Cardiovascular Drug Therapy Research Articles

Adverse Drug Reactions and Safety Profiles in Cardiovascular Drug Therapy: A Pharmacovigilance Analysis

Aims: The purpose of the study is to identify adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and evaluate patient knowledge of the disease using the Knowledge Assessment Questionnaire (KAQ). This study was designed to compare adverse effects on Cardiovascular Drug Therapy. Adverse drug reaction (ADRs) is a major cause of mortality worldwide. The objective of the present study were a) to find out the prevalence of adverse drug reaction (ADRs) in the hospitalized patient by active surveillance, b) to study the profile of ADRs detected. (3) This study was done in superspecialty hospital Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose medical college & Hospital, Jabalpur, for three month study. Methodology: This study was Pharmacovigilance group, belonging to department of cardiology at Netajisubhash Chandra bose medical college, Jabalpur M.P. (5) Total number of patients taken for study was 90 in number. Results and Conclusion: Total 90 subjects were recruited in the study. Drug used for their co morbidities to find out ADRs in which maximum ADRs found in chronic rheumatoid heart diseases, for this diseases patient took in two combination mainly Digoxin with Clopidogrel (47.36%) and another were with atorvastatin, spironolactone and warfarin (47.30% ADRs Adverse drug reactions on particular body system were mostly observed on CNS (32.14% ADRs). According to Naranjonaranjo causality assessment scale applied to this study illustrates that the maximum possible and probable adverse drug reaction were shown on Furosemide as well as for Digoxin and Spironolactone.

A Study on Case Fatality of COVID-19 Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease in Selected Hospitals in Dhaka City

Objective: To identify the significant level of Case fatality of Covid-19 Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease in selected hospitals in Dhaka city. Method: This cross sectional study was carried out at NICVD/ Lab aid cardiac hospital/ Universal cardiac hospital from January 2023 to February 2023. Where a total of 384 adults (>18 ages) with Ischemic Heart Disease who admitted in hospital and tested positive for Covid- 19 were included as a sample population. After collecting data from sample population, data was checked and re-checked for completeness and correctness. The Collected data was analyze via statistical Software’s like STATA, SPSS etc. Results: during the study, majority were belonging to 51-60 years age group, 32.81%. followed by 27.60% were belong to 41-50 years age group and 23.18% belong to >61 years age group and majority were male, 80%.42.71% had normal weight whereas 28.13% were overweight & 24.74% were obese. 80.47% had chest pain, followed by 13.28% had dyspnea, 12.50% had cough, 10.68% had palpitation, 4.17% had vomiting. where 46.61% had STEMI, followed by 17.19% had NSTEMI, 19.27% had unstable angina, 25.78% had systemic hypertension, 21.88% had diabetes mellites, 6.77% had Heart valve disease, 4.43% had Arrhythmia. Plus, majority didn’t get their vaccination, 89.60%.49.48% had abnormal level of anxiety status whereas 55.73% had abnormal level of depression. Multivariable logistic regression found residence, age, profession, and income to be statistically significantly associated with anxiety after controlling for the other factors found to be significant at the univariate level. Plus, Chronic disease, STEMI, NSTEMI to be statistically significantly associated with anxiety after controlling for the other factors found to be significant at the univariate level. Cardiovascular Drug Therapy at Hospitalization of Covid-19 shows Medical therapy included ACE inhibitors (22.1% of the patients), ARBs (20.57%). mean length of hospital stay was 10.7±2.7 days, with an overall in-hospital mortality of 5.8% (515 of 8910 patients) in this population of patients with completed outcomes. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that health care providers, particularly cardiologists and nurses, should take extra care to detect and evaluate all heart disease patients for level of anxiety and depression in a clinical setting. There is a need to develop a quick screening approach in hospitals dealing with cardiovascular inpatients to identify those needing extra evaluation and care.

Sex-specific considerations in cardiovascular drug therapy.

