The signature of the Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences signifies that the student has met all master's degree graduation requirements of the school. Dedication I would like to dedicate this thesis to my wife Mollie and my children Gavin and Iain. Without the support of my family as I pursue my academic career this thesis would not have been possible. Acknowledgements I would al...

CONTEXT The heart failure (HF) syndrome is heterogeneous. While it can be defined by ejection fraction (EF) and diastolic function, data on the characteristics of HF in the community are scarce, as most studies are retrospective, hospital-based, and rely on clinically indicated tests. Further, diastolic function is seldom systematically assessed based on standardized techniques. OBJECTIVE To ...

Acute heart failure (AHF) is the most common primary diagnosis for hospitalized heart diseases in Africa. As increased fatty acid β-oxidation (FAO) during heart failure triggers detrimental effects on the myocardium, we hypothesized that trimetazidine (TMZ) (partial FAO inhibitor) offers cardioprotection under normal and obese-related diabetic conditions. Hearts were isolated from 12-14-week-ol...

Left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction induces the increase of LV diastolic pressure and subsequently of left atrial and pulmonary capillary pressures independent of systolic function, resulting in the onset of heart failure. In the early 1990s, several clinical studies demonstrated that diastolic dysfunction is an independent prognostic factor in patients with heart failure with reduced e...

AIMS Although dyspnoea is the most common cause of admission for acute heart failure (AHF), more needs to be known about its clinical course and prognostic significance. METHODS AND RESULTS The Pre-RELAX-AHF study randomized 232 subjects with AHF to placebo or four doses of relaxin and evaluated early (6-24 h Likert scale) and persistent [change in visual analogue scale area under the curve (...

background: cystatin c (cys c) has been implicated as a prognostic marker in cardiovascular disease. the aim of this study was to evaluate the value of cys c as a marker of acute kidney injury (aki) in acute heart failure (ahf), the impact of cys c and n-terminal probrain natriuretic peptides (nt-probnp) on in-hospital and 12 months mortality were also investigated. materials and methods: a tot...

The Fibrosis-4 (FIB4) index could indicate the liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatic diseases. It was calculated using following formula: (age × aspartate aminotransferase [U/L]) / (platelet count [103/μL] √alanine [U/L]). However, clinical impact of FIB4 acute phase heart failure (AHF) has not been sufficiently investigated.

Background A significant proportion of patients develop heart failure (HF) after acute myocardial infarction (MI). Predicting this development with novel biomarkers would allow tailoring healthcare to each individual. We recently identified a circular RNA called MICRA which was associated with HF development after MI. Here, we tested whether MICRA was able to risk stratify MI patients. Method...

Previous studies of non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE ACSs) complicated by heart failure (HF) have focused primarily on patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction defined by an ejection fraction (EF) <40%. Little is known about HF with preserved systolic function (EF > or =40%) in the NSTE ACS population. We identified high-risk patients with NSTE ACS (ischemic el...

The increasing rate of cardiovascular disorders contributes to rising hospitalized patients receive chronic oral beta-blocker therapy. Beta-blockers remain one the fundamental therapy for heart failure. Still, their role in decompensated failure and severe sepsis during hospitalization is often debated inconsistent clinical practice. In recent years, evidence efficacy outcomes beta-blockers acu...