Aims  Myocardial fibrosis (MF) might represent a key player in pathophysiology of heart failure in aortic stenosis (AS). We aimed to assess its impact on left ventricular (LV) remodelling, recovery, and mortality after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in different AS subtypes. Methods and results  One hundred patients with severe AS were prospectively characterized clinically and echocardiographically at baseline (BL), 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years following TAVI. Left ventricular biopsies were harvested after valve deployment. Myocardial fibrosis was assessed after Masson’s trichrome staining, and fibrotic area was calculated as percentage of total tissue area. Patients were stratified according to MF above (MF+) or below (MF−) median percentage MF (≥11% or <11%). Myocardial fibrosis burden differed significantly between AS subtypes, with highest levels in low ejection fraction (EF), low-gradient AS and lowest levels in normal EF, high-gradient AS (29.5 ± 26.4% vs. 13.5 ± 16.1%, P = 0.003). In the entire cohort, MF+ was significantly associated with poorer LV function, higher extent of pathological LV remodelling, and more pronounced clinical heart failure at BL. After TAVI, MF+ was associated with a delay in normalization of LV geometry and function but not per se with absence of reverse remodelling and clinical improvement. However, 22 patients died during follow-up (mean, 11 months), and 14 deaths were classified as cardiovascular (CV) (n = 9 arrhythmia-associated). Importantly, 13 of 14 CV deaths occurred in MF+ patients (CV mortality 26.5% in MF+ vs. 2% in MF− patients, P = 0.0003). Multivariate analysis identified MF+ as independent predictor of CV mortality [hazard ratio (HR) 27.4 (2.0–369), P = 0.01]. Conclusion  Histological MF is associated with AS-related pathological LV remodelling and independently predicts CV mortality after TAVI.

Background: Right heart catheterisation (RHC) using exercise-stress is the reference standard for the diagnosis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) but carries the risk of the invasive procedure. We hypothesized that real-time cardiovascular magnetic resonance (RT-CMR) exercise imaging with pathophysiologic data at excellent temporal and spatial resolution may represent a contemporary non-invasive alternative for diagnosing HFpEF. Methods: The HFpEF stress trial (DZHK-17, NCT03260621) prospectively recruited 75 patients with echocardiographic signs of diastolic dysfunction and dyspnea on exertion (E/e'>8, New York Heart Association (NYHA) class ≥II) to undergo echocardiography, RHC and RT-CMR at rest and during exercise-stress. HFpEF was defined according to pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP ≥15mmHg at rest or ≥25mmHg during exercise stress). RT-CMR functional assessments included time-volume curves for total and early (1/3) diastolic left ventricular (LV) filling, left atrial (LA) emptying and LV/LA long axis strain (LAS). Results: HFpEF patients (n=34, median PCWP rest 13mmHg, stress 27mmHg) had higher E/e' (12.5 vs. 9.15), NT-proBNP (255 vs. 75ng/l) and LA volume index (43.8 vs. 36.2ml/m 2 ) compared to non-cardiac dyspnea patients (n=34, rest 8mmHg, stress 18mmHg, p≤0.001 for all). Seven patients were excluded due to the presence of non HFpEF cardiac disease causing dyspnea on imaging. There were no differences in RT-CMR LV total and early diastolic filling at rest and during exercise-stress (p≥0.164) between HFpEF and non-cardiac dyspnea. RT-CMR revealed significantly impaired LA total and early (p<0.001) diastolic emptying in HFpEF during exercise-stress. RT-CMR exercise-stress LA LAS was independently associated with HFpEF (adjusted odds ratio 0.657, 95% confidence interval [0.516; 0.838], p=0.001) after adjustment for clinical and imaging parameters and emerged as the best predictor for HFpEF (area under the curve rest 0.82 vs. exercise-stress 0.93, p=0.029). Conclusions: RT-CMR allows highly accurate identification of HFpEF during physiological exercise and qualifies as a suitable non-invasive diagnostic alternative. These results will need to be confirmed in multi-centre prospective research studies to establish widespread routine clinical use. Clinical Trial Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov Unique Identifier: NCT03260621

Background: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) represents the clinical gold standard for the assessment of biventricular morphology and function. Since manual post-processing is time-consuming and prone to observer variability, efforts have been directed towards automated volumetric quantification. In this study, we sought to validate the accuracy of a novel approach providing fully automated quantification of biventricular volumes and function in a "real-world" clinical setting. Methods: Three-hundred CMR examinations were randomly selected from the local data base. Fully automated quantification of left ventricular (LV) mass, LV and right ventricular (RV) end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes (EDV/ ESV), stroke volume (SV) and ejection fraction (EF) were performed overnight using commercially available software (suiteHEART®, Neosoft,