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Heart failure is a highly prevalent disease, which courses with frequent readmissions, mainly by Acute Heart Failure (AHF). Reduced renal function is associated with increased mortality in patients with HF. Therefore, an accurate and precise evaluation of renal function in patients with HF is crucial. The error of estimated GFR (eGFR) is wide and common, showing a ± 30% variability compared to measured GFR (mGFR). However, there is no evidence on the error of formulas in reflecting real renal function and particularly the consequences of this error in patients with AHF. This is a prospective study comparing the impact of mGFR versus eGFR in the onset of cardiovascular (CV) outcomes in patients with AHF. This was tested with cox survival analysis. Measured GFR was determined by the plasma clearance of iohexol-dbs and eGFR by Cockroft-Gould, MDRD, CKD-EPI creatinine, CKD-EPI cystatin-C and CKD-EPI creatinine + cystatin-C equations formulas. Also the agreement between mGFR and eGFR was analyzed. A total of 90 patients were included. Average age was 66 (± 12 years) and 52 (58%) were male. Of them 53 patients (59%) had a cardiovascular event during follow-up, 22 fatal (41%). The agreement between mGFR and eGFR indicated moderate precision and accuracy (concordance correlation coefficient of 0.77; CI = 0.73–0.82). In multiple cox survival analysis, mGFR was significantly associated with cardiovascular events together with NTproBNP, BMI, LVEF and previous coronary artery disease (p = 0.037; HR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.95–0.99). Estimated GFR by formulas was not significant. In patients with AHF the error of formulas is large, frequent and random, also, mGFR and not eGFR predicted future CV events. The error of eGFR may have clinical consequences in specific subpopulations.

Cardiogenic shock (CS) is associated with a high in-hospital mortality despite the achieved advances in diagnosis and management. Invasive mechanical ventilation and circulatory support constitute the highest step in cardiogenic shock therapy. Once established, taking the decision of weaning from such support is challenging. Intensive care unit (ICU) bedside echocardiography provides noninvasive, immediate, and low-cost monitoring of hemodynamic parameters such as cardiac output, filling pressure, structural disease, congestion status, and device functioning. Supplemented by an ultrasound of the lung and diaphragm, it is able to provide valuable information about signs suggesting a weaning failure. The aim of this article was to review the state of the art taking into account current evidence and knowledge on ICU bedside ultrasound for the evaluation of weaning from mechanical ventilation and circulatory support in cardiogenic shock.

Melatonin, an endogenously produced hormone, might potentially limit the ischemia reperfusion injury and improve the efficacy of mechanical reperfusion with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). This study was aimed to evaluate whether the treatment effect of melatonin therapy in patients with STEMI is influenced by the time to administration. We performed a post hoc analysis of the Melatonin Adjunct in the Acute Myocardial Infarction Treated With Angioplasty trial (NCT00640094), which randomized STEMI patients to melatonin (intravenous and intracoronary bolus) or placebo during pPCI. Randomized patients were divided into tertiles according to symptoms onset to balloon time: first tertile (136 ± 23 minutes), second tertile (196 ± 19 minutes), and third tertile (249 ± 41 minutes). Magnetic resonance imaging was performed within 1 week after pPCI. A total of 146 patients presenting with STEMI within 360 minutes of chest pain onset were randomly allocated to intravenous and intracoronary melatonin or placebo during pPCI. In the first tertile, the infarct size was significantly smaller in the melatonin-treated subjects compared with placebo (14.6 ± 14.2 vs 24.9 ± 9.0%; p = 0.003). Contrariwise, treatment with melatonin was associated with a larger infarct size in the group of patients included in the third tertile (20.5 ± 8.7% vs 11.2 ± 5.2%; p = 0.001), resulting in a significant interaction (p = 0.001). In conclusion, the administration of melatonin in patients with STEMI who presented early after symptom onset was associated with a significant reduction in the infarct size after pPCI.