Shelley Zieroth

The 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Society heart failure management guidelines update: focus on acute and chronic heart failure.

The 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Heart Failure (HF) Guidelines Update provides management recommendations for acute and chronic HF. In 2006, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society HF Guidelines committee first published an overview of HF management. Since then, significant additions to and changes in many of these recommendations have become apparent. With this in mind and in response to stakeholder feedback, the Guidelines Committee in 2012 has updated the overview of both acute and chronic heart failure diagnosis and management. The 2012 Update also includes recommendations, values and preferences, and practical tips to assist the medical practitioner manage their patients with HF.

The 2011 Canadian Cardiovascular Society heart failure management guidelines update: focus on sleep apnea, renal dysfunction, mechanical circulatory support, and palliative care.

The 2011 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Heart Failure (HF) Guidelines Focused Update reviews the recently published clinical trials that will potentially impact on management. Also reviewed is the less studied but clinically important area of sleep apnea. Finally, patients with advanced HF represent a group of patients who pose major difficulties to clinicians. Advanced HF therefore is examined from the perspectives of HF complicated by renal failure, the role of palliative care, and the role of mechanical circulatory support (MCS). All of these topics are reviewed from a perspective of practical applications. Important new studies have demonstrated in less symptomatic HF patients that cardiac resynchronization therapy will be of benefit. As well, aldosterone receptor antagonists can be used with benefit in less symptomatic HF patients. The important role of palliative care and the need to address end-of-life issues in advanced HF are emphasized. Physicians need to be aware of the possibility of sleep apnea complicating the course of HF and the role of a sleep study for the proper assessment and management of the conditon. Patients with either acute severe or chronic advanced HF with otherwise good life expectancy should be referred to a cardiac centre capable of providing MCS. Furthermore, patients awaiting heart transplantation who deteriorate or are otherwise not likely to survive until a donor organ is found should be referred for MCS.

The 2014 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Heart Failure Management Guidelines Focus Update: Anemia, Biomarkers, and Recent Therapeutic Trial Implications

The 2014 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Heart Failure Management Guidelines Update provides discussion on the management recommendations on 3 focused areas: (1) anemia; (2) biomarkers, especially natriuretic peptides; and (3) clinical trials that might change practice in the management of patients with heart failure. First, all patients with heart failure and anemia should be investigated for reversible causes of anemia. Second, patients with chronic stable heart failure should undergo natriuretic peptide testing. Third, considerations should be given to treat selected patients with heart failure and preserved systolic function with a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist and to treat patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction with an angiotensin receptor/neprilysin inhibitor, when the drug is approved. As with updates in previous years, the topics were chosen in response to stakeholder feedback. The 2014 Update includes recommendations, values and preferences, and practical tips to assist the clinicians and health care workers to best manage patients with heart failure.

The Canadian Cardiovascular Society Heart Failure Companion: Bridging Guidelines to Your Practice

The Canadian Cardiovascular Society Heart Failure (HF) Guidelines Program has generated annual HF updates, including formal recommendations and supporting Practical Tips since 2006. Many clinicians indicate they routinely use the Canadian Cardiovascular Society HF Guidelines in their daily practice. However, many questions surrounding the actual implementation of the Guidelines into their daily practice remain. A consensus-based approach was used, including feedback from the Primary and Secondary HF Panels. This companion is intended to answer several key questions brought forth by HF practitioners such as appropriate timelines for initial assessments and subsequent reassessments of patients, the order in which medications should be added, how newer medications should be included in treatment algorithms, and when left ventricular function should be reassessed. A new treatment algorithm for HF with reduced ejection fraction is included. Several other practical issues are addressed such as an approach to management of hyperkalemia/hypokalemia, treatment of gout, when medications can be stopped, and whether a target blood pressure or heart rate is suggested. Finally, elements and teaching of self-care are described. This tool will hopefully function to allow better integration of the HF Guidelines into clinical practice.

Potential of resveratrol in the treatment of heart failure

The concept of food has expanded beyond its traditional role of survival and hunger satisfaction, to include a role in the prevention and treatment of disease. Polyphenols are classes of compounds that are synthesized by plants to serve a wide variety of functions including growth pollination and defense. These compounds have recently received increased attention in medical research. In this group, one of the most studied has been resveratrol (3,5,4,-trihydroxystilbene), a polyphenol, which is found predominantly in grapes and berries. Over the past two decades, researchers have studied the ability of resveratrol to prevent or reverse the development of abnormalities in heart structure and function in animal models of heart disease and heart failure. The results from animal studies have been promising, and very recently, this knowledge has been translated into examining the efficacy of resveratrol in humans with heart disease/failure. In this review we will discuss the current status of resveratrol research on cardioprotection.

