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Biomedicines
Special Issues
Pathology of Vascular Disease and Heart Failure
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Pathology of Vascular Disease and Heart Failure

A special issue of Biomedicines (ISSN 2227-9059). This special issue belongs to the section "Cell Biology and Pathology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 4945

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Pasquale Caldarola

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Cardiology Section, Hospital “S. Paolo” Bari, 70123 Bari, Italy
Interests: cardiovascular diseases; clinical management; preventive cardiology; atherosclerosis; heart failure
Dr. Pietro Scicchitano

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Cardiology Section, Hospital “F. Perinei” Altamura (BA), 70022 Altamura, Italy
Interests: heart failure; preventive cardiology; vascular biology; endothelial function; cardiovascular pharmacology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) still represent the first cause of death worldwide. The impact of atherosclerosis in our society is devastating: beyond the mortality rates of CVDs, the impact of their comorbidities on quality of life, economics, job opportunities, and society empowerment represents a worrisome issue that still has no definite solution.

Despite a slight reduction in the rates of atherosclerosis adverse events and heart failure occurrence in recent decades, the absolute percentages of their occurrence are unacceptably high. Similarly, innovations in cardiovascular pharmacology further reduced the number adverse events related to CVDs, but a literature overview focused on the rates of outcomes in the most recent trials, i.e., those involving populations with the most advanced treatments for their cardiac and/or vascular pathology, demonstrated a prevalence of major cardiovascular events higher than 5%.

These worrying results come from the difficulties in comprehending the inner nature of atherosclerosis and heart failure: too many facets are at play when trying to evaluate the full mechanisms underlying the occurrence of vascular and cardiac diseases.

Therefore, physicians should be aware of the need for scientific efforts to counteract the advance in arterial and heart failure diseases by implementing knowledge about mechanisms and—in parallel—pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches.

The aims of this Special Issue are: to provide data and evidence about the physio-pathological mechanisms involved in the occurrence of vascular diseases and heart failure; to identify specific pre-clinical and clinical targets to be pursued to reduce the impact of these diseases on communities; and to allow physicians to spread their knowledge on possible new pharmacological and non-pharmacological compounds that are able to dramatically impact on CVD regression.

Dr. Pasquale Caldarola
Dr. Pietro Scicchitano
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomedicines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • heart failure
  • vascular diseases
  • cardiovascular pharmacology
  • endothelial function and biology
  • aortic diseases
  • preventive cardiology

