Background: Improvement in exercise capacity is a main goal of cardiac rehabilitation but the effects are often lost at long-term follow-up and thus also the benefits on prognosis. We assessed whether improvement in VO_2peak during a cardiac rehabilitation programme predicts long-term prognosis. Methods and results: We performed a retrospective analysis of 1561 cardiac patients completing cardiac rehabilitation in 2011–2017 in Copenhagen. Mean age was 63.6 (11) years, 74% were male and 84% had coronary artery disease, 6% chronic heart failure and 10% heart valve replacement. The association between baseline VO_2peak and improvement after cardiac rehabilitation and being readmitted for cardiovascular disease and/or all-cause mortality was assessed with three different analyses: Cox regression for the combined outcome, for all-cause mortality and a multi-state model. During a median follow-up of 2.3 years, 167 readmissions for cardiovascular disease and 77 deaths occurred. In adjusted Cox regression there was a non-linear decreasing risk of the combined outcome with higher baseline VO_2peak and with improvement of VO_2peak after cardiac rehabilitation. A similar linear association was seen for all-cause mortality. Applying the multi-state model, baseline VO_2peak and change in VO_2peak were associated with risk of a cardiovascular disease readmission and with all-cause mortality but not with mortality in those having an intermediate readmission for cardiovascular disease. Conclusion: VO_2peak as well as change in VO_2peak were highly predictive of future risk of readmissions for cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. The predictive value did not extend beyond the next admission for a cardiovascular event.

Background: There are no firm recommendations when cytology should be performed in pleural transudates, since some malignant pleural effusions (MPEs) behave biochemically as transudates. The objective was to assess when would be justified to perform cytology on pleural transudates. Methods: Consecutive patients with transudative pleural effusion (PE) were enrolled and divided in two groups: malignant and non-MPE. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the probability of malignancy. Two prognostic models were considered: (I) clinical-radiological variables; and (II) combination of clinical-radiological and analytical variables. Calibration and discrimination [receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves and area under the curve (AUC)] were performed. Results: A total of 281 pleural transudates were included: 26 malignant and 255 non-malignant. The AUC obtained with Model 1 (left PE, radiological images compatible with malignancy, absence of dyspnea, and serosanguinous appearance of the fluid), and Model 2 (the variables of Model 1 plus CEA) were 0.973 and 0.995, respectively. Although no false negatives are found in Models 1 and 2 to probabilities of 11% and 14%, respectively, by applying bootstrapping techniques to not find false negatives in 95% of other possible samples would require lowering the cut-off points for the aforementioned probabilities to 3% (Model 1) and 4% (Model 2), respectively. The false positive results are 32 (Model 1) and 18 (Model 2), with no false negatives. Conclusions: The applied models have a high discriminative ability to predict when a transudative PE may be of neoplastic origin, being superior to adding an analytical variable to the clinic-radiological variables.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is indicated in symptomatic heart failure (HF) patients after achieving optimal medical therapy. However, there are still a large percentage of patients who do not respond to CRT. Malnutrition is a frequent comorbidity in patients with HF, and it is associated with a poorer prognosis. Here, we evaluate the nutritional status of patients assessed by Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score and its association with structural remodeling and cardiovascular events. We investigated the effect of CONUT on HF/death in 302 consecutive patients with a CRT device implanted between 2005 and 2015 in a single tertiary center. We categorized the patients into three groups: normal nutritional status (CONUT 0-1), mild malnutrition (CONUT 2-4) and moderate-severe malnutrition (CONUT ≥ 5). Changes in nutritional status were assessed in patients with mild-to-severe malnutrition prior to CRT. One hundred and forty-eight patients exhibited normal nutritional status (49.0%), 99 patients exhibited mild malnutrition (32.8%) and 55 patients exhibited moderate-severe malnutrition (18.2%). CONUT scores of at least 2 were associated with higher risk of HF/death compared with CONUT 0-1. Significant left ventricular (LV) reverse remodeling was noted in patients with better nutritional status. In addition, those malnutrition patients at baseline that improved nutritional state exhibited fewer HF/death events at follow-up. CONUT score prior to CRT was an independent risk factor of death/HF and was correlated with LV reverse remodeling. Improvements in CONUT score during long-term follow-up were associated with a reduction in the rate of HF/death.

Background: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is indicated in symptomatic heart failure (HF) patients after achieving optimal medical therapy (OMT). However, many patients may not be under OMT when the CRT device is implanted. Here, we evaluate the long‐term benefits of CRT in symptomatic HF patients receiving or not OMT.Methods: We investigated the effect of OMT on HF developing or death in 328 consecutive patients with a CRT device implanted between 2005 and 2015 in a single tertiary center. After the CRT implant, we categorized the patients into three groups: no OMT, OMT at baseline and after 1 year of follow‐up, and OMT only at the 1‐year follow‐up but not at baseline. We used multivariate Cox proportional hazards model to determine the effect of OMT on clinical outcomes.Results: One hundred and twenty‐two patients (37.2%) received OMT prior to CRT. OMT at baseline was not associated with a reduced risk of death or HF (HR 0.72; 95% CI 0.50‐1.02; P = 0.067) compared with no‐basal‐OMT patients. After CRT, patients without OMT had a higher risk of death or HF than patients who received OMT in follow‐up (HR 1.72, 95% CI 1.07‐2.78, P = 0.025), and the risk of the patients who received OMT at baseline and at the 1‐year follow‐up was similar to that of the patients who achieved OMT at the 1‐year follow‐up (HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.54‐1.50, P = 0.682).Conclusion: Basal OMT prior to CRT is not associated with better outcomes in terms of HF/death compared with no basal OMT. The subgroup of patients who achieved OMT at the 1‐year follow‐up exhibited a reduced risk of HF and death compared with patients who did not.