Acute Heart Failure in Patients with Chagas Cardiomyopathy: Results of the I Brazilian Heart Failure Registry (BREATHE).

Background: Although the clinical features of chronic Chagas' cardiomyopathy (CCC) have been well established, clinical data about the patients are scarce.

Objectives: The current analysis reports the results of the I Brazilian Heart Failure Registry (BREATHE) assessing baseline characteristics and clinical outcomes of patients with acute heart failure due to CCC.

Methods: BREATHE enrolled a total of 3,013 adult patients hospitalized with acute heart failure.

Endomyocardial Biopsy Using Rigid Bioptome Technique and the Risk of Tricuspid Regurgitation after Heart Transplantation.

Endomyocardial biopsy (EB) is the preferred procedure for post-heart transplant rejection diagnosis. The rigid bioptome technique has been used due to its greater simplicity and has been criticized for the potential risk of tricuspid regurgitation (TR). We aimed to review all the EBs performed by this technique in a tertiary center and estimate the rate of complications and/or aggravation of TR.

Multifaceted Strategy Based on Automated Text Messaging After a Recent Heart Failure Admission: The MESSAGE-HF Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Readmissions after an index heart failure (HF) hospitalization are a major contemporary health care problem.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of an intensive telemonitoring strategy in the vulnerable period after an HF hospitalization.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This randomized clinical trial was conducted in 30 HF clinics in Brazil.

Lung ultrasound in congestion assessment of patients with advanced heart failure referred for heart transplant: Correlations with right heart catheterization findings.

Background: In advanced heart failure (HF), diagnostic performance of physical exam may be poor. Physical examination associated with lung ultrasound (LUS) may be an important tool to facilitate congestion screening.

Objective: To evaluate performance of LUS for congestion screening in advanced HF referred for transplant, as compared to findings of right heart catheterization (RHC).

Are the recommendation of sodium and fluid restriction in heart failure patients changing over the past years? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is a growing problem for healthcare systems worldwide. Sodium and fluid restriction are non-pharmacological treatments recommended for patients with HF by several guidelines over the years, even without consensus.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of sodium and fluid restriction in patients with HF.

Iron Deficiency in Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis and Treatment.

Iron deficiency (ID) is an important comorbidity in heart failure with reduced ejection (HFrEF) and is highly prevalent in both anemic and non-anemic patients. In HFrEF, iron deficiency should be investigated by measurements of transferrin saturation and ferritin. There are two types of ID: absolute deficiency, with depletion of iron stores; and functional ID, where iron supply is not sufficient despite normal stores.

Effect of adding hydrochlorothiazide to usual treatment of patients with acute decompensated heart failure: a randomized clinical trial.

Acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) is the leading cause of hospitalization in patients aged 65 years or older, and most of them present with congestion. The use of hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) may increase the response to loop diuretics. To evaluate the effect of adding HCTZ to furosemide on congestion and symptoms in patients with ADHF.

Acute necrotizing eosinophilic myocarditis possibly triggered by an antimigraine drug as an uncommon cause of acute heart failure: a case report.

Background: Epigastric or chest pain with an abnormal electrocardiogram (ECG) in a young, otherwise healthy patient should trigger an investigation to rule out myocarditis. The myocarditis covers a wide spectrum of severity. The search for the aetiologic factor could be definitive for the success of therapy.

Revisiting heart failure assessment based on objective measures in NYHA functional classes I and II.

Objective: New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class plays a central role in heart failure (HF) assessment but might be unreliable in mild presentations. We compared objective measures of HF functional evaluation between patients classified as NYHA I and II in the (ReBIC)-1 Trial.

Methods: The ReBIC-1 Trial included outpatients with stable HF with reduced ejection fraction.

Short-term diuretic withdrawal in stable outpatients with mild heart failure and no fluid retention receiving optimal therapy: a double-blind, multicentre, randomized trial.

Aims: Although loop diuretics are widely used to treat heart failure (HF), there is scarce contemporary data to guide diuretic adjustments in the outpatient setting.

Methods And Results: In a prospective, randomized and double-blind protocol, we tested the safety and tolerability of withdrawing low-dose furosemide in stable HF outpatients at 11 HF clinics in Brazil. The trial had two blindly adjudicated co-primary outcomes: (i) symptoms assessment quantified as the area under the curve (AUC) of a dyspnoea score on a visual-analogue scale evaluated at 4 time-points (baseline, Day 15, Day 45, and Day 90) and (ii) the proportion of patients maintained without diuretic reuse during follow-up.

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing may not predict appropriate implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapies in heart failure patients.

The prognostic value of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) variables for major cardiovascular events in patients with heart failure (HF) is widely established. However, the prognostic value of these variables as predictors of appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapies has not been sufficiently well addressed. This study aimed to evaluate CPET variables such as peak oxygen uptake (VO peak), relationship between change in minute ventilation (VE) and carbon dioxide output (VCO) during incremental exercise (VE/VCO slope) and exercise-related periodic breathing (EPB) as appropriate ICD therapy predictors in HF patients.