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Cardiometabolic HFpEF with focus on type 2 diabetes mellitus

Edited by:
Professor Francesco Paneni, MD, PhD, Department of Cardiology and CTEC, University Hospital and University of Zürich, Switzerland                         
Era Gorica, PhD, Department of Cardiology and CTEC, University Hospital and University of Zürich, Switzerland

Submission Status: Open   |   Submission Deadline: 20 February 2025


Cardiovascular Diabetology is calling for submissions to our Collection on Cardiometabolic HFpEF with focus on type 2 diabetes mellitus. This collection aims to highlight the complex interplay between metabolic factors and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), particularly focusing on type 2 diabetes (T2D). Described as the “single largest unmet need in cardiovascular medicine”, HFpEF has come to represent more than half of all new heart failure diagnoses and associates with a poor 5-year prognosis (40% mortality rate) despite optimal medical treatment. Obesity and diabetes-related HFpEF, also known as cardiometabolic HFpEF (HFpEF), is the most prevalent HFpEF phenotype and its incidence is expected to increase exponentially in decades to come. The presence of T2D contributes to disease development and progression through mechanisms such as insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, immune dysregulation and myocardial fibrosis. This collection welcomes original articles, meta-analyses and review articles that explore a range of topics from mechanistic studies and therapeutic targets to clinical aspects, pharmacology, epidemiology, and advanced imaging techniques. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive and state-of-the-art overview of this critical area, highlighting the multifaceted nature of HFpEF in cardiometabolic health. This collection aims to bridge the gap between research and clinical application, offering invaluable knowledge for both healthcare professionals and researchers dedicated to improving cardiovascular health. Specifically, the issue will cover the following topics:

• Molecular mechanisms of diabetic HFpEF

• HFpEF and cardiometabolic disease

• Prevalence, risk prediction and prognosis of diabetic HFpEF

• Diabetes and hypertension in HFpEF

• GLP1-RA and SGLT2i in HFpEF

• Artificial intelligence-based approaches in diabetic HFpEF

• Sex and gender in diabetic HFpEF

• Comorbidities in diabetic HFpEF

Image credit: Francesco Paneni and Era Gorica

New Content ItemThis collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good health and well-being. 

Meet the Guest Editors

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Professor Francesco Paneni, MD, PhD, Department of Cardiology and CTEC, University Hospital and University of Zürich, Switzerland 

Francesco Paneni is Professor of Cardiology at the University of Zürich and Head of the Cardiometabolic Division at the Department of Cardiology, Zürich University Hospital. He is also Director of the Center for Translational and Experimental Cardiology (CTEC) and Co-Director of Translational Research within the Department of Cardiology. He earned his MD and PhD at the University of Rome “Sapienza”. During his training in Cardiology, he worked as research fellow at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York under the supervision of Prof. Valentin Fuster. After his PhD, he trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Cardiovascular Physiology, University of Zürich, and the Center for Molecular Medicine (CMM) at Karolinska Institute, Sweden. The goal of Paneni’s research is to characterize the epigenetic mechanisms (DNA methylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs) of myocardial and vascular damage in the setting of obesity and diabetes. A main interest of his lab is to understand the mechanisms and the pathophysiology of cardiometabolic HFpEF.

Dr. Era Gorica, PhD, Department of Cardiology and CTEC, University Hospital and University of Zürich, Switzerland

Era Gorica is a postdoctoral researcher at Center for Translational and Experimental Cardiology (CTEC) at the University of Zürich and University Hospital Zürich. She holds a degree in Pharmacy from Albanian University, Albania, and furthered her studies with a doctorate from the University of Pisa, Italy. During her doctoral program, she received specialized training through an exchange program at the University of Zurich and currently works within Prof. Paneni unit at CTEC.

  1. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) represents a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, particularly heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). HFpEF predominantly affects elderly individ...

    Authors: Simin Delalat, Innas Sultana, Hersh Osman, Marcel Sieme, Saltanat Zhazykbayeva, Melissa Herwig, Heidi Budde, Árpád Kovács, Mustafa Kaçmaz, Eda Göztepe, Natalie Borgmann, Gelareh Shahriari, Benjamin Sasko, Jan Wintrich, Peter Haldenwang, Wolfgang E. Schmidt…
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:211
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. The rising prevalence of Type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been closely associated with an increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases, particularly heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Cardiomet...

    Authors: Francesca Cinti, Renzo Laborante, Luigi Cappannoli, Cassandra Morciano, Shawn Gugliandolo, Alfredo Pontecorvi, Francesco Burzotta, Maria Donniacuo, Donato Cappetta, Giuseppe Patti, Andrea Giaccari and Domenico D’Amario
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:208
    Content type: Review Published on:

  3. Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DbCM) is recognised as a key mediator and determinant of heart failure (HF), particularly HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Improved understanding of mechanisms underlying t...

