consecutive AHF patients (78.1 ± 9.4 years, 42.3% females), 60 (61.9%) were eligible for EMS. Of these, 27 provided written informed consent and were randomly assigned to high-intensity (n = 10), low-intensity EMS (n = 9) and controls (n = 8). 13/27 completed the intervention. Main reason for dropouts was intolerance of the overall intervention burden. MACE occurred in 5 and were not associated with the study. EMS groups showed significant improvement of 6-MWTD (controls vs low-intensity p = 0.018) and of independence in daily living (for both p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Changes in 6-MWDT suggest efficacy of EMS. Whereas all tolerated EMS well, the burden of study intervention was too high and resulted in a consent rate of <50% and high dropouts, which limit the interpretability of our data. Less demanding EMS protocols are required to evaluate the full potential of EMS in elderly AHF patients

A single-lead ECG based cardiotoxicity detection in patients on polychemotherapy

Background: Anti-cancer treatment can be fraught with cardiovascular complications, which is the most common cause of death among oncological survivors. Without appropriate cardiomonitoring during anti-cancer treatment, it becomes challenging to detect early signs of cardiovascular complications. In order to achieve higher survival rates, it is necessary to monitor oncological patients outpatiently after anti-cancer treatment administration. In this regard, we aim to evaluate the efficacy of single-lead ECG remote monitoring to detect cardiotoxicity in cancer patients with minimal cardiovascular diseases after the first cycle of polychemotherapy. Materials and methods: The study included patients 162 patients over 18 years old with first diagnosed different types of solid tumors, planed for adjuvant (within 8 weeks after surgery) or neoadjuvant polychemotherapy. All patients were monitored, outpatiently, during 14–21 days (depending on the regimen of polychemotherapy) after polychemotherapy administration using single-lead ECG. Results: QTc > 500 mc prolongation was detected in 8 patients (6.6 %), first-diagnosed arial fibrillation was detected in 11 patients (9 %) in period after chemotherapy administration. Moreover, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction using single-lead ECG after polychemotherapy was detected in 49 (40.1 %) patients with sensitivity 80 %, specificity 95 %, AUC 0.88 (95 % CI, 0.82–0.93). Conclusions: The side effects of cancer treatment may cause life-threatening risks. Early identification of cardiotoxicity plays a vital role in the solution of this problem. Using portable devices to detect early cardiotoxicity is a simple, convenient and affordable screening method, that can be used for promptly observation of patients

Analysis of Outcomes in Ischemic vs Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation A Report From the GARFIELD-AF Registry

IMPORTANCE Congestive heart failure (CHF) is commonly associated with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (AF), and their combination may affect treatment strategies and outcomes