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The prevalence of heart failure is increasing, causing a tremendous burden on health care systems around the world. Although mortality rate of heart failure has been significantly reduced by several effective agents in the past 3 decades, yet it remains high in observational studies. More recently, several new classes of drugs emerged with significant efficacy in reducing mortality and hospitalization in chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). To integrate these effective therapies and prioritize them in the management of Asian patients, Taiwan Society of Cardiology has recently appointed a working group to formulate a consensus of pharmacological treatment in patients with chronic heart failure. Based on most updated information, this consensus provides rationales for prioritization, rapid sequencing, and in-hospital initiation of both foundational and additional therapies for patients with chronic heart failure.

Cancer-associated thrombosis (CAT) is a common complication of malignancies. Patients with CAT are at risk of venous thromboembolism recurrence, but also at risk of bleeding while anticoagulated. Taiwanese patients are perceived to have a lower incidence of CAT, likely leading to false reassurance for Taiwanese patients with cancer. Because of this, oncologists and cardiologists from multiple medical institutions in Taiwan have set forth to provide clinical consensus guidelines on the management of CAT, based on local clinical practices and guided by predominant international clinical practice guidelines. This paper aims to describe the current disease burden of cancer-associated venous thromboembolism in Taiwanese cancer patients, and discusses the unmet needs and gaps in the management of this medical complication. It also outlines diagnostic and management strategies relevant to the different treatment options available, such as non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) covers a wide spectrum from persons who are asymptomatic to those presenting with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and sudden cardiac death. Coronary atherosclerotic disease is a chronic, progressive process that leads to atherosclerotic plaque development and progression within the epicardial coronary arteries. Being a dynamic process, CAD generally presents with a prolonged stable phase, which may then suddenly become unstable and lead to an acute coronary event. Thus, the concept of "stable CAD" may be misleading, as the risk for acute events continues to exist, despite the use of pharmacological therapies and revascularization. Many advances in coronary care have been made, and guidelines from other international societies have been updated. The 2023 guidelines of the Taiwan Society of Cardiology for CAD introduce a new concept that categorizes the disease entity according to its clinical presentation into acute or chronic coronary syndromes (ACS and CCS, respectively). Previously defined as stable CAD, CCS include a heterogeneous population with or without chest pain, with or without prior ACS, and with or without previous coronary revascularization procedures. As cardiologists, we now face the complexity of CAD, which involves not only the epicardial but also the microcirculatory domains of the coronary circulation and the myocardium. New findings about the development and progression of coronary atherosclerosis have changed the clinical landscape. After a nearly 50-year ischemia-centric paradigm of coronary stenosis, growing evidence indicates that coronary atherosclerosis and its features are both diagnostic and therapeutic targets beyond obstructive CAD. Taken together, these factors have shifted the clinicians’ focus from the functional evaluation of coronary ischemia to the anatomic burden of disease. Research over the past decades has strengthened the case for prevention and optimal medical therapy as central interventions in patients with CCS. Even though functional capacity has clear prognostic implications, it does not include the evaluation of non-obstructive lesions, plaque burden or additional risk-modifying factors beyond epicardial coronary stenosis-driven ischemia. The recommended first-line diagnostic tests for CCS now include coronary computed tomographic angiography, an increasingly used anatomic imaging modality capable of detecting not only obstructive but also non-obstructive coronary plaques that may be missed with stress testing. This non-invasive anatomical modality improves risk assessment and potentially allows for the appropriate allocation of preventive therapies. Initial invasive strategies cannot improve mortality or the risk of myocardial infarction. Emphasis should be placed on optimizing the control of risk factors through preventive measures, and invasive strategies should be reserved for highly selected patients with refractory symptoms, high ischemic burden, high-risk anatomies, and hemodynamically significant lesions. These guidelines provide current evidence-based diagnosis and treatment recommendations. However, the guidelines are not mandatory, and members of the Task Force fully realize that the treatment of CCS should be individualized to address each patient’s circumstances. Ultimately, the decision of healthcare professionals is most important in clinical practice.

Resumen del trabajo presentado en el SHIFT2022: Spectral sHapIng For biomedical and energy applicaTions, celebrado en Tenerife (España), del 10 al 14 de octubre de 2022, Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells have attracted much attention due to their high power conversion efficiency (＞23%) and low-cost fabrication. Directions to further improve these solar cells include strategies to enhance their stability and their efficiency by modifying either the perovskite absorber layer or the electron/hole transport layer. For example, the transparent electron transport layer (ETL) can be an important tuning knob influencing the charge extraction, [1] light harvesting, [2] and stability [3] in these solar cells, or the use of up-conversion nanoparticles to get better performance in the near IR part of the visible spectrum. [4] Here we present two strategies based on nanostructuration, first a fundamental study of upconversion fluorescence enhancement effects near Au nanodisks by scanning near-field optical microscopy and second the effects of a nanocolumnar TiO2 layer on the performance and the stability of Cs0.05(FA0.83MA0.17)0.95Pb(I0.83Br0.17)3 perovskite solar cells. For the first case, the enhancement and localization of light near the metallic structures are directly visualized by using a single Er/Yb-codoped fluorescent nanocrystal glued at the end of a sharp scanning tip. [5] For the second we find that, compared to devices with planar TiO2 ETLs, the TiO2 nanocolumns can significantly enhance the power conversion efficiency of the perovskite solar cells by 17 % and prolong their shelf life. By analyzing the optical properties, solar cells characteristics, as well as transport/recombination properties by impedance spectroscopy, we observed light-trapping and reduced carrier recombination in solar cells associated with the use of TiO2 nanocolumn arrays. [6]

Resumen del trabajo presentado en la Conferencia Española de Nanofotónica (CEN2021), celebrada de forma virtual del 20 al 22 de septiembre de 2021, Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells have attracted much attention due to their high power conversion efficiency (¿23%) and low-cost fabrication. Directions to further improve these solar cells include strategies to enhance their stability and their efficiency by modifying either the perovskite absorber layer or the electron/hole transport layer. For example, the transparent electron transport layer (ETL) can be an important tuning knob influencing the charge extraction, [1] light harvesting, [2] and stability [3] in these solar cells, or the use of up-conversion nanoparticles to get better performance in the near IR part of the visible spectrum. [4] Here we present two strategies based on nanostructuration, first a fundamental study of upconversion fluorescence enhancement effects near Au nanodisks by scanning near-field optical microscopy and second the effects of a nanocolumnar TiO2 layer on the performance and the stability of Cs0.05(FA0.83MA0.17)0.95Pb(I0.83Br0.17)3 perovskite solar cells. For the first case, the enhancement and localization of light near the metallic structures are directly visualized by using a single Er/Yb-codoped fluorescent nanocrystal glued at the end of a sharp scanning tip. [5] For the second we find that, compared to devices with planar TiO2 ETLs, the TiO2 nanocolumns can significantly enhance the power conversion efficiency of the perovskite solar cells by 17 % and prolong their shelf life. By analyzing the optical properties, solar cells characteristics, as well as transport/recombination properties by impedance spectroscopy, we observed light-trapping and reduced carrier recombination in solar cells associated with the use of TiO2 nanocolumn arrays. [6] References: [1] S.S. Mali, et al., Chemistry of Materials 27, 1541 (2015). [2] C. Liu, et al., Journal of Materials Chemistry A 5, 15970 (2017). [3] M. Salado, et al., Nano Energy 35, 215 (2017) [4] M. Bauch et al., Plasmonics 9, 781 (2014) [5] L. Aigouy, et al., Nanoscale 11, 10365 (2019) [6] Z. Hu, et al., ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 12, 5979 (2020)