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 2692 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Suitability of CHA2DS2-VASc for Predicting Adverse Limb Events and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Peripheral Artery Disease Patients with Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty: A Retrospective Cohort Study
by Yu-Tsung Cheng, Fu-Lan Chang, Po-Hsien Li, Wen-Chien Lu and Chien-Shan Chiu
Biomedicines 2024, 12(6), 1374; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12061374 - 20 Jun 2024
Viewed by 969
Abstract
Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) are at high risk of major adverse limb events (MALEs) and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs). CHA2DS2-VASc is a prognostic score for atrial fibrillation stroke risk; however, no study has evaluated its predictive [...] Read more.
Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) are at high risk of major adverse limb events (MALEs) and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs). CHA2DS2-VASc is a prognostic score for atrial fibrillation stroke risk; however, no study has evaluated its predictive ability for MALEs and MACEs in PAD patients who underwent percutaneous transluminal angioplasty. We conducted a retrospective cohort study on patients from Taiwan with PAD. The patients were stratified into four risk groups based on their modified CHA2DS2-VASc score. Cox proportional hazard models, 10-fold cross-validation, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were utilized to evaluate the predictive ability of CHA2DS2-VASc for MALEs, MACEs, and MALEs + MACEs. Kaplan–Meier analysis estimated the survival probability of the risk groups. CHA2DS2-VASc was found to be a significant predictor of MACEs (hazard ratio (HR) 3.52 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.00–12.12; p = 0.048), HR 4.18 (95% CI 1.19–14.36; p = 0.023), and HR 5.08 (95% CI 1.49–17.36; p = 0.009), for moderate-, high-, and very high-risk groups, respectively), while for MALEs and MALEs + MACEs, significance was achieved only for the high-risk group using a univariate model. For the multivariate adjusted model, the score was found to be a significant predictor of MACEs for only the very high-risk group, with an HR of 4.67 (95% CI 1.03–21.09; p = 0.045). The score demonstrated an AUC > 0.8, good discrimination (c-index > 0.8), and good calibration for predicting MACEs. However, it failed to achieve good performance for predicting MALEs and MALEs + MACEs. Based on all of the findings, CHA2DS2-VASc could potentially serve as a risk stratification score for predicting MACEs in patients with PAD, but it failed to qualify as a good predictor for MALEs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathology of Vascular Disease and Heart Failure)
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10 pages, 5392 KiB  
Article
The Controversy of Using Insufficient Great Saphenous Veins in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: A Comparative Morphological Analysis of Healthy and Insufficient Veins Related to the Possibility of Using Them as a Graft
by Andrei Florin Părău, Andrei Raul Manzur, Stefan Mihaicuta and Ioan Adrian Petrache
Biomedicines 2024, 12(3), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12030476 - 21 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1523
Abstract
Background: Despite advancements in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), the optimal choice of graft material remains a subject of investigation. This study aimed to comprehensively analyze the morphological characteristics of varicose veins, exploring their potential utilization in CABG compared to healthy veins. Methods: [...] Read more.
Background: Despite advancements in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), the optimal choice of graft material remains a subject of investigation. This study aimed to comprehensively analyze the morphological characteristics of varicose veins, exploring their potential utilization in CABG compared to healthy veins. Methods: The study included 178 patients, categorized into two groups based on healthy and varicose veins. Morphological parameters, including maximum venous diameter, wall thickness, and specific changes in tunica intima (TI), tunica media (TM), and tunica adventitia (TA), were analyzed through microscopic evaluation. Results: Varicose veins exhibited a significantly larger maximum venous diameter (p = 0.0001) and increased wall thickness (p = 0.0001) compared to healthy veins. Although varicose veins showed thickening in TI and TM, the differences were not statistically significant. Notably, disorganized smooth muscle bundles were more prevalent in varicose veins (p = 0.001), suggesting potential wall weakness. The absence of vasa vasorum in TA was significantly higher in varicose veins (p = 0.050), influencing vascularization considerations. Conclusions: The comparative morphological microscopic analysis of the specimens of healthy and varicose veins reveals significant differences between the groups, which make the conclusion of this study to plead for avoiding the use of varicose veins as a graft. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathology of Vascular Disease and Heart Failure)
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Review

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14 pages, 883 KiB  
Review
Utility of Genetic Testing in Patients with Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy: A Brief Review
by Ana-Maria Merino-Merino, Jorge Labrador-Gomez, Ester Sanchez-Corral, Pedro-David Delgado-Lopez and Jose-Angel Perez-Rivera
Biomedicines 2024, 12(1), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12010025 - 21 Dec 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1817
Abstract
Transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) is an increasingly diagnosed condition. Although wild-type transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTRwt) is the most common ATTR-CM, hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTRv) may also occur. Currently, genetic testing for transthyretin pathogenic variants is recommended for patients with a confirmed clinical diagnosis of [...] Read more.
Transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) is an increasingly diagnosed condition. Although wild-type transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTRwt) is the most common ATTR-CM, hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTRv) may also occur. Currently, genetic testing for transthyretin pathogenic variants is recommended for patients with a confirmed clinical diagnosis of ATTR-CM. In fact, confirmation of this autosomal dominant pathogenic variant prompts genetic counselling and allows early identification of affected relatives. Additionally, in the presence of an ATTR-CM-associated polyneuropathy, specific drugs targeting transthyretin can be used. In this paper, we review the utility of genetic testing for the detection of pathogenic variants among patients harboring ATTR-CM and its impact on the natural history of the disease. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathology of Vascular Disease and Heart Failure)
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