Despite major advances in cardiac research over the past three decades, cardiovascular disease (CVD) still remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in women and men worldwide. However, a major challenge for health care providers is that the current guidelines for cardiovascular drug therapies do not consider the impact of sex in the development of treatment plan for optimizing therapies for women. Clinical research in recent years suggests significant pharmacological and pharmacokinetic differences between females and males, which have been attributed in part to differences in body composition, plasma protein binding capacity, drug metabolism, and excretion. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review regarding sex-specific differences and drugs commonly used for CVDs in women and men. Understanding how sex-related differences influence drug efficacy and CVD outcomes is crucial for not only optimizing treatment strategies for women and men but also to encourage the implementation of specific guidelines that address sex difference as a consideration for the treatment of CVDs.

#1259 Relationship between renal dysfunction, non-obstructive ACS and in-hospital prognosis: findings from the CCC-ACS project

Abstract Background and Aims Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is an acute and critical condition of coronary heart disease (CHD) with high mortality and poor prognosis. The prevalence of non-obstructive ACS is about 5% ∼ 15%. Among patients with non-obstructive ACS, which patients are more prone to poor prognosis is a concern. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and due to its special pathophysiological mechanism, non-obstructive ACS may not be uncommon in CKD patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between renal function, the occurrence and prognosis of non-obstructive ACS. Method Improving Care for Cardiovascular Disease in China - Acute Coronary Syndrome (CCC-ACS), a hospital-based medical quality improvement project, is a hospital-based medical quality improvement project to improve the compliance of ACS guidelines in China and improve the prognosis of patients. It was jointly sponsored by the American Heart Association (AHA) and the Chinese Society of Cardiology (CSC) in 2014, with 240 hospitals participating, representing different levels of ACS management in Chinese hospitals. We analyzed patients who underwent coronary angiography from November 2014 to July 2019 in CCC-ACS. Patients were divided into eGFR <60 ml/min·1.73 m² and eGFR≥60 ml/min·1.73 m² groups according to estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) calculated by the EPI formula. According to the results of coronary angiography, the patients were divided into obstructive ACS group and non-obstructive ACS group (obstructive ACS group was defined as at least one coronary artery stenosis ≥ 50%; the others were non-obstructive ACS group). Outcome was defined as in-hospital all-cause mortality and in-hospital MACEs. Results A total of 77 586 patients were included, including 2 292 patients (3.0%) with non-obstructive ACS and 75 294 patients (97.0%) with obstructive ACS. After adjusting for confounding factors using a multivariate logistic regression model, patients with eGFR<60 ml/min·1.73 m² had an approximately 20% increased risk of non-obstructive ACS compared with patients with eGFR≥60 ml/min·1.73 m². The comparison of in-hospital outcomes between the patients with non-obstructive ACS and obstructive ACS is shown in Fig. 1. In-hospital outcomes showed that although the obstructive ACS group had a worse in-hospital prognosis than the non-obstructive ACS group, and the eGFR<60 ml/min·1.73 m² group had a worse in-hospital prognosis than the eGFR≥60 ml/min·1.73 m² group, further grouping of patients showed that the non-obstructive ACS group with eGFR<60 ml/min·1.73 m² had a worse prognosis than the obstructive ACS group with eGFR≥60 ml/min·1.73 m². Confounding factors adjusted for non-obstructive ACS showed that lower eGFR was associated with a higher risk of in-hospital MACEs. After analyzing the in-hospital medication and discharge medication of patients, it was found that the standardized cardiovascular drug therapy was inadequate in patients with non-obstructive ACS. Conclusion Patients with non-obstructive ACS have worse renal function than patients with obstructive ACS, and the proportion of patients with eGFR<60 ml/min·1.73 m² is higher. In patients with non-obstructive ACS, the risk of in-hospital MACEs significantly increased as eGFR decreased. This suggests that we may consider giving standardized cardiovascular drug therapy to patients with non-obstructive ACS, especially those with non-obstructive ACS combined with abnormal renal function, in order to improve the prognosis of patients. This needs to be confirmed by more randomized controlled trial results.

Eliminating Health Disparities in Atrial Fibrillation, Heart Failure, and Dyslipidemia: A Path Toward Achieving Pharmacoequity.

