Gorsi, Umama

Background: Diagnosis of Takotsubo’s Cardiomyopathy (TC) remains a challenge due to similar presentation to acute coronary syndrome. Coronary catheterization (CC) proven clean coronaries is important to diagnose TC. However, it is not uncommon that CC is occasionally delayed due to unstable medical condition and/or high risk for CC. We hypothesized that patients with TC had similar outcomes whether they underwent CC at presentation or were diagnosed using non-invasive imaging techniques. Methods: Retrospective chart review of data from Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island and Kent Hospital, two community based hospitals, from June 2008 to March 2016 was done. Thirty nine adult patients > 18 years of age admitted to the intensive care unit or medical floor with chest pain, shortness of breath, elevated troponin, EKG changes, and new non-regional wall motion abnormalities or reduce ejection fraction, with suspected TC were enrolled. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on diagnostic approach of TC: Baseline echo findings suggestive of TC with EF improvement at follow up (non-CC) vs. clean coronaries by CC. Outcomes of the two groups were compared using Chi-square analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Mann-Whitney Test appropriately. Results: Out of 39 patients, 20 underwent CC while 19 did not. Mean age was not different between the 2 groups (69.1±11.8 vs. 62.4±14.0, p= NS) but CC group had more females (95 %, 19 of 20 vs 68.4%, 13 of 19; p=0.031). Most common chief complaint at the time of admission in both groups was shortness of breath (60.0%, 12 of 20 vs 68.4%, 13 of 19; p=0.548). Admission heart rate was significantly higher in non-CC vs. CC patients (102.3± 19.3 vs 85.4±85.4; p=0.007). Third troponin was higher in non-CC group (1.926 ± 2.667 vs 0.775± 1.378, p=0.017). All other admission and in-hospital findings and drug management in both groups were similar. Both CC and non-CC groups had comparable outcomes: intubation (15%, 3 of 20 vs 21.1%, 4 of 19) , heart failure (21.2 %, 4 of 20 vs 15.8%, 3 of 19), shock (0 %, 0 of 20 vs 5.3% 1 of 19 ), stroke (5 %, 1 of 20 vs 0%, 0 of 19), death (5.3 % 1 of 20 vs 5.3% 1 of 19 ), recovery (65%,13 of 20 vs 52.9 % 10 of 19) p=NS for all. ICU admission (42.1%, 8 of 20 vs 52.6%, 10 of 19; p=NS) and length of stay (8.21±7.82 days vs 5.75±5.67 days; p=NS) was not significantly different between the 2 groups. Both groups showed analogous improvement in ejection fraction (21.92 ± 13.96 vs 20.63 ± 13.21; p= 0.835) on a follow up Echo done within 2 weeks to 6 months. Conclusion: This study shows no difference in outcomes between TC patients diagnosed with CC or TTE on admission. However, CC should still be done on admission for diagnosis of TC until large non-invasive diagnostic imaging modalities (such as myocardial perfusion echocardiogram) trials show high specificity for diagnosis of TC.

Background: The relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and heart failure (HF) has been under-researched especially in postmenopausal women. We therefore evaluated relationship between OSA risk factors and HFpEF and HFrEF in post-menopausal women. Methods: We performed a prospective analysis of a subset of participants who had adjudicated heart failure outcomes (n=42,362) in the Women Health Initiative Observational, Clinical Trial, and Extension Studies (1998-Present). The cohort was followed over an average of 13.4 years. Inverse probability weighting was employed to account for potential selection bias. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to examine the association between OSA risk factors and time to first hospitalized HF. Type of heart failure was determined using the ejection fraction (EF) obtained from 2D echocardiography. EF of ≥45% was categorized as HFpEF, and EF of < 45% was categorized as HFrEF. Models were adjusted for age, race/ethnicity, education, income, marital status, systolic blood pressure, waist-to-hip ratio, diabetes, coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation, use of hormone replacement therapy, use of sleep medications, modified Charlson comorbidity index, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and hysterectomy. We also created an OSA summary score (obesity, snoring, poor sleep quality, sleep fragmentation, daytime sleepiness, and hypertension) based on the Berlin questionnaire, which reliably predicts OSA, to examine its relationship with HF. Results: Of the 42,362 women, 1,054 (2.49%) had preserved EF, and 631 (1.49%) had reduced EF. Four of the 6 risk factors (obesity (HR=1.51, 95% CI 1.29-1.76), snoring (HR=1.23, 95% CI 1.04-1.45), sleep fragmentation (HR=1.15, 95% CI 1.01-1.31), and hypertension (HR=1.46, 95% CI 1.31-1.62)) were associated HFpEF after adjusting for confounders. Each additional OSA risk factor in an OSA summary score compared to no risk factors significantly increased the risk of HFpEF in a dose-response fashion (HR=1.36, 1.61, 2.01, 1.97, 2.02, and 2.74 for scores of 1-6, respectively; P trend <0.001) and not HFrEF (P trend =0.26). Only hypertension was associated with HFrEF (HR=1.39, 95% CI 1.22-1.60). Conclusion: Having more OSA risk factors increases the risk of HFpEF but not HFrEF in postmenopausal women. Early recognition and management of OSA risk factors may play an important role in reducing risk of HFpEF in this population.