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Introduction Therapy resistant arterial hypertension (raHTN) is a major clinical burden. While therapeutic alternatives are still missing, novel interventional procedures like renal denervation (RD) are still evolving. Indeed, despite discoursing results of the Simplicity HTN-3 trial, new promising results resulted in a revival of this procedure. Therefore, predictors for the success of future interventions would be of great clinical benefit. The novel biomarker sST2 shows promising results for risk stratification of cardiovascular patient. While, sST2 belongs to the IL-1 receptor family, it has an influence on immunologic processes with consequent cardioprotective effects including prevention of myocardial hypertrophy and fibrosis indicating predictive potential in hypertensive heart disease. Nevertheless, clinical implementation of this promising biomarker was not investigated in patients with raHTN undergoing RD. Purpose To investigate a potential clinical relevance of sST2 in patients with raHTN undergoing RD. Methods We evaluated 58 patients with raHTN (age: 63±11 years, systolic blood pressure at baseline: 178±24mmHg) undergoing bilateral RD. If available, serum levels of sST2 were analyzed at baseline as well as at follow-up at one and/or three month. Results While RD was able to decrease blood pressure levels after one month (systolic blood pressure at one month: 158±21mmHg, p Conclusion In patients with raHTN, RD is associated with a significant decrease of sST2 levels, indicating sST2 to be involved in remodeling processes after RD. Furthermore, sST2 levels at baseline might be a potential predictor of intervention success of RD. Further, studies need to investigate the association of sST2 levels and RD. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None

Introduction Antibiotic treatment for infective endocarditis is paramount typically consisting of intravenous therapy for up to eight weeks leading to long hospital stays. This often is associated with reduced quality of life for patients and might heighten complication rates. Recently, several trials evaluating the efficacy of partial oral treatment (switching to an oral antibiotic after an initial intravenous therapy for stabilization) versus an intravenous therapy were published. We here meta-analyze all available data. Methods and results Overall after screening 1848 studies at title and abstract level four studies including a total of 788 patients were included. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 statistic. Primary endpoint was all-cause mortality, secondary endpoint endocarditis relapse. Pooled event rates were obtained for each subset of studies and combined in a fixed-effect meta-analysis, and odds ratios were calculated using a fixed-effects model (Mantel-Haenszel). A total of 765 patients suffered from primary left-sided endocarditis. From right-sided endocarditis suffered 72 patients. All treatment regimes were adjusted to susceptibility testing. Included patients were evaluated clinically and non-critically ill. Rate of mortality was lower in partial oral versus intravenous strategy (OR 0.34 95% CI 0.17–0.68; p=0.003; I2 30%): In partial oral group, 11 of 379 patients died, whereas in the intravenous group, 33 of 409 patients died. Endocarditis relapse rates were not dissimilar between intravenous versus oral group (OR 0.55 95% CI 0.26–1.20; p=0.13; I2 0%) with, 10 of 459 patients in the partial oral group and 18 of 456 patients in the intravenous group evidencing a relapse. Conclusion Partial oral therapy is non-inferior to intravenous therapy with regards to endocarditis relapse in non-critically-ill patients suffering from both left- and right-sided endocarditis. In this meta-analysis, partial oral therapy was associated with lower mortality rates. This finding certainly needs validation in further future randomized trials comparing partial oral versus intravenous antibiotic treatment in non-critically-ill patients. As partial oral therapy allows shorter hospitalization it might be preferable and improve both quality of care and patients quality of life.

Background Soluble (s) ST-2 has been recently evaluated as a monitoring parameter in heart failure (HF). Besides being a marker for cardiac strain and hemodynamic stress, studies also found an influence of ST2 on the immune system, above all mediated through its Janus-Face ligand IL-33, an alarmin released under stress conditions or by cellular death. In contrast to sST2, the role of IL-33 in HF is yet unknown. Objective In this project, we aimed for an analysis of the ST2/IL33 pathway in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Methods In total, 200 patients were included in the study: 59 with ischemic (ICM), 65 with dilated (DCM) cardiomyopathy (mean LVEF 38%), as well as 76 control patients without coronary artery disease or signs of heart failure. Serum samples were analyzed by use of ELISA after informed consent. Results sST2 showed a significant elevation in all HF patients (p Analysis of sST2 in heart failure Conclusions We observed a significant increase and correlation with disease severity of sST2 in chronic HFrEF patients of both ischemic and non-ischemic origin, but contrary to our expectations, no significant changes in serum levels of IL-33. Thus, a mechanism independent of ST2/IL33 axis could be responsible of sST2 secretion in HF. Further studies including acute decompensated patients could provide a better understanding of the IL-33 role in HF.