Pharmacoequity refers to the goal of ensuring that all patients have access to high-quality medications, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, or other characteristics. The goal of this article is to review current evidence on disparities in access to cardiovascular drug therapies across sociodemographic subgroups, with a focus on heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and dyslipidemia. Considerable and consistent disparities to life-prolonging heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and dyslipidemia medications exist in clinical trial representation, access to specialist care, prescription of guideline-based therapy, drug affordability, and pharmacy accessibility across racial, ethnic, gender, and other sociodemographic subgroups. Researchers, health systems, and policy makers can take steps to improve pharmacoequity by diversifying clinical trial enrollment, increasing access to inpatient and outpatient cardiology care, nudging clinicians to increase prescription of guideline-directed medical therapy, and pursuing system-level reforms to improve drug access and affordability.

Dysfunctional antioxidant capacity of high-density lipoprotein in rheumatoid arthritis.

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) presents atheroprotective functions not readily reflected by plasma HDL-cholesterol levels. The aim of this study was to investigate HDL antioxidant function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This pilot and cross-sectional study included 50 RA patients and 50 controls matched by age, gender, cardiovascular risk factors and drug therapy. The antioxidant capacity of HDL was assessed by the total radical-trapping antioxidative potential test (TRAP-assay) and the susceptibility of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) to oxidation by the Conjugated Dienes Assay (Dmax ). A carotid ultrasound was performed in all participants to detect subclinical atherosclerosis. High-density lipoprotein from RA patients showed lower antioxidant capacity than those from controls [oxidized-LDL%: 35.8 (27-42) vs. 24.4 (20-32), p < .001] when analysed with the TRAP-assay. In addition, the time to achieve 50% of maximal LDL oxidation (Lag-time) was shorter in RA-patients than in matched controls [57.2 (42-71) vs. 69.5 (55-75) minutes, (p = .003)]. RA patients showed a higher atherosclerotic burden than controls. The pro-oxidant pattern in RA was irrespective of the presence of carotid atherosclerosis. On the contrary, there was a positive correlation between inflammatory parameters (erythrocyte sedimentation rate, ultrasensitive C-reactive protein and fibrinogen) and the loss of HDL-anti-oxidant capacity measured by the TRAP-assay (rho = .211, p = .035; rho = .231, p = .021 and rho = .206, p = .041, respectively). Furthermore, the glucocorticoid dose at recruitment was negatively associated with the Lag-time in RA patients (rho = -.387, p = .026). Rheumatoid arthritis patients present reduced HDL antioxidant capacity and a lower resistance of LDL particles to oxidation, mainly related to the degree of inflammation.

Precision medicine in interventional cardiology: implications for antiplatelet therapy in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.

Precision medicine is a medical model that proposes the customization of medical treatments to the individual patient, as opposed to a one-drug-fits-all model. Such a "personalized medicine" approach has been widely adopted in several medical fields, such as cancer medicine, but the implementation of precision medicine in cardiovascular medicine has not been similarly straightforward. Because pharmacogenomics plays an important role in the safety and efficacy of cardiovascular drug therapy, there has been a great interest in the use of tools aiming at personalizing antiplatelet therapy. Moreover, antiplatelet therapy is essential for the treatment of cardiovascular patients to reduce the risk of thrombotic complications, particularly those undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, but it is inevitably associated with increased bleeding risk. In this review, the authors discuss the rationale, summarize the evidence and discuss the current and future directions for the personalization of antiplatelet treatment regimens in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.

Detection Rate and Influencing Factors of Microalbuminuria in Hypertensive Patients

