The EHFScBS appears to be a valid and reliable instrument in the Italian version also. Self-care behaviour appears to depend on age and sex and a previous HF education. Mild to moderately impaired cognitive function seems to influence self-care in patients who have already received HF education.

In patients with severe mitral regurgitation due to Barlow's disease with multiple central jet and without chordal rupture, mitral annuloplasty is effective in restoring mitral valve function owing to profound changes in mitral valve and left ventricle geometry. At follow-up, stress echocardiography confirms the results and the stability of the repair.

Studying cardiac masses is one of the most challenging tasks for cardiac imagers. The aim of this review article is to focus on the modern imaging of cardiac masses proceeding through the most frequent ones. Cardiac benign masses such as myxoma, cardiac papillary fibroelastoma, rhabdomyoma, lipoma, and hemangioma are browsed considering the usefulness of most common cardiovascular imaging tools, such as ultrasound techniques, cardiac computed tomography, cardiac magnetic resonance, and in the diagnostic process. In the same way, the most frequent malignant cardiac masses, such as angiosarcoma and metastases, are highlighted. Then, the article browses through nontumoral masses such as cysts, mitral caseous degenerative formations, thrombi, and vegetations, highlighting the differential diagnosis between them. In addition, the article helps in recognizing anatomic normal variants that should not be misdiagnosed as pathological entities.

No abstract

Cardiac myxomas are the most common benign cardiac tumor. We investigated the immunohistochemical properties of 11 surgically excised cardiac myxomas, in order to analyze the correlation between macrophages and mast cell populations and clinical parameters. CD68/CD163/iNOS (M0) cells represent the most abundant macrophage phenotype; however, CD68/CD163 cells (M2) were also frequent. CD68/iNOS (M1) elements were rare. Mast cells, defined as a population of c-kit (CD117) and/or tryptase cells were also detected. Statistical analysis showed significant correlations between c-kit (CD117) and tryptase, CD68 and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), ESR and red blood cell count (RBC), and prothrombin time and platelet count. The inverse correlation between RBCs in peripheral blood and ESR suggested that anemia associated with chronic inflammatory disease is a noncasual event in patients suffering from cardiac myxoma. Mechanical hemolysis may be only a minor component of anemia, according to the lack of correlation between echographic surface and RBCs. Moreover, tumor size did not correlate with ESR, showing that inflammatory state may depend from both tumor cells population and inflammatory infiltrate. In the future, modulation of macrophage polarization in cardiac myxomas might represent important therapeutic target.