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BACKGROUND Thickening of Achilles tendon (≥9 mm on radiography) is one of the diagnostic criteria for familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). Since FH is associated with premature coronary artery disease (CAD) including acute coronary syndrome (ACS), measurement of Achilles tendon thickness (ATT) is important for early diagnosis of FH. However, clinical significance of mild thickening of Achilles tendon in non-FH patients with CAD is unclear. The present study investigated the association of ATT with coronary lesion severity in early-onset ACS without clinically diagnosed FH. METHODS From outpatients who had a history of ACS under 60 years old, 76 clinically non-FH subjects (71 men and 5 women; mean age at the onset of ACS, 50.5 years) with maximum ATT of

Recent clinical trials have shown that sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have beneficial effects on renal function in heart failure patients. This study confirmed the renoprotective effect of treatment with SGLT2 inhibitors in Japanese patients with chronic heart failure and diabetes and further investigated what cardiac/hemodynamic and noncardiac factors are involved in its effect.Eligible 50 outpatients with chronic heart failure and type-2 diabetes mellitus chronically taking SGLT2 inhibitors were enrolled. Annual changing rates of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were compered before and after treatment with SGLT2 inhibitors and the associations of the change in eGFR slope after SGLT2 inhibitor administration with changes in various clinical and echocardiographic parameters were evaluated.The mean follow-up periods before and after SGLT2 inhibitor administration were 2.6 and 1.9 years, respectively. Changing rates of eGFR per year were significantly improved after treatment with SGLT2 inhibitors (-5.78 ± 7.67 to -0.43 ± 10.81 mL/min/1.73 mOur findings indicated that chronic treatment with SGLT2 inhibitors ameliorated annual decline in eGFR in Japanese patients with chronic heart failure, suggesting the possibility that the improvement of venous congestion was involved in its renoprotective effect.