Abstract Background To investigate the detection rate and relevant influencing factors of microalbuminuria (MAU) in hypertensive patients in China. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 181,053 hypertensives from 600 hospitals across China. A questionnaire was used to collect information including patients’ risk factors, disease conditions, and antihypertensive drug treatment. Blood pressure was measured, and urine albumin to creatinine ratio was determined by urine strips. Patients were divided into the following subgroups: hypertension only, hypertension with and without MAU, cardiovascular risk factors, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), and single or combination drug therapy. Results A total of 136,483 patients with hypertension were enrolled. Patients with MAU, risk factors, and ASCVD or treated with combination drug therapy had significantly higher blood pressure compared with their corresponding counterparts (all P &amp;lt; 0.001). The detection rate of MAU was 27.8%, 25.7%, 29.1%, and 33.4% in hypertension only, hypertension with cardiovascular risk factors, hypertension with ASCVD, and hypertension with cardiovascular risk factors and ASCVD, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age &amp;lt; 45 years, female, body mass index ≥ 28 kg/m2, living in Western China, living in Northeastern China, hypertension with risk factors and ASCVD, and combination drug therapy were positively correlated with MAU. Conclusions The detection rate of MAU is the highest in hypertensive patients with cardiovascular risk factors and ASCVD, and their blood pressure control is poor. Risk factor control and better blood pressure management are recommended.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Based Models for Prediction and Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases: A Review

Advances in Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based systems have been gradually finding applications in several domains including medical and health care systems. By using big data analytics and machine learning methodologies, AI has become a promising tool in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. AI-ML based applications enhance our understanding of different parameters and phenotypes of heart diseases and lead to newer therapeutic strategies to tackle different types of cardiovascular ailments, a newer approach to cardiovascular drug therapy and a post-marketing survey of prescription drugs. Although AI has wide range of applications, it is in infant stage and has certain limitations in the clinical use of results and their interpretations such as data privacy, selection bias etc, which may result in wrong conclusions. Thus, AI-ML is a transformative technology and has immense potential in health care systems. This review covers various aspects of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and illustrate AI and ML based methods including supervised, unsupervised and deep learning and their applications in cardiovascular imaging, cardiovascular risk prediction and newer drug targets.

Adequate enrollment of women in cardiovascular drug trials and the need for sex-specific assessment and reporting

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for women in the United States and globally. There is an abundance of evidence-based trials evaluating the efficacy of drug therapies to reduce morbidity and mortality in CVD. Additionally, there are well-established influences of sex, through a variety of mechanisms, on pharmacologic treatments in CVD. Despite this, the majority of drug trials are not powered to evaluate sex-specific outcomes, and much of the data that exists is gathered post hoc and through meta-analysis. The FDA established a committee in 1993 to increase the enrollment of women in clinical trials to improve this situation. Several authors, reviewing committees, and professional societies have highlighted the importance of sex-specific analysis and reporting. Despite these statements, there has not been a major improvement in representation or reporting. There are ongoing efforts to assess trial design, female representation on steering committees, and clinical trial processes to improve the representation of women.This review will describe the pharmacologic basis for the need for sex-specific assessment of cardiovascular drug therapies. It will also review the sex-specific reporting of landmark drug trials in hypertension, coronary artery disease (CAD), hyperlipidemia, and heart failure (HF). In reporting enrollment of women, several therapeutic areas like antihypertensives and newer anticoagulation trials fare better than therapeutics for HF and acute coronary syndromes. Further, drug trials and cardiometabolic or lifestyle intervention trials had a higher percentage of female participants than the device or procedural trials.

Trends in the Degree of Control and Treatment of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in People With Type 2 Diabetes in a Primary Care Setting in Catalonia During 2007-2018.