    Authors: Narainrit Karuna, Lauren Kerrigan, Kevin Edgar, Mark Ledwidge, Ken McDonald, David J. Grieve and Chris J. Watson
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:206
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Patients diagnosed with both aortic stenosis (AS) and diabetes mellitus (DM) encounter a distinctive set of challenges due to the interplay between these two conditions. This study aimed to investigate the eff...

    Authors: Melissa Herwig, Marcel Sieme, Andrea Kovács, Muchtiar Khan, Andreas Mügge, Wolfgang E. Schmidt, Ferhat Elci, Shan Sasidharan, Peter Haldenwang, Jan Wintrich, Benjamin Sasko, Ibrahim Akin, Máthé Domokos, Francesco Paneni, Ibrahim El-Battrawy, Zoltán V. Varga…
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:203
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is an increasingly prevalent clinical syndrome with high morbidity and mortality. Although HFpEF frequently coexists with cardiometabolic diseases, the ca...

    Authors: Mingzhi Lin, Jiuqi Guo, Hongqian Tao, Zhilin Gu, Wenyi Tang, Fuliang Zhou, Yanling Jiang, Ruyi Zhang, Dalin Jia, Yingxian Sun and Pengyu Jia
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:201
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Clinical trials have established the prognostic benefits of sodium‒glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fra...

    Authors: Artem Ovchinnikov, Alexandra Potekhina, Anastasiia Filatova, Olga Svirida, Kristina Zherebchikova, Fail Ageev and Evgeny Belyavskiy
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:196
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are important for treating patients with preserved left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (LVEF). Several studies have assessed the effects of SGLT2 inhibito...

    Authors: Hiroki Teragawa, Atsushi Tanaka, Kanae Takahashi, Chikage Oshita, Yuko Uchimura, Nozomu Kamei, Hiroyuki Hirai, Michio Shimabukuro, Isao Taguchi, Yosuke Okada and Koichi Node
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:190
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. Empagliflozin is an effective treatment for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), but its definite mechanism of action is unclear. Systemic microvascular dysfunction strongly relates to HFpEF...

    Authors: Sanne G. J. Mourmans, Anouk Achten, Raquel Hermans, Marijne J. E. Scheepers, Elisa D’Alessandro, Geertje Swennen, Janneke Woudstra, Yolande Appelman, Harry van Goor, Casper Schalkwijk, Christian Knackstedt, Jerremy Weerts, Etto C. Eringa and Vanessa P. M. van Empel
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:182
    Content type: Research Published on:

  10. Most patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) have a metabolic phenotype in which comorbidities including diabetes mellitus play an important role. Factors related to impaired gluco...

    Authors: Nousjka P. A. Vranken, Xinyu Li, Heleen Bouman, Sanne G. J. Mourmans, Anouk Achten, Arantxa Barandiarán Aizpurua, Hans-Peter Brunner-La Rocca, Christian Knackstedt, Vanessa P. M. van Empel and Jerremy Weerts
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:156
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) represents a significant and growing clinical challenge. Initially, for an extended period, HFpEF was simply considered as a subset of heart failure, mani...

    Authors: Lingyun Luo, Yuyue Zuo and Lei Dai
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:155
    Content type: Review Published on:

  12. Heart failure (HF) is increasingly recognized as a heterogeneous cardiometabolic disorder, often in the context of overweight/obesity independently from diabetes. Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGL...

    Authors: Nadia Salerno, Jessica Ielapi, Angelica Cersosimo, Isabella Leo, Assunta Di Costanzo, Giuseppe Armentaro, Salvatore De Rosa, Angela Sciacqua, Sabato Sorrentino and Daniele Torella
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:141
    Content type: Hypothesis Published on:

  13. Heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is increasingly prevalent worldwide due to aging and comorbidities. Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), favored by diabetes and obesity, was shown to co...

    Authors: Nassiba Menghoum, Maria Chiara Badii, Martin Leroy, Marie Parra, Clotilde Roy, Sibille Lejeune, David Vancraeynest, Agnes Pasquet, Dulce Brito, Barbara Casadei, Christophe Depoix, Gerasimos Filippatos, Damien Gruson, Frank Edelmann, Vanessa M. Ferreira, Renaud Lhommel…
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:134
    Content type: Research Published on:

  14. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of cardiometabolic diseases. Circulating mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) profiles could refine risk stratification, but current methods do not account for different fractions ...

    Authors: Alessandro Mengozzi, Silvia Armenia, Nicolò De Biase, Lavinia Del Punta, Federica Cappelli, Emiliano Duranti, Virginia Nannipieri, Rossana Remollino, Domenico Tricò, Agostino Virdis, Stefano Taddei, Nicola Riccardo Pugliese and Stefano Masi
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:106
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DbCM) is one of the common complications in diabetic patients, but there is no effective treatment for it up to now. Ketone bodies such as β-OHB have been widely reported to be benefic...

    Authors: Bu-tuo Xu, Sheng-rong Wan, Qi Wu, Yi-hang Xing, Yan-qiu He, Wei Huang, Yang Long, Chun-xiang Zhang, Yong Xu and Zong-zhe Jiang
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:101
    Content type: Research Published on:

  16. The rising prevalence of obesity and its association with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) highlight an urgent need for a diagnostic approach tailored to this population. Diagnosing HFpEF...

