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Heart failure is one of the most common reasons for inpatient treatment and one of the most common causes of death in Germany. In addition to coronary heart disease (ischemic cardiomyopathy, ICM), there are also numerous other diseases as non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, NICM. Chronic heart failure is the final stage of diseases with cardiac involvement and limits the prognosis and quality of life of patients. The course can be favorably influenced by cardiac implantable electrical devices (CIEDs). There are different uses of CIEDs which are shown in this article.Since publication of the European Society guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure in 2016, numerous studies provided new evidence how to further optimize heart failure therapy.Besides recent device-based therapeutic options, promising new drug developments give a glimmer of hope that the prognosis of this progressive heart disease could be somehow more controlled in the near future. At the same time, the variety of therapeutic options as well as the number of concomitant comorbidities makes the complex therapy of chronic heart failure more difficult than ever. This review aims to provide an update and practical support on the recent pharmacotherapeutic options in chronic heart failure.Heart Failure causes an enormous individual and societal burden of disease with severe symptoms, a reduction in activities of daily life, frequent hospitalizations and poor prognosis. The field of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction has seen substantial innovation in the past years. Novel and successful treatment regimens were established, the pharmaceutical treatment options for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction remains limited to date. Yet, promising concepts are emerging. Today we have only symptoms and risk factors-based therapeutic options, and include basically diuretics, RAAsi, and antidiabetics, respectively. A causal therapy is still missing.Heart failure (HF) is the leading cause for inpatient treatment in Germany. Its diagnosis is based on the ESC Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Heart Failure of 2016. More than half of all patients with HF suffer from HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), whose diagnosis is still challenging. Two new diagnostic scores have been proposed to facilitate the diagnosis of HFpEF and are presented in this article, the H2FPEF-Score and the HFA-PEFF-algorithm by the Heart Failure Association.The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to critically analyze and summarize studies reporting association of salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA) levels as a biomarker for dental caries in Down syndrome (DS) patients. Using the keywords salivary [All Fields] AND IgA [All Fields] AND (“down syndrome” [MeSH Terms] OR (“down”[All Fields] AND “syndrome” [All Fields]) OR “down syndrome” [All Fields]), an electronic search was conducted via PubMed and Scopus databases by two authors, H. H. and Z. KIF18A-IN-6 K. independently. Retrieved studies were screened against the predefined exclusion and inclusion criteria. To estimate the risk of bias, quality assessment of included studies was carried using the Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale for observational studies. Primary search resulted in 10 articles from PubMed and 13 articles from Scopus. Ten studies fulfilled the defined selection criteria and evaluated the salivary IgA (sIgA) level in DS patients with dental caries. Five articles were further analyzed in a quantitative synthesis presented in the meta-analysis. Due to a modified lifestyle and compromised oral hygiene in DS patients, understandably, it is still postulated in the literature that the presence of sIgA can have a protective effect on the occurrence of dental caries as compared with healthy counterparts. As indicated by the present meta-analysis, no conclusions can be drawn as to definitively label sIgA as a biomarker for dental caries. Further, well-designed longitudinal clinical studies and translational research are therefore required before the benchmarking of sIgA as a useful biomarker for dental caries in DS patients with preferable molecular insights.

 Ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is a serious condition that can affect the success rate of microsurgical reconstructions of ischemic amputated limbs and complex tissue defects requiring free tissue transfers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of ischemic preconditioning (IPC) and C1 esterase inhibitor (C1-Inh) intravenous administration following I/R injury in a rat skin flap model.

 Superficial caudal epigastric skin flaps (3 cm × 7 cm) were performed on 50 Wistar rats that were randomly divided into five groups. Ischemia was not induced in the control group. All other flaps underwent 8 hours of ischemia prior to revascularization I/R control group (8-hour ischemia), IPC group (preconditioning protocol + 8-hour ischemia), C1-Inh group (8-hour ischemia + C1-Inh), and IPC + C1-Inh group (preconditioning protocol + 8-hour ischemia + C1-Inh). Survival areas were macroscopically assessed after 1 week of surgery, and histopathological and biochemical evaluations were also measured.

 There were no significant differences in flap survival between the treatment groups that were suffering 8 hours of ischemia and the control group. A significant increase in neovascularization and lower edema formation were observed in the IPC group compared with that in the I/R group. Biochemical parameters did not show any significant differences.

 Intravenous administration of C1-Inh did not significantly modulate I/R-related damage in this experimental model, but further research is needed. On the other hand, IPC reduces tissue damage and improves neovascularization, confirming its potential protective effects in skin flaps following I/R injury.

 Intravenous administration of C1-Inh did not significantly modulate I/R-related damage in this experimental model, but further research is needed. On the other hand, IPC reduces tissue damage and improves neovascularization, confirming its potential protective effects in skin flaps following I/R injury.