Heart failure (HF) rates are rapidly increasing, which is so-called “HF pandemic”. It is important to note that HF is not a disease itself but a syndrome caused by the impairment to the cardiac function as a pump to support the circulatory system. Accordingly, establishing its underlying cause is vital to adequate diagnosis and optimal treatment for HF. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging use in the context of HF has increased over the last decade as it is able to provide detailed, quantitative information on function, morphology, and myocardial tissue composition. Therefore, CMR has potential to be a leading imaging modality to diagnose and manage patients with HF in modern cardiology. However, CMR is not yet something that usually happens in a routine clinical environment because it requires enough training to capture and interpret the imaging about which most cardiologists have been unfamiliar. To bring out the full potential of CMR in HF management, there is a need for a paradigm shift in CMR from an imaging modality for uncommon HF etiologies to an excellent tool to solve the clinical questions that cardiologists often encounter. This review summarized recent evidence and guidelines for CMR and discussed its potential utility in the clinical practice, presenting different illustrative cases.

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 Perioperative Neurocognitive Disorder (PND), including Postoperative Delirium and Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction, which are triggered by general anesthesia and surgical invasion, have a negative impact on postoperative hospital stay and survival. As the indications for surgery in the elderly are expanding, prevention of PND is an urgent issue in perioperative management from the viewpoint of medical economy.
 In this study, we hypothesized that the proteomic changes of myokine in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) caused by Remote Ischemic Preconditioning (RIPC) would have a protective effect on the brain and used SWATH (sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion spectra) method to analyze time series specimens. The results revealed that FNDC5 and SPARC, two representative myokines, had significantly increased in CSF one hour after RIPC. The muscle-brain crosstalk induced by these myokines might be the core of the brain protective effect of RIPC.

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 Minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICS) via the mini-right thoracotomy approach is characterized by the avoidance of full sternotomy. An essential goal of MICS is to establish cardiopulmonary bypass through insertion of a large-bore catheter via both the femoral vein and internal jugular vein and the femoral artery. This procedure, which involves the insertion of a catheter into a comparatively small blood vessel, carries a risk of complications such as lower limb ischemia and venous congestion. We use near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for early detection of disorder of the lower limb blood flow during MICS. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the efficacy of monitoring regional oxygen saturation (rSO₂) and blood volume index (BVI) of lower limbs during MICS. Seventeen patients who underwent cardiopulmonary bypass through insertion of a catheter via the right femoral vein, right internal jugular vein, and right femoral artery for MICS were enrolled in this study. The lower limb rSO₂ decreased during catheter insertion but normalized after removal. The lower limb rSO₂ appears useful for determining abnormal blood flow in the lower extremities because it can detect the effects of cardiopulmonary bypass and catheter insertion in a non-invasive and continuous manner. The values of lower limb BVI vary widely, and it is unknown whether it is useful for early detection of abnormal blood flow in the lower limbs. Reportedly, lower limb rSO₂ is useful for monitoring the lower limb blood flow during MICS, but the usefulness of lower limb BVI is unclear.

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