Clinical Research in Cardiology 

About: Clinical Research in Cardiology is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Heart failure & Medicine. It has an ISSN identifier of 1861-0684. Over the lifetime, 2683 publications have been published receiving 53835 citations. The journal is also known as: Zeitschrift für Kardiologie & Z. Kardiol..

Prevalence and impact of cardiovascular metabolic diseases on COVID-19 in China.

Abstract: Studies have reminded that cardiovascular metabolic comorbidities made patients more susceptible to suffer 2019 novel corona virus (2019-nCoV) disease (COVID-19), and exacerbated the infection. The aim of this analysis is to determine the association of cardiovascular metabolic diseases with the development of COVID-19. A meta-analysis of eligible studies that summarized the prevalence of cardiovascular metabolic diseases in COVID-19 and compared the incidences of the comorbidities in ICU/severe and non-ICU/severe patients was performed. Embase and PubMed were searched for relevant studies. A total of six studies with 1527 patients were included in this analysis. The proportions of hypertension, cardia-cerebrovascular disease and diabetes in patients with COVID-19 were 17.1%, 16.4% and 9.7%, respectively. The incidences of hypertension, cardia-cerebrovascular diseases and diabetes were about twofolds, threefolds and twofolds, respectively, higher in ICU/severe cases than in their non-ICU/severe counterparts. At least 8.0% patients with COVID-19 suffered the acute cardiac injury. The incidence of acute cardiac injury was about 13 folds higher in ICU/severe patients compared with the non-ICU/severe patients. Patients with previous cardiovascular metabolic diseases may face a greater risk of developing into the severe condition and the comorbidities can also greatly affect the prognosis of the COVID-19. On the other hand, COVID-19 can, in turn, aggravate the damage to the heart.

Gender differences in the metabolic syndrome and their role for cardiovascular disease

Abstract: Women live longer than men and develop cardiovascular disease (CVD) at an older age. The metabolic syndrome represents a major risk factor for the development of CVD, and gender1 differences in this syndrome may contribute to gender differences in CVD.

Prognostic value of galectin-3, a novel marker of fibrosis, in patients with chronic heart failure: data from the DEAL-HF study

Abstract: Aims Biomarkers are increasingly being used in the management of patients with chronic heart failure (HF). Galectin-3 is a recently developed biomarker associated with fibrosis and inflammation, and it may play a role in cardiac remodeling in HF. We determined its prognostic value in patients with chronic HF.

Electronic health records to facilitate clinical research.

Abstract: Electronic health records (EHRs) provide opportunities to enhance patient care, embed performance measures in clinical practice, and facilitate clinical research. Concerns have been raised about the increasing recruitment challenges in trials, burdensome and obtrusive data collection, and uncertain generalizability of the results. Leveraging electronic health records to counterbalance these trends is an area of intense interest. The initial applications of electronic health records, as the primary data source is envisioned for observational studies, embedded pragmatic or post-marketing registry-based randomized studies, or comparative effectiveness studies. Advancing this approach to randomized clinical trials, electronic health records may potentially be used to assess study feasibility, to facilitate patient recruitment, and streamline data collection at baseline and follow-up. Ensuring data security and privacy, overcoming the challenges associated with linking diverse systems and maintaining infrastructure for repeat use of high quality data, are some of the challenges associated with using electronic health records in clinical research. Collaboration between academia, industry, regulatory bodies, policy makers, patients, and electronic health record vendors is critical for the greater use of electronic health records in clinical research. This manuscript identifies the key steps required to advance the role of electronic health records in cardiovascular clinical research.

Isolated noncompaction of the left ventricular myocardium -- a review of the literature two decades after the initial case description.

Abstract: Isolated noncompaction of the left ventricular myocardium (INVM), first described in 1984, is an unclassified cardiomyopathy and is assumed to occur as an arrest of the compaction process during the normal development of the heart. Between weeks 5 to 8 of human fetal development, the ventricular myocardium undergoes gradual compaction with transformation of the relatively large intertrabecular spaces into capillaries while the residual spaces within the trabecular meshwork gradually flatten or disappear. In the case of INVM, the spaces within the intertrabecular meshwork persist while no other cardiac abnormalities exist. Although there is substantial evidence supporting the developmental hypothesis, other pathogenetic processes responsible for INVM have been discussed. It can be assumed that INVM will be better understood in the future as the molecular genetic basis of cardiomyopathies will be further unravelled. Echocardiography has been shown to be the method of choice in diagnosis of INVM. The diagnostic criteria can be summarized as: 1) appearance of at least four prominent trabeculations and deep intertrabecular recesses; 2) appearance of blood flow from the ventricular cavity into the intertrabecular recesses as visualized by color Doppler imaging; 3) the segments of noncompacted myocardium mainly involve the apex and the inferior mid and lateral mid of the left ventricular wall and typically show a two-layered structure with an endsystolic ratio greater than two between the noncompacted subendocardial layer and the compacted subepicardial layer; 4) absence of coexisting cardiac abnormalities. Magnetic resonance imaging using modern gradient echo sequences has also been shown to diagnose INVM accurately. The clinical presentation of INVM is characterized by a high prevalence of heart failure, thromboembolic events and arrhythmias including ventricular tachycardia and atrial fibrillation. The establishment of a registry, which was initiated by the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Leitende Kardiologische Krankenhausarzte (ALKK)" recently, may provide further clues for diagnosis, risk stratification, and management of this disease.