Die Gruppe der Kardiomyopathien hat in den letzten Jahren verstärkt Aufmerksamkeit erhalten, nachdem einige ihrer Ursachen identifiziert und sie mithilfe moderner Bildgebungsmethoden genauer charakterisiert werden konnten. Regelmäßig wurden von nationalen und internationalen Fachgesellschaften neue Definitionen und Klassifikationsschemata bereitgestellt. Die neue Leitlinie der...
Die Videosprechstunde ist eine Möglichkeit der ortsunabhängigen Arzt-Patienten-Kommunikation. Bei Möglichkeit der alleinigen Anwendung seit 2018 liegen jedoch nur eingeschränkte Informationen vor. Nach Einführung der Videosprechstunde (Viomedi) in der Lipidsprechstunde der Universitätsmedizin Mainz wurden die Patienten im Q1-2022 nach Möglichkeit, Eignung und Bereitschaft zur...
Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) has been established as a quantitative imaging biomarker associated with disease severity in coronary heart disease. Our aim was to use this prognostic marker derived from computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) for the prediction of mortality and prognosis in patients with acute pulmonary embolism. The clinical database was...
This retrospective observational study investigated the relationship between heart rate variability (HRV) and atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) by cryoballoon or radiofrequency ablation (RF). We enrolled 497 patients who underwent PVI using first-generation cryoballoon (CB1), second-generation cryoballoon (CB2), or RF. We analyzed HRV as a...
Invasive cardiac output (CO) is measured with the thermodilution (TD) or the indirect Fick method (iFM) in right heart catheterization (RHC). The iFM estimates CO using approximation formulas for oxygen consumption ( $$\dot {\mathrm{V}}$$ O2), but there are significant discrepancies (> 20%) between both methods. Although regularly applied, the formula proposed by Krakau has not...
On 8 January 2023, after 3 years of pandemic control, China changed its management of COVID-19, applying measures against class B infectious diseases instead of Class A infectious diseases. This signaled the end of the dynamic zero-COVID policy and the reopening of the country. With a population of 1.41 billion, China’s reopening policy during the COVID-19 pandemic has been...
Arrhythmic manifestations of COVID-19 include atrial arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter, sinus node dysfunction, atrioventricular conduction abnormalities, ventricular tachyarrhythmias, sudden cardiac arrest, and cardiovascular dysautonomias including the so-called long COVID syndrome. Various pathophysiological mechanisms have been implicated, such as...
The causes of cardiac inflammation during the COVID-19 pandemic are manifold and complex, and may have changed with different virus variants and vaccinations. The underlying viral etiology is self-evident, but its role in the pathogenic process is diverse. The view of many pathologists that myocyte necrosis and cellular infiltrates are indispensable for myocarditis does not...
The COVID-19 pandemic placed a significant burden on the German healthcare system. Based on the experience of severe disease progression of the SARS-CoV‑2 infection from neighboring European countries in the early 2020s, with ICU overload and high mortality rates, efforts were made in Germany to increase the capacity of available ICU beds. Subsequently, all documentation and...
Excess mortality is often used to assess the health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It involves comparing the number of deaths observed during the pandemic with the number of deaths that would counterfactually have been expected in the absence of the pandemic. However, published data on excess mortality often vary even for the same country. The reason for these discrepancies is...
In November 2019, Wuhan, a city in Central China, became the center of an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause, which was later named “coronavirus disease 2019” (COVID-19). COVID-19 is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. The emergence of novel SARS-CoV‑2 strains and mutations exerted a serious global public health...
After the first COVID-19 survivors were medically treated in Germany from spring 2020 onwards, various courses of the disease emerged that, in addition to the acute infection, led to prolonged symptoms (long COVID), but also to a symptomatic course beyond 12 weeks, which is referred to as “post-COVID syndrome” (PCS). Currently, the incidence of PCS is estimated to be...
A survey conducted by the German Socio-Economic Panel during the early phase of the SARS-CoV‑2 pandemic in spring 2020 showed that the perceived risks of SARS-CoV‑2 infection were a massive overestimation of the actual risks. A total of 5783 people (2.3% missing data) stated how likely they thought it was that SARS-CoV‑2 would cause a life-threatening illness in them in the next...
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in numerous cases of illness and death worldwide. Research has shown that there are associations between transmission, as well as the severity of SARS-CoV‑2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) infections, and various environmental factors. For example, air pollution with particulate matter is thought to...
The COVID-19 pandemic led to an enormous burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Causal therapy is still in its infancy. Contrary to initial views that the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi)/angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) may increase the risk for a deleterious disease course, it has been shown that these agents may actually be beneficial for patients...
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 influenced treatment strategies and behaviors, particularly cardiovascular emergencies, which may have led to cardiovascular collateral damage. This review article covers aspects of the changing spectrum of cardiac emergencies with a focus on acute coronary syndrome rates and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity based on a...
The COVID-19 pandemic had several specific as well as general implications on cardiac surgery. Acute respiratory distress made extracorporeal oxygenation necessary in a significant number of patients and accordingly many patients were treated in anesthesiological and even more in cardiac surgical intensive care units, which left only a limited number of beds in the intensive care...
For the past 3 years, our daily lives have been largely dictated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In many people, this infectious disease leads to long-lasting symptoms, which can vary greatly in form and intensity between individuals. This report describes the case of a young patient who had no health restrictions until she came into contact with severe acute...
Healthcare professionals, particularly those in test centers, laboratories, or specialized COVID-19 wards, are in danger of becoming infected. Patients with special underlying health conditions are at an increased risk of getting very sick, being hospitalized, or dying from COVID-19. Age is a leading risk factor in this context. Currently, FFP2 (Filtering Facepiece 2, European...