Background and Purpose: Natriuretic peptides have led the way as a diagnostic and prognostic tool for the diagnosis and management of heart failure (HF). More recent evidence suggests that natriuretic peptides along with the next generation of biomarkers may provide added value to medical management, which could potentially lower risk of mortality and readmissions. The purpose of this scientific statement is to summarize the existing literature and to provide guidance for the utility of currently available biomarkers. Methods: The writing group used systematic literature reviews, published translational and clinical studies, clinical practice guidelines, and expert opinion/statements to summarize existing evidence and to identify areas of inadequacy requiring future research. The panel reviewed the most relevant adult medical literature excluding routine laboratory tests using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science through December 2016. The document is organized and classified according to the American Heart Association to provide specific suggestions, considerations, or contemporary clinical practice recommendations. Results: A number of biomarkers associated with HF are well recognized, and measuring their concentrations in circulation can be a convenient and noninvasive approach to provide important information about disease severity and helps in the detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and management of HF. These include natriuretic peptides, soluble suppressor of tumorgenicity 2, highly sensitive troponin, galectin-3, midregional proadrenomedullin, cystatin-C, interleukin-6, procalcitonin, and others. There is a need to further evaluate existing and novel markers for guiding therapy and to summarize their data in a standardized format to improve communication among researchers and practitioners. Conclusions: HF is a complex syndrome involving diverse pathways and pathological processes that can manifest in circulation as biomarkers. A number of such biomarkers are now clinically available, and monitoring their concentrations in blood not only can provide the clinician information about the diagnosis and severity of HF but also can improve prognostication and treatment strategies.

Heart failure (HF) care takes place in multiple settings, with a variety of providers, and generally involves patients who have multiple comorbidities. This situation is a "perfect storm" of factors that predispose patients to medication errors. The goals of this paper are to outline potential roles for clinical pharmacists in a multidisciplinary HF team, to document outcomes associated with interventions by clinical pharmacists, to recommend minimum training for clinical pharmacists engaged in HF care, and to suggest financial strategies to support clinical pharmacy services within a multidisciplinary team. As patients transition from inpatient to outpatient settings and between multiple caregivers, pharmacists can positively affect medication reconciliation and education, assure consistency in management that results in improvements in patient satisfaction and medication adherence, and reduce medication errors. For mechanical circulatory support and heart transplant teams, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services considers the participation of a transplant pharmacology expert (e.g., clinical pharmacist) to be a requirement for accreditation, given the highly specialized and complex drug regimens used. Although reports of outcomes from pharmacist interventions have been mixed owing to differences in study design, benefits such as increased use of evidence-based therapies, decreases in HF hospitalizations and emergency department visits, and decreases in all-cause readmissions have been demonstrated. Clinical pharmacists participating in HF or heart transplant teams should have completed specialized postdoctoral training in the form of residencies and/or fellowships in cardiovascular and/or transplant pharmacotherapy, and board certification is recommended. Financial mechanisms to support pharmacist participation in the HF teams are variable. Positive outcomes associated with clinical pharmacist activities support the value of making this resource available to HF teams.

Postoperative elongation of the infrarenal aortic neck may create the radiographic perception of migration without necessarily causing a loss of proximal stent graft fixation. Patients with a total loss of the proximal seal zone actually have infrarenal aortic neck shortening, with a degree of neck dilatation beyond initial device oversizing that may compromise proximal fixation length. Conversely, those with an intact proximal seal zone demonstrate aortic neck elongation equivalent to migration, with no loss of proximal fixation length; these patients have a benign natural history without intervention. Thus, aortic neck dilatation beyond oversizing, aortic neck shortening, and loss of proximal fixation length are more clinically relevant predictors of proximal stent graft failure than simple migration distance.

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Enoxaparin is a low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) that has been shown to be effective in deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and unstable angina. Because renal function plays an important role in the clearance of LMWH, the authors sought to investigate the effect of renal function on enoxaparin. This prospective multiple-dose study evaluated 18 patients with varying degrees of renal function initiated on enoxaparin 1 mg/kg subcutaneously every 12 hours. Peak blood levels of anti-Xa concentrations were obtained 4 +/- 0.5 hours postdose after receiving at least three doses of enoxaparin. The median antifactor Xa levels were higher in patients with creatinine clearance (CLCr) < or = 30 mL/min compared to CLCr > or = 31 mL/min (1.34 IU/mL vs. 0.91 IU/mL, respectively, p < 0.05). A linear correlation was established between creatinine clearance and anti-Xa concentrations (p < 0.0005). On the basis of the data, the authors believe that a dose adjustment is necessary in patients receiving repeated doses of enoxaparin with CLCr < or = 30 mL/min.

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Enoxaparin is a low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) that has been shown to be effective in deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and unstable angina. Because renal function plays an important role in the clearance of LMWH, the authors sought to investigate the effect of renal function on enoxaparin. This prospective multiple-dose study evaluated 18 patients with varying degrees of renal function initiated on enoxaparin 1 mg/kg subcutaneously every 12 hours. Peak blood levels of anti-Xa concentrations were obtained 4 +/- 0.5 hours postdose after receiving at least three doses of enoxaparin. The median antifactor Xa levels were higher in patients with creatinine clearance (CLCr) < or = 30 mL/min compared to CLCr > or = 31 mL/min (1.34 IU/mL vs. 0.91 IU/mL, respectively, p < 0.05). A linear correlation was established between creatinine clearance and anti-Xa concentrations (p < 0.0005). On the basis of the data, the authors believe that a dose adjustment is necessary in patients receiving repeated doses of enoxaparin with CLCr < or = 30 mL/min.