Consequences and management of guidewire fracture-entrapment in the left circumflex artery: a case report

Background

Entrapment and fracture of the coronary guidewire are rare but major complications of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The incidence of these complications is reported to be <1%.

Case summary

A 52-year-old male patient with diabetes and dyslipidaemia presented with posterior wall myocardial infarction. An angiogram revealed occlusion in the left circumflex (LCX) artery. Attempts to pass a guidewire through the lesion led to its entrapment and eventual fracture. Several techniques and manoeuvres failed to retrieve the fractured guidewire, which remained lodged in the LCX. An endovascular snare catheter also proved unsuccessful. The fragment was eventually removed using the triple-wire technique, although this caused coronary perforation and dissection. The perforation was identified and stented. A subsequent stent addressed a dissection in the left main/left ascending artery area, likely caused by the coronary snare. These interventions were crucial in stabilizing the patient's condition, leading to recovery with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 50% and a viable LCX artery. The patient exhibited an uneventful progression at the 1-year follow-up.

Discussion

Coronary guidewire fracture during PCI is a rare event often associated with coronary calcifications. Percutaneous removal remains the mainstay treatment for fragment removal; however, it carries risks. The triple-wire technique, a newer method that entangles and extracts the fractured guidewire without specialized equipment, was effective in removing the fragmented guidewire. If asymptomatic, leaving the wire in situ is documented as a favourable approach. This case highlights that the triple-wire technique can effectively be used for the extraction of fractured guidewire fragments from the coronary vessels.

Evolving and Novel Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Thoracic Imaging

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing medicine, particularly radiology. With the development of newer models, AI applications are demonstrating improved performance and versatile utility in the clinical setting. Thoracic imaging is an area of profound interest, given the prevalence of chest imaging and the significant health implications of thoracic diseases. This review aims to highlight the promising applications of AI within thoracic imaging. It examines the role of AI, including its contributions to improving diagnostic evaluation and interpretation, enhancing workflow, and aiding in invasive procedures. Next, it further highlights the current challenges and limitations faced by AI, such as the necessity of 'big data', ethical and legal considerations, and bias in representation. Lastly, it explores the potential directions for the application of AI in thoracic radiology.

Multidisciplinary Management of an Internal Carotid Artery Aneurysm Near the Skull Base

Extracranial carotid artery aneurysms (ECAAs) are rare in comparison to the total number of peripheral artery aneurysms. Although there are multiple treatment modalities, no clear guidelines exist for the optimal management of ECAA. We describe a case of a 59-year-old female with an incidental finding of a 2.6 cm right internal carotid artery (ICA) aneurysm on computed tomography (CT) that was eventually excised via transcervical approach followed by end-to-end anastomosis with great saphenous vein (GSV) graft. To our knowledge, this case demonstrates a novel multidisciplinary approach to an ECAA near the skull base involving head and neck surgery (HNS), vascular surgery (VS), and neuro-interventional radiology (NIR).

Effect of Covid pandemic on immunization status of children in tertiary care Hospital of North India: reason for partial and non-immunization a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Low immunization coverage in India attributes to many factors including sociodemographic factors and people's behavior. COVID-19 pandemic resulted in disruptions in achieving optimum availability and utilization of immunization services. This study was carried out to find out the immunization status of children in the post COVID era and various factors responsible for non-immunization during the pandemic.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study included parents of 225 admitted children aged 1-6 years were interviewed using a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire. Children were classified as completely immunized, partially immunized and unimmunized on the basis of vaccines missed given under first year of life. Reasons for non-immunization and delay/missed vaccination during COVID-19 pandemic were recorded.

RESULTS

Of the 225 children, 162 (72%; 95% CI 66-78%) were completely immunized, 55 (24.4%; 95% CI 19-30%) were partially immunized and 8 (3.6%; 95% CI 1-6%) were unimmunized. Parents with hospital deliveries, higher education level and lesser birth order were more likely to have children with better immunization status (p < 0.05). First dose of measles scheduled at 9 months and 3rd dose of pentavalent vaccine/OPV/Rotavirus vaccine scheduled at 14 weeks were most commonly missed vaccines among partially immunized. Lack of awareness (n = 36, 57.1%; 95% CI 45-70%) was the common reason for partial and non-immunization followed by illness of child (n = 21, 33.3%; 95% CI 21-45%) and COVID-19 pandemic (n = 11, 17.4%; 95% CI 8-27%). Pandemic was reason for delay in 50 (22.2%; 95% CI 17-28%) children. Restrictions of movement (64%; 95% CI 50-78%), fear of being exposed to COVID-19 (52%; 95% CI 38-66%) were the most common reasons for delay during the pandemic. Of the 50 children who had delay due to pandemic, 39 children (17.3%; 95% CI 12-22%) received their catch-up immunization after the pandemic. No child remained completely unimmunized due to COVID-19 pandemic.