ObjectiveTo assess the trends in cardiovascular risk factor control and drug therapy from 2007 to 2018 in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).Materials and MethodsCross-sectional analysis using yearly clinical data and treatment obtained from the SIDIAP database. Patients aged ≥18 years with a diagnosis of T2DM seen in primary care in Catalonia, Spain. ResultsThe number of T2DM patients increased from 299,855 in 2007 to 394,266 in 2018. We also found an increasing prevalence of cardiovascular disease, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease (from 18.4 to 24.4%, from 4.5 to 7.3%, and from 20.2 to 31.3%, respectively). The achievement of glycemic targets (HbA1c<7%) scarcely changed (54.9% to 55.9%). Major improvements were seen in blood pressure (≤140/90 mmHg: from 55% to 71.8%), and in lipid control (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol <100 mg/dl: 33.4% to 48.4%), especially in people with established cardiovascular disease (48.8 to 69.7%). Simultaneous achievement of all three targets improved from 12.5% to 20.1% in the overall population and from 24.5% to 32.2% in those with cardiovascular disease but plateaued after 2013. There was an increase in the percentage of patients treated with any antidiabetic drug (70.1% to 81.0%), especially metformin (47.7% to 67.7%), and DPP4i (0 to 22.6%). The use of SGLT-2 and GLP-1ra increased over the years, but remained very low in 2018 (5.5% and 2.1% of subjects, respectively). There were also relevant increases in the use of statins (38.0% to 49.2%), renin-angiotensin system (RAS) drugs (52.5% to 57.2%), and beta-blockers (14.3% to 22.7%).ConclusionsDuring the 2007-2018 period, relevant improvements in blood pressure and lipid control occurred, especially in people with cardiovascular disease. Despite the increase in the use of antidiabetic and cardiovascular drugs, the proportion of patients in which the three objectives were simultaneously achieved is still insufficient and plateaued after 2013. The use of antidiabetic drugs with demonstrated cardio renal benefits (SGLT-2 and GLP-1ra) increased over the years, but their use remained quite low.

Pill burden and out-of-pocket medication costs of a contemporary heart failure with reduced ejection fraction cohort

Abstract Introduction Modern pharmacological treatment of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) dramatically improves its prognosis. However, the increasingly complexity and associated costs might threat their effective uptake in clinical practice. We aimed to study the pill burden and out-of-pocket costs of cardiovascular drug therapy of a contemporary cohort of HFrEF patients. Methods We performed a retrospective, cross-sectional, single-center study on a convenience sample of 100 consecutive HFrEF patients assessed at our HF outpatient clinic (January-June 2020). The pill burden was assessed by the number of prescribed different cardiovascular drugs and pills per day. The out-of-pocket (OOP) costs were defined using the total patients co-payment of cardiovascular medications per month of treatment, taken in account the exemptions provided by the Portuguese National Health System (NHS). The included drug classes were antiplatelets, anticoagulants, statins, HF drugs (Beta-blockers [BB], angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors [ACEi]/ angiotensin receptor blockers [ARBs]/ angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibition [ARNI], mineralocorticoid antagonists [MRA], sodium glucose cotransport inhibitors [iSGLT2], digoxin, loop diuretic) and antiarrhythmics. Results The mean age was 62±12 years and only 24% were female. The etiology of HF was ischemic in 42% of the patients, 86% were in NYHA II class and 5% in NYHA III-IV. The mean LVEF was 34±5% and the median NT-proBNP was 482 pg/mL [172–1120]. 92% of patients were on BB, 67% on ACEI/ARBs, 25% on ARNI, 81% on MRA and 30% on iSGLT2. The use of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators was 38% and 20% of patients were resynchronized. The number of cardiovascular (CV) drugs per day was 5.4±1.6 per patient and the number of CV pills per day was 6.6±2. Most patients (65%) had low income and had the maximal exemption on medication costs provided by NHS. Overall, the mean OOP costs was €16.1 per month of treatment and the mean OOP costs for patients exempted and not exempted was €12.9 and €22.3, respectively. The mean OOP costs of evidence-based HF-modifying drugs (BB, ACEI/ARBs, ARNI, MRA, iSGLT2) was €10.1 and the mean OOP costs of evidence-based HF-modifying drugs for patients exempted and not exempted were €7.9 and €14.2, respectively. However, for patients on ARNI the mean OOP costs was almost 3 times higher (€33.6). Conclusions In this optimally treated contemporary cohort of HFrEF, the pill burden due to cardiovascular therapy only is high (7 pills/day). With the exception of patients on ARNI, the overall OOP costs of HF-modifying prognostic drugs are low. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.

Cardiovascular drug therapy and surrogate COVID-19 outcomes: which is the impact of the "miraculous" sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors?

Cardiovascular drug therapy and surrogate COVID-19 outcomes: which is the impact of the "miraculous" sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors?

Cardiovascular drug therapy and surrogate COVID-19 outcomes: which is the impact of the "miraculous" sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors? Author's reply.

Cardiovascular drug therapy and surrogate COVID-19 outcomes: which is the impact of the "miraculous" sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors? Author's reply.