Cardiac remodeling and subcellular defects in heart failure due to myocardial infarction and aging

Although several risk factors including hypertension, cardiac hypertrophy, coronary artery disease, and diabetes are known to result in heart failure, elderly subjects are more susceptible to myocardial infarction and more likely to develop heart failure. This article is intended to discuss that cardiac dysfunction in hearts failing due to myocardial infarction and aging is associated with cardiac remodeling and defects in the subcellular organelles such as sarcolemma (SL), sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), and myofibrils. Despite some differences in the pattern of heart failure due to myocardial infarction and aging with respect to their etiology and sequence of events, evidence has been presented to show that subcellular remodeling plays a critical role in the occurrence of intracellular Ca2+-overload and development of cardiac dysfunction in both types of failing heart. In particular, alterations in gene expression for SL and SR proteins induce Ca2+-handling abnormalities in cardiomyocytes, whereas those for myofibrillar proteins impair the interaction of Ca2+ with myofibrils in hearts failing due to myocardial infarction and aging. In addition, different phosphorylation mechanisms, which regulate the activities of Ca2+-cycling proteins in SL and SR membranes as well as Ca2+-binding proteins in myofibrils, become defective in the failing heart. Accordingly, it is suggested that subcellular remodeling involving defects in Ca2+-handling and Ca2+-binding proteins as well as their regulatory mechanisms is intimately associated with cardiac remodeling and heart failure due to myocardial infarction and aging.

The 2013 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Heart Failure Management Guidelines Update: Focus on Rehabilitation and Exercise and Surgical Coronary Revascularization

The 2013 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Heart Failure Management Guidelines Update provides focused discussions on the management recommendations on 2 topics: (1) exercise and rehabilitation; and (2) surgical coronary revascularization in patients with heart failure. First, all patients with stable New York Heart Association class I-III symptoms should be considered for enrollment in a tailored exercise training program, to improve exercise tolerance and quality of life. Second, selected patients with suitable coronary anatomy should be considered for bypass graft surgery. As in previous updates, the topics were chosen in response to stakeholder feedback. The 2013 Update also includes recommendations, values and preferences, and practical tips to assist the clinicians and health care workers manage their patients with heart failure.

An overview of the efficacy of resveratrol in the management of ischemic heart disease

Ischemic heart disease is a leading cause of cardiac dysfunction and subsequent morbidity and mortality around the world. New therapies are required to complement or enhance the existing treatment regimen for the management of ischemic heart disease–related clinical complications. In this regard, compounds derived from natural sources have recently gained attention for their cardioprotective properties. In particular, the potential of food‐derived compounds that exhibit medicinal properties (termed nutraceuticals) appears promising, an example being the plant polyphenol resveratrol. In the past two decades, many preclinical and a few pilot clinical studies have shown that resveratrol is beneficial in protecting against cardiovascular disease. In this short review, we will discuss current evidence on the efficacy of resveratrol in preventing or reversing deleterious effects on the heart in the setting of ischemic heart disease.

Acute Heart Failure: Perspectives from a Randomized Trial and a Simultaneous Registry

