Recent advances in cardio-oncology:a report from the 'Heart Failure Association 2019 and World Congress on Acute Heart Failure 2019'

While anti-cancer therapies, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted therapy, are constantly advancing, cardiovascular toxicity has become a major challenge for cardiologists and oncologists. This has led to an increasing demand of cardio-oncology units in Europe and a growing interest of clinicians and researchers. The Heart Failure 2019 meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology in Athens has therefore created a scientific programme that included four dedicated sessions on the topic along with several additional lectures. The major points that were discussed at the congress included the implementation and delivery of a cardio-oncology service, the collaboration among cardio-oncology experts, and the risk stratification, prevention, and early recognition of cardiotoxicity. Furthermore, sessions addressed the numerous different anti-cancer therapies associated with cardiotoxic effects and provided guidance on how to treat cancer patients who develop cardiovascular disease before, during, and after treatment

Detection of radiation induced cardiotoxicity: Role of echocardiography and biomarkers

We review the role of echocardiography and biomarkers in detection of radiation-induced cardiac toxicity (RICT). RICT is related to micro- and macrovascular damage which induce inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, accelerated atherosclerosis, myocyte degeneration and fibrosis. The process is cumulative dose to the heart and target volume dependent. Furthermore, the damage of the heart is frequently potentiated by the adjunctive chemotherapy. The clinical manifestations of RICT may acutely develop but most often become clinically apparent several years after irradiation. RICT clinical manifestation covers a wide spectrum of pathologies including pericarditis, coronary artery disease (CAD), myocardial infarction, valvular heart disease, rhythm abnormalities, and non-ischemic myocardial and conduction system damages. Echocardiography and cardiac markers are important diagnostic tools for the detection of RICT

Rapidly Progrediating Aortic Valve Infective Endocarditis in an Intravenous Drug User Treated by Antibiotics and Surgery

We report the case of a 22-year old male, a self-confessed recreational drug user who developed cardiogenic shock because of severe destruction of the aortic valve by rapidly progressive aortic valve endocarditis. The disease progression was acute; in a matter of days, the clinical manifestations were life-threatening necessitating urgent aortic valve replacement surgery. Cultivation revealed Streptococcus viridans as the microbial agent. Subsequent recovery with antibiotic treatment was without complication. This case report shows that immediately performed transoesophageal echocardiography and early consultation with a cardiac surgeon has fundamental importance in diagnosis and management of acute infective endocarditis in haemodynamically instable patients

Cardiomyopathy as One of the Less Frequent Manifestations of Takayasu’s Arteritis

The authors present the case of a young woman with newly diagnosed Takayasu’s arteritis. This woman, with arterial hypertension, was investigated for the unspecific symptoms at the beginning. Afterwards, the transthoracic echocardiography showed dysfunction of the left ventricle and the abdominal sonography showed a stenosis of the right renal artery. PET/CT scan showed chronic modification after inflammatory processes on the wall of the thoracic and abdominal aorta. This case report should be instructive to other clinicians and refers to the necessity to remember this rare disease in our country too

Thrombolytic Treatment of Thrombosis on the Aortic Valvular Prosthesis Complicated by Brain Embolism

The authors present a case of thrombosis on the St. Jude Medical 19 aortic valve prosthesis. The diagnosis was confirmed by transthoracic and transoesofageal echocardiography, cardiac fluoroscopy revealed restricted movement of the aortic valve prosthesis leaflet. Thrombolytic therapy was complicated with brain embolism that was successfully percutaneously removed from the cerebral artery by the mechanical device. The patient has fully recovered without any neurological residual symptoms. This case report should be instructive to other clinicians who encounter the same complications after thrombolytic treatment

Conceptual base of feature selection consulting system

summary:The paper briefly reviews recent advances in the methodology of feature selection (FS) and the conceptual base of a consulting system for solving FS problems. The reasons for designing a kind of expert or consulting system which would guide a less experienced user are outlined. The paper also attempts to provide a guideline which approach to choose with respect to the extent of a priori knowledge of the problem. The methods discussed here form the core of the software package being developed for solving FS problem. Two basic approaches are reviewed and the conditions under which they should be used are specified. One approach involves the use of the computationally effective Floating search methods. The alternative approach trades off the requirement for a priori information for the requirement of sufficient data to represent the distributions involved. Owing to its nature it is particularly suitable for cases when the underlying probability distributions are not unimodal. The approach attempts to achieve simultaneous feature selection and decision rule inference. According to the criterion adopted there are two variants allowing the selection of features either for optimal representation or discrimination