The GOSPEL trial, the rationale and design of which we present here, was designed to test a new strategy of secondary prevention delivery and to raise standards of long-term secondary prevention in Italy. With a cohort of over 3200 patients, GOSPEL is the largest randomized, multifactorial lifestyle and risk factor intervention trial after myocardial infarction conducted so far.

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Chronic heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Through shared risk factors and pathophysiological mechanisms, CHF and COPD frequently coexist. The concurrent disease has important therapeutic implications and independently predicts worsened mortality, impaired functional status, and health service use. However, assessment of the comorbidity varies widely according to the population studied, diagnostic criteria and measurement tools applied. Both syndromes have been studied extensively but largely separately, mostly in the domain of the pulmonologist for COPD and in the domain of the cardiologist for CHF

AimsWe hypothesized that left atrial (LA) remodelling and function are associated with poor exercise capacity as prognostic marker in chronic heart failure (CHF) across a broad range of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Methods and resultsOne hundred seventy-one patients with CHF were analysed [age 65 ± 11 years, 136 males (80%); 86 heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), 27 heart failure with mid-range ejection fraction (HFmrEF), 58 heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF)]. All patients underwent echocardiography and maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing and were classified according to a prognostic cut-off of peak VO 2 (pVO 2 ; 14 mL/kg/min). Seventy-seven (45%) patients reached pVO 2 < 14 and 94 (55%) pVO 2 ≥ 14 mL/kg/min. Between the two groups, there was a considerable difference in both left atrial volume (LAVi, 53 ± 24 vs. 44 ± 18 mL/m 2 , P = 0.005) and function (LA reservoir strain 12 ± 5 vs. 20 ± 10%, P < 0.0001). Receiver-operating characteristic curves identified LA reservoir strain (area under the curve: 0.73 [0.65-0.80], P < 0.0001) as strong predictor for impaired pVO 2 among all echocardiographic variables; LA reservoir strain < 23% had 37% specificity but a very high sensitivity (96%) in identifying a severely reduced pVO 2 . In logistic regression analysis, LA reservoir strain < 23% was associated with a highly increased risk of pVO 2 < 14 mL/kg/min (odds ratio 16.0 [4.7-54.6]; P < 0.0001). The multivariate analysis showed that a reduced LA reservoir strain was associated with pVO 2 < 14 mL/kg/min after adjustment for age, body mass index (BMI), and clinical variables, that is, New York Heart Association class, atrial fibrillation, haemoglobin, and creatinine (b 0.22 [95% confidence interval, CI, 0.12-0.31]; P < 0.0001), and after adjustment for echocardiographic variables, that is, LVEF or left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LVGLS) and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) (b 0.16 [95% CI 0.08-0.24]; P < 0.0001). Patients with HFrEF, HFmrEF, and HFpEF were separately analysed. Among LA reservoir strain, LAVi, LVEF, LVGLS, and TAPSE, LA reservoir strain was the only one significantly associated with pVO 2 in all subgroups (after adjustment for sex and BMI, P = 0.003, 0.04, and 0.01, respectively). Conclusions In patients with CHF, an impaired LA reservoir function is independently associated with a severely reduced pVO 2 . LA dysfunction represents a marker of poor prognosis across LVEF borders in the CHF population.

Background Recently, the COMPASS trial demonstrated that dual therapy reduced cardiovascular outcomes compared with aspirin alone in patients with stable atherosclerotic disease. Methods and Results We sought to assess the proportion of patients eligible for the COMPASS trial and to compare the epidemiology and outcome of these patients with those without COMPASS inclusion or with any exclusion criteria in a contemporary, nationwide cohort of patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD). Among the 4068 patients with detailed information allowing evaluation of eligibility, 1416 (34.8%) did not fulfill the inclusion criteria (COMPASS-Not-Included), 841 (20.7%) had exclusion criteria (COMPASS-Excluded) and the remaining 1811 (44.5%) were classified as COMPASS-Like. At 1 year, the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE), a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction and stroke, was 0.9% in the COMPASS-Not-Included and 2.0% in the COMPASS-Like (p = 0.01), and 5.0% in the COMPASS-Excluded group (p &lt; 0.0001 for all comparisons). Among the COMPASS-Like population, patients with multiple COMPASS enrichment criteria presented a significant increase in the risk of MACE (from 1.0% to 3.3% in those with 1 and ≥3 criteria, respectively; p = 0.012), and a modest absolute increase in major bleeding risk (from 0.2% to 0.4%, respectively; p = 0.46). Conclusions In a contemporary real-world cohort registry of stable CAD, most patients resulted as eligible for the COMPASS. These patients presented a considerable annual risk of MACE that consistently increases in the presence of multiple risk factors.

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Non steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are largely used for treatment of acute and chronic pain, even for long periods of time (months or years). While it is known that their use is frequently associated with gastrointestinal damage, including major bleedings from peptic ulcer, the risk of cardiovascular events related to NSAID has received much less attention. However, there is a large body of evidence showing that NSAIDs (both "traditional", such as diclofenac or indobufen, and selective cyclooxygenase inhibitors, COX-2) are associated with a significant increase of risk of cardiovascular events, both fatal and nonfatal. Consequently, several options have been proposed for the treatment of pain, including the use of analgesic drugs with different mechanisms of action, such as the opiates. Of interest, the Italian Drug Agency (AIFA) published a few years ago a warning (Nota 66) on the careful prescription of NSAIDs in patients with overt heart disease, such as coronary artery disease and heart failure. Aim of this paper is to present the current status of knowledge on the proper use of NSAIDs and other analgesic drugs in the management of acute and chronic pain.

BackgroundSeveral studies have reported that the combination of high TG and low HDL-C, as simplified by the TG/HDL-C ratio, was a predictor of cardiovascular disease independent of LDL-C level. Nevertheless, poor data are available on the predictive role of TG/HDL-C ratio in very high risk (VHR) patients with chronic coronary syndromes (CCS).MethodsUsing the data from the STable Coronary Artery Diseases RegisTry (START) study, an Italian nationwide registry, we assessed the association between the TG/HDL-C ratio and baseline clinical characteristics, pharmacological treatment, and major adverse cardio-cerebrovascular events (MACCE) at 1 year in a large cohort of CCS patients at VHR.ResultsVHR patients with both TG and HDL-C levels available were grouped in tertiles of TG/HDL-C ratio: low (TG/HDL-C ratio &lt;2, n = 967), middle (TG/HDL-C ratio 2–3.3, n = 1,071) and high (TG/HDL-C ratio &gt;3.3, n = 1,028). At 1 year from enrolment, 232 (7.6%) patients presented a MACCE, with a higher incidence in the higher tertile, even though not statistically significant (6.0, 8.2, and 8.4% in the low, middle and high tertile, respectively; p = 0.08). At multivariable analysis, the TG/HDL-C ratio in tertiles did not result an independent predictor of the MACCE (p = 0.29) at 1-year follow-up (HR: 1.30; 95% CI: 0.93–1.82; p = 0.12 middle vs. lower tertile, and HR: 1.22; 95% CI: 0.87–1.72; p = 0.25 higher vs. lower).ConclusionsIn the present large, nationwide cohort of CCS patients at VHR a high TG/HD ratio did not emerge as independent predictor of MACCE at 1 year. Further studies with a longer follow-up are needed to better define the prognostic role of TG/HDL ratio in CCS.