Background—Randomized controlled trials (RCT) are limited by their generalizability to the broader nontrial population. To provide a context for Acute Study of Nesiritide in Decompensated Heart Failure (ASCEND-HF) trial, we designed a complementary registry to characterize clinical characteristics, practice patterns, and in-hospital outcomes of acute heart failure patients. Methods and Results—Eligible patients for the registry included those with a principal diagnosis of acute heart failure (ICD-9-CM 402 and 428; ICD-10 I50.x, I11.0, I13.0, I13.2) from 8 sites participating in ASCEND-HF (n=697 patients, 2007–2010). Baseline characteristics, treatments, and hospital outcomes from the registy were compared with ASCEND-HF RCT patients from 31 Canadian sites (n=465, 2007–2010). Patients in the registry were older, more likely to be female, and have chronic respiratory disease, less likely to have diabetes mellitus: they had a similar incidence of ischemic HF, atrial fibrillation, and similar B-type natriuretic peptide levels. Registry patients had higher systolic blood pressure (registry: median 132 mm Hg [interquartile range 115–151 mm Hg]; RCT: median 120 mm Hg [interquartile range 110–135 mm Hg]) and ejection fraction (registry: median 40% [interquartile range 27–58%]; RCT: median 29% [interquartile range 20–40 mm Hg]) than RCT patients. Registry patients presented more often via ambulance and had a similar total length of stay as RCT patients. In-hospital mortality was significantly higher in the registry compared with the RCT patients (9.3% versus 1.3%,P<0.001), and this remained after multivariable adjustment (odds ratio 6.6, 95% CI 2.6–16.8, P<0.001). Conclusions—Patients enrolled in a large RCT of acute heart failure differed significantly based on clinical characteristics, treatments, and inpatient outcomes from contemporaneous patients participating in a registry. These results highlight the need for context of RCTs to evaluate generalizability of results and especially the need to improve clinical outcomes in acute heart failure. Clinical Trial Registration—URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00475852.Background— Randomized controlled trials (RCT) are limited by their generalizability to the broader nontrial population. To provide a context for Acute Study of Nesiritide in Decompensated Heart Failure (ASCEND-HF) trial, we designed a complementary registry to characterize clinical characteristics, practice patterns, and in-hospital outcomes of acute heart failure patients. Methods and Results— Eligible patients for the registry included those with a principal diagnosis of acute heart failure (ICD-9-CM 402 and 428; ICD-10 I50.x, I11.0, I13.0, I13.2) from 8 sites participating in ASCEND-HF (n=697 patients, 2007–2010). Baseline characteristics, treatments, and hospital outcomes from the registy were compared with ASCEND-HF RCT patients from 31 Canadian sites (n=465, 2007–2010). Patients in the registry were older, more likely to be female, and have chronic respiratory disease, less likely to have diabetes mellitus: they had a similar incidence of ischemic HF, atrial fibrillation, and similar B-type natriuretic peptide levels. Registry patients had higher systolic blood pressure (registry: median 132 mm Hg [interquartile range 115–151 mm Hg]; RCT: median 120 mm Hg [interquartile range 110–135 mm Hg]) and ejection fraction (registry: median 40% [interquartile range 27–58%]; RCT: median 29% [interquartile range 20–40 mm Hg]) than RCT patients. Registry patients presented more often via ambulance and had a similar total length of stay as RCT patients. In-hospital mortality was significantly higher in the registry compared with the RCT patients (9.3% versus 1.3%, P <0.001), and this remained after multivariable adjustment (odds ratio 6.6, 95% CI 2.6–16.8, P <0.001). Conclusions— Patients enrolled in a large RCT of acute heart failure differed significantly based on clinical characteristics, treatments, and inpatient outcomes from contemporaneous patients participating in a registry. These results highlight the need for context of RCTs to evaluate generalizability of results and especially the need to improve clinical outcomes in acute heart failure. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: . Unique identifier: [NCT00475852][1]. [1]: /lookup/external-ref?link_type=CLINTRIALGOV&access_num=NCT00475852&atom=%2Fcirchf%2F5%2F6%2F735.atom

Reduced hospitalizations in severe, refractory congestive heart failure with peritoneal dialysis: a consecutive case series.

BACKGROUND Peritoneal dialysis (PD) for long-term management of diuretic resistant volume overload in heart failure (HF) may provide potential benefit with few adverse consequences. We examined the impact of PD on clinical status hospitalizations, and complications of therapy in severe end-stage HF. METHODS A consecutive case series of 10 transplant ineligible patients receiving PD solely for HF volume management between 2007 and 2011 was evaluated with clinical data reviewed pre- and post-PD initiation. RESULTS The mean ejection fraction (EF) pre-PD was 24.5 ± 6.0% with the majority of patients having NYHA class IIIB symptoms and moderate-severe right ventricular dysfunction. 9/10 patients were Stage 3 chronic kidney disease (CKD) or worse. After PD initiation, average weight loss was almost 7 kg (p = 0.016) with improvement in diuretic response, peripheral edema, and functional class. There was a significant decrease in re-hospitalization from an average of 3.2 ± 2.5 to 0.1 ± 0.3 admissions per patient (p = 0.007) and reduced average length of stay from 37 ± 36.7 to 0.78 ± 2.3 days (p = 0.019). SUMMARY Objective criteriabased institution of PD for the treatment of diuretic refractory severe-end-stage HF was well tolerated and demonstrated favorable outcomes; these included improved clinical status, reduced hospitalizations and length of stay, with very few and easily treatable PDrelated complications. PD appears to be a viable option in refractory, end-stage congestive heart failure (CHF).