Ongoing Citations of a Retracted Study Involving Cardiovascular Disease, Drug Therapy, and Mortality in COVID-19

Ongoing Citations of a Retracted Study Involving Cardiovascular Disease, Drug Therapy, and Mortality in COVID-19

Restricted, optimized or liberal fluid strategy in thoracic surgery: A narrative review.

Perioperative fluid balance has a major impact on clinical and functional outcome, regardless of the type of interventions. In thoracic surgery, patients are more vulnerable to intravenous fluid overload and to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome and other complications. New insight has been gained on the mechanisms causing pulmonary complications and the role of the endothelial glycocalix layer to control fluid transfer from the intravascular to the interstitial spaces and to promote tissue blood flow. With the implementation of standardized processes of care, the preoperative fasting period has become shorter, surgical approaches are less invasive and patients are allowed to resume oral intake shortly after surgery. Intraoperatively, body fluid homeostasis and adequate tissue oxygen delivery can be achieved using a normovolemic therapy targeting a “near-zero fluid balance” or a goal-directed hemodynamic therapy to maximize stroke volume and oxygen delivery according to the Franck–Starling relationship. In both fluid strategies, the use of cardiovascular drugs is advocated to counteract the anesthetic-induced vasorelaxation and maintain arterial pressure whereas fluid intake is limited to avoid cumulative fluid balance exceeding 1 liter and body weight gain (~1-1.5 kg). Modern hemodynamic monitors provide valuable physiological parameters to assess patient volume responsiveness and circulatory flow while guiding fluid administration and cardiovascular drug therapy. Given the lack of randomized clinical trials, controversial debate still surrounds the issues of the optimal fluid strategy and the type of fluids (crystalloids versus colloids). To avoid the risk of lung hydrostatic or inflammatory edema and to enhance the postoperative recovery process, fluid administration should be prescribed as any drug, adapted to the patient's requirement and the context of thoracic intervention.

Pharmacogenetics to guide cardiovascular drug therapy.

Over the past decade, pharmacogenetic testing has emerged in clinical practice to guide selected cardiovascular therapies. The most common implementation in practice is CYP2C19 genotyping to predict clopidogrel response and assist in selecting antiplatelet therapy after percutaneous coronary intervention. Additional examples include genotyping to guide warfarin dosing and statin prescribing. Increasing evidence exists on outcomes with genotype-guided cardiovascular therapies from multiple randomized controlled trials and observational studies. Pharmacogenetic evidence is accumulating for additional cardiovascular medications. However, data for many of these medications are not yet sufficient to support the use of genotyping for drug prescribing. Ultimately, pharmacogenetics might provide a means to individualize drug regimens for complex diseases such as heart failure, in which the treatment armamentarium includes a growing list of medications shown to reduce morbidity and mortality. However, sophisticated analytical approaches are likely to be necessary to dissect the genetic underpinnings of responses to drug combinations. In this Review, we examine the evidence supporting pharmacogenetic testing in cardiovascular medicine, including that available from several clinical trials. In addition, we describe guidelines that support the use of cardiovascular pharmacogenetics, provide examples of clinical implementation of genotype-guided cardiovascular therapies and discuss opportunities for future growth of the field.

Association between cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular drug therapy, and in-hospital outcomes in patients with COVID-19: data from a large single-center registry in Poland.

