3rd Asia Pacific Advanced Heart Failure Forum (APAHFF)

Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) improve survival and quality of life (QoL) in patients with advanced heart failure (HF). At the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS), a mechanical cardiac support (MCS) programme in place since 2001 has shown a 2-year survival rate of 100 percent with the use of continuous flow pumps.

Tolvaptan improves dyspnoea, increases sodium levels and reduces body weight in patients with acute heart failure (HF) with or without hyponatraemia, but no significant effect is seen in mortality or rehospitalization, according to a recent meta-analysis.

A left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) cut-off of 60 percent may identify patients with heart failure (HF) with mid-range or preserved ejection fraction (mrEF or pEF) who could benefit from drug therapy.

Early use of mTOR inhibitors for primary immunosuppression may attenuate the progression of cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) and reduce mortality after heart transplantation (HTX), while noninvasive assessments may become promising alternatives to endomyocardial biopsy for diagnosis of allograft rejection, recent studies have shown.