2016 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure: The Task Force for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). Developed with the special contribution of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC.

ACC/AHA
: American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association
ACCF/AHA
: American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association
ACE
: angiotensin-converting enzyme
ACEI
: angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor
ACS
: acute coronary syndrome
AF
: atrial fibrillation

/pdf/2016-esc-guidelines-for-the-diagnosis-and-treatment-of-acute-z18hg30pp1.pdf

2016 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure

/pdf/2016-esc-guidelines-for-the-diagnosis-and-treatment-of-acute-53v7yllhiz.pdf

ESC guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure 2012 : The Task Force for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2012 of the European Society of Cardiology. Developed in collaboration with the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC

https://anmco.it/uploads/u_cms/media/2014/12/798e9298d77b7b8c9aa0514e43fe95a2.pdf

ESC guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure 2012: The Task Force for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2012 of the European Society of Cardiology. Developed in collaboration with the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC.

2018 ESC/ESH Guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension.

J Thorac Dis 2020;12(3):146-149 | http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/jtd.2019.12.118 In the August issue of the Journal, Xu et al. (1), from China, discuss the case of a patient who had a successful reoperation for restenosis of the mitral valve performed 30 years after closed mitral commissurotomy (CMC). The specific aspects of this case were most appropriately commented by several experienced surgeons from different parts of the world. I was now invited by the Editor of this Journal to write a Comment on this paper and its subject.

/pdf/closed-mitral-commissurotomy-a-cheap-reproducible-and-3p0me90p2y.pdf

Closed mitral commissurotomy—a cheap, reproducible and successful way to treat mitral stenosis

This paper proposes a new methodology to identify and correlate patterns on nearly periodic signal, based on signal simplification and clustering approaches. Using cubic Bezier curves some significant signal samples (control points), enabling to segment adequately the original signal, are extracted in a first step. Next, given the correlation among extracted control points, the detection of similarities within the overall signal is then performed through a clustering technique. Although the approach is useful for many types of signals, the compression of electrocardiogram signals (ECG) is here investigated. Results with standard MIT-BIH databases show promising compression ratios, in particular, high compression ratios are found for long duration signals, when the signal presents strong regularities

Searching for Similarities in Nearly Periodic Signals With Application to ECG Data Compression

Is allograft aortic valve replacement still an option? When, which, where?

OBJECTIVES To analyse perioperative results, long-term survival and freedom from complications after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in young adults. METHODS A total of 163 patients, 40 years old or younger, had isolated CABG from January 1989 to December 2010. Pre- and perioperative demographic and clinical data were retrieved from a prospectively organised database. Follow-up data were obtained by letter or telephone interviews. The mean age of the patients was 37.6 ± 2.9 years and 146 were men (90%). Fifty-three patients (32.5%) had angina class III/IV; 106 (65.0%), previous myocardial infarction; and 23 (14.1%), impaired left ventricular function (ejection fraction <40%). Indication for surgery was 3-vessel disease in 101 cases (62.0%), 2-vessel disease in 30 (18.4%) and single-vessel disease in 32 (19.6%). The left main stem was affected in 16 patients (9.8%). The mean EuroSCORE II was 0.92 ± 0.71. A total of 417 grafts were constructed (mean 2.6 grafts/patient), 247 of which (59.2%) were arterial. RESULTS There were no in-hospital deaths. The mean hospital stay was 7.1 ± 4.0 days. Four patients (2.5%) were lost to follow-up, which extended from 3 to 25 years (mean 15.1 ± 5.5 years). There were 22 late deaths, 72.7% of cardiac or unknown origin. The 5-, 10- and 20-year survival rates were 98.7 ± 10.9, 95.2 ± 1.8 and 79.4 ± 4.4%, respectively. Twenty-six patients (18.1%) had non-fatal cardiac adverse complications (myocardial infarct, percutaneous re-revascularization or class III/IV angina), for 5-, 10- and 20-year freedom from complications of 97.9 ± 1.2, 91.9 ± 2.5 and 65.7 ± 7.1%, respectively. Twenty-two patients (17.5%) needed re-revascularization, for 5-, 10- and 20-year freedom from re-revascularization of 97.6 ± 1.4, 91.9 ± 2.6 and 69.5 ± 6.7%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Despite the aggressive nature of coronary artery disease in young patients, perioperative death and morbidity rates are low, with good long-term survival and low rates of re-revascularization.

https://rihuc.huc.min-saude.pt/bitstream/10400.4/2238/1/Coronary%20artery%20bypass%20surgery%20in%20young%20adults.pdf

Coronary artery bypass surgery in young adults: excellent perioperative results and long-term survival.

Chagas disease is an endemic disease in Latin America that is increasingly found in non-endemic areas all over the world due to the flow of migrants from Central and South America. We present the case of a Brazilian immigrant in Portugal who underwent orthotopic heart transplantation for end-stage Chagas cardiomyopathy. Immunosuppressive therapy included prednisone, mycophenolate mofetil and tacrolimus. Twelve months after the procedure she is asymptomatic, with good graft function, and with no evidence of complications such as graft rejection, opportunistic infections, neoplasms or reactivation of Trypanosoma cruzi infection. By reporting the first case in Portugal of heart transplantation for Chagas cardiomyopathy, we aim to increase awareness of Chagas disease as an emerging global problem and of Chagas cardiomyopathy as a serious complication for which heart transplantation is a valuable therapeutic option.

Manuel J. Antunes

Papers

Closed mitral commissurotomy—a cheap, reproducible and successful way to treat mitral stenosis

Searching for Similarities in Nearly Periodic Signals With Application to ECG Data Compression

Is allograft aortic valve replacement still an option? When, which, where?

Coronary artery bypass surgery in young adults: excellent perioperative results and long-term survival.

Heart transplantation for Chagas cardiomyopathy.