The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) recently became one of the leading causes of death worldwide, similar to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Coexisting CVD may influence the prognosis of patients with COVID-19. We analyzed the impact of CVD and the use of cardiovascular drugs on the in-hospital course and mortality of patients with COVID-19. We retrospectively studied data for consecutive patients admitted to our hospital, with COVID-19 between March 6th and October 15th, 2020. 1729 patients (median interquartile range age 63 [50-75] years; women 48.8%) were included. Overall, in-hospital mortality was 12.9%. The most prevalent CVD was arterial hypertension (56.1%), followed by hyperlipidemia (27.4%), diabetes mellitus (DM) (25.7%), coronary artery disease (16.8%), heart failure (HF) (10.3%), atrial fibrillation (13.5%), and stroke (8%). Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ACEIs/ARBs) were used in 25.0% of patients, β-blockers in 40.7%, statins in 15.6%, and antiplatelet therapy in 19.9%. Age over 65 years (odds ratio [OR], 6.4; 95% CI, 4.3-9.6), male sex (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.1-2.0), pre-existing DM (OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.1-2.1), and HF (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.5-3.5) were independent predictors of in-hospital death, whereas treatment with ACEIs/ARBs (OR, 0.4; 95% CI, 0.3-0.6), β-blockers (OR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.4-0.9), statins (OR, 0.5; 95% CI, 0.3-0.8), or antiplatelet therapy (OR, 0.6; 95% CI: 0.4-0.9) was associated with lower risk of death. Among cardiovascular risk factors and diseases, HF and DM appeared to increase in-hospital COVID-19 mortality, whereas the use of cardiovascular drugs was associated with lower mortality.

Exercise tolerance and quality of life in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is known to impact on patients' physical and mental health. The relationship between performance on treadmill exercise tolerance test (ETT) and health-related quality of life (HRQL)has never been specifically investigated in the setting of CAD. Consecutive patients undergoing an ETT with the Bruce protocol during a diagnostic workup for CAD (n = 1,631, age 55 ± 12years) were evaluated. Exercise-related indices were recorded. Detailed information on cardiovascular risk factors and past medical history were obtained. HRQLwas assessed with the use of the validated 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36) questionnaire. Increasing age and the presence of cardiovascular risk factors and comorbidities correlated with lower scores on the physical and mental health component of SF-36(all P < 0.05). Subjects with arrhythmias during exercise and slow recovery of systolic blood pressure had lower scores on the physical health indices or the Social Role Functioning component (P < 0.05). Achieved target heart rate and good exercise tolerance were independently associated with better scores of the physical and mental health domains of SF-36 and overall HRQLscores (β = 0.05 for target HR and PCS-36, β = 1.86 and β = 1.66 per increasing stage of exercise tolerance and PCS-36 and MCS-36, respectively, P < 0.001 for all associations). Ischemic ECG changes were associated with worse scores on Physical Functioning (β = - 3.2, P = 0.02) and Bodily Pain (β = - 4.55, P = 0.026). ETT parameters are associated with HRQL indices in patients evaluated for possible CAD. Physical conditioning may increase patient well-being and could serve as a complementary target in conjunction with cardiovascular drug therapy.

COVID-19 mortality among kidney transplant candidates is strongly associated with social determinants of health.

The COVID‐19 pandemic has affected all portions of the global population. However, many factors have been shown to be particularly associated with COVID‐19 mortality including demographic characteristics, behavior, comorbidities, and social conditions. Kidney transplant candidates may be particularly vulnerable to COVID‐19 as many are dialysis‐dependent and have comorbid conditions. We examined factors associated with COVID‐19 mortality among kidney transplant candidates from the National Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients from March 1 to December 1, 2020. We evaluated crude rates and multivariable incident rate ratios (IRR) of COVID‐19 mortality. There were 131 659 candidates during the study period with 3534 all‐cause deaths and 384 denoted a COVID‐19 cause (5.00/1000 person years). Factors associated with increased COVID‐19 mortality included increased age, males, higher body mass index, and diabetes. In addition, Blacks (IRR = 1.96, 95% C.I.: 1.43–2.69) and Hispanics (IRR = 3.38, 95% C.I.: 2.46–4.66) had higher COVID‐19 mortality relative to Whites. Patients with lower educational attainment, high school or less (IRR = 1.93, 95% C.I.: 1.19–3.12, relative to post‐graduate), Medicaid insurance (IRR = 1.73, 95% C.I.: 1.26–2.39, relative to private), residence in most distressed neighborhoods (fifth quintile IRR = 1.93, 95% C.I.: 1.28–2.90, relative to first quintile), and most urban and most rural had higher adjusted rates of COVID‐19 mortality. Among kidney transplant candidates in the United States, social determinants of health in addition to demographic and clinical factors are significantly associated with COVID‐19 mortality.