    Authors: Bas M. van Dalen, Jie Fen Chin, Praveen A. Motiram, Anneke Hendrix, Mireille E. Emans, Jasper J. Brugts, B. Daan Westenbrink and Rudolf A. de Boer
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:71
    Content type: Review Published on:

  17. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a complex cardiovascular disease associated with metabolic comorbidities. Microvascular dysfunction has been proposed to drive HFpEF, likely via endoth...

    Authors: Mandy O. J. Grootaert, Alessandra Pasut, Jana Raman, Steven J. Simmonds, Bram Callewaert, Ümare Col, Mieke Dewerchin, Peter Carmeliet, Stephane Heymans and Elizabeth A. V. Jones
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:62
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. The prognostic significance of triglyceride-glucose (TyG)-related indices in individuals with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) combined with prediabetes or diabetes is not yet f...

    Authors: Yiheng Zhang, Juanli Wu, Tao Li, Yundong Qu and Yan Wang
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:52
    Content type: Research Published on:

  19. Insulin resistance (IR) plays a pivotal role in the interplay between metabolic disorders and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Various non-insulin-based indices emerge as reliable surrog...

    Authors: Weicheng Ni, Ruihao Jiang, Di Xu, Jianhan Zhu, Jing Chen, Yuanzhen Lin and Hao Zhou
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:32
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. The global increase in human life expectancy, coupled with an unprecedented rise in the prevalence of obesity, has led to a growing clinical and socioeconomic burden of heart failure with preserved ejection fr...

    Authors: Alexander Fuerlinger, Alina Stockner, Simon Sedej and Mahmoud Abdellatif
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2025 24:21
    Content type: Review Published on:

  22. Aging is influenced by genetic determinants and comorbidities, among which diabetes increases the risk for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. There is no therapy to prevent heart dysfunction in ag...

    Authors: Valeria Vincenza Alvino, Sadie Slater, Yan Qiu, Monica Cattaneo, Khaled Abdelsattar Kassem Mohammed, Seamus Gate, Vealmurugan Sekar, Annibale Alessandro Puca and Paolo Madeddu
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2024 23:397
    Content type: Research Published on:

  23. Triglyceride (TG) and its related metabolic indices are recognized as important biomarker gauging cardiovascular diseases. This study aimed to explore the association between multiple TG-derived metabolic indi...

    Authors: Shiyi Tao, Lintong Yu, Jun Li, Li Huang, Tiantian Xue, Deshuang Yang, Xuanchun Huang and Chao Meng
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2024 23:359
    Content type: Research Published on:

  25. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is common in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D), leading to high morbidity and mortality. Managing HFpEF in diabetic patients is challenging with limited trea...

    Authors: Arif Albulushi, Desmond Boakye Tanoh, Ahmed Almustafa, Nadya Al Matrooshi, Ronald Zolty and Brian Lowes
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2024 23:324
    Content type: Research Published on:

  26. Patients with diabetes have an increased risk of developing heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). This study aimed to compare indices of myocardial deformation and perfusion between patients ...

    Authors: Xin-Ni Li, Yu-Ting Liu, Sang Kang, Dan Zeng Qu Yang, Huo-Yuan Xiao, Wen-Kun Ma, Cheng-Xing Shen and Jing-Wei Pan
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2024 23:303
    Content type: Research Published on:

  27. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is associated with systemic inflammation, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and gut microbiome changes. Increased trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) levels are pred...

    Authors: Salmina J. Guivala, Konrad A. Bode, Jürgen G. Okun, Ece Kartal, Edzard Schwedhelm, Luca V. Pohl, Sarah Werner, Sandra Erbs, Holger Thiele and Petra Büttner
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2024 23:299
    Content type: Research Published on:

  28. We evaluated the prevalence of “heart stress” (HS) based on NT-proBNP cut-points proposed by the 2023 Consensus of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in asymptomati...

    Authors: Matteo Landolfo, Francesco Spannella, Federico Giulietti, Beatrice Ortensi, Lucia Stella, Maria A. Carlucci, Roberta Galeazzi, Federica Turchi, Maria P. Luconi, Roberto Zampa, Sofia Cecchi, Elena Tortato, Massimiliano Petrelli and Riccardo Sarzani
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2024 23:297
    Content type: Research Published on:

  29. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a mortal clinical syndrome without effective therapies. Empagliflozin (EMPA) improves cardiovascular outcomes in HFpEF patients, but the underlying mec...

    Authors: Ying Shi, Lili Zhao, Jing Wang, Xiankun Liu, Yiming Bai, Hongliang Cong and Ximing Li
    Citation: Cardiovascular Diabetology 2024 23:269
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original articles, meta-analyses and review articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. 

Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. Please, select the appropriate Collection title “Cardiometabolic HFpEF with focus on type 2 diabetes mellitus" under the “Details” tab during the submission stage.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer-review process. The peer-review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.