CONCLUSIONS

Although COVID-19 pandemic resulted in disruptions in routine immunization services, sociodemographic factors such as awareness for immunization, parental education and various beliefs for immunization were responsible for the children remaining unimmunized or partially immunized after the pandemic.

Investigating the impact of artificial intelligence on human resource functions in the health sector of China: A mediated moderation model

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the way human resources (HR) functions are carried out in the health sector of China. This study aims to scrutinize the impact of artificial intelligence on the human resource functions operating in the healthcare sector through technological awareness, social media influence, and personal innovativeness. Additionally, this study examines the moderating role of perceived risk between technological awareness and human resources functions. An online questionnaire was administered to human resources professionals in the health sector of China to gather data from 363 respondents. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), a statistical procedure, is implemented to investigate the hypothesis of the projected model of artificial intelligence and human resource functions. The research findings reveal that artificial intelligence significantly influences human resource functions through technological awareness, social media influence, and personal innovativeness. Furthermore, perceived risk significantly moderates the relationship between technological awareness and human resource functions. The findings of this study have important implications for HR practitioners and policymakers in the health sectors of China, who can leverage artificial intelligence technologies to optimize and improve organizational performance. However, its adoption needs to be carefully planned and managed to reap the full benefits of this transformative technology.

Safe and predictable transcatheter removal of broken coronary guidewires: the 'knuckle-twister' technique: a case series report

Background

Guidewire fracture and loss is a rare but well-known and feared complication of percutaneous coronary interventions. With the increasing number of complex coronary interventions and procedures for chronic total occlusions, operators face new challenges and boundaries, and the need for solutions to otherwise rare complications is increasing.

Case summary

We have developed a simple and practical method for retrieving fractured and lost guidewires, called the 'knuckle-twister' technique. This article summarizes seven cases in which guidewires lost in the coronary vasculature have been successfully removed and describes this technique in detail. The goal was to gather different clinical scenarios: free wire lost in situ, wire jailed behind stent struts, wire in small branches, part of the wire protruding into the aorta, 'invisible' guidewire microfilaments/coils, etc.

Discussion

The innovation of the knuckle-twister consists in folding a polymer-jacketed guidewire and transforming it into an open lasso that tightens when twisted. In vitro, its grip strength and pulling force was tested and exceeded 1.5 kg. Moreover, in all in vivo cases, the lost material could be efficiently and quite rapidly retrieved with this simple and highly reproducible technique.

Key clinical message

Broken guidewires that were lost in the coronary vasculature can be safely retrieved with this novel and simple technique requiring no special safety equipment.

Routine child immunizations in India during the COVID-19 pandemic

Disruptions in health service delivery and utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic may have caused many children worldwide to not receive vital preventative health services. We investigate the pandemic's effects on routine childhood vaccinations in India, which has the world's largest child immunization program. Using data from the Government of India's health management information system and interrupted time series analyses, we estimate district-level changes in routine child vaccinations during the pandemic relative to typical monthly vaccinations in the pre-pandemic period. Our results indicate there were significant reductions in child vaccinations during the pandemic, with declines being extremely large in April 2020 when a strict national lockdown was in place. For example, district-level administration of the final required dose in the polio series declined by about 60% in April 2020 relative to the typical monthly vaccination levels observed prior to the pandemic. Vaccinations subsequently increased but largely remained below levels observed before the outbreak of COVID-19. Additional declines in vaccinations occurred in 2021 during the second wave of COVID-19 infections in India. Heterogeneity analyses suggest that vaccinations declined the most in districts with the strictest lockdowns and in districts with low health system capacity at baseline. There is a vital need for corrective actions, such as catch-up vaccination campaigns, to limit the deleterious consequences that will arise for the children who missed routine immunizations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Smart brain tumor diagnosis system utilizing deep convolutional neural networks

The early diagnosis of cancer is crucial to provide prompt and adequate management of the diseases. Imaging tests, in particular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), are the first preferred method for diagnosis. However, these tests have some limitations which can cause a delay in detection and diagnosis. The use of computer-aided intelligent systems can assist physicians in diagnosis. In this study, we established a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based brain tumor diagnosis system using EfficientNetv2s architecture, which was improved with the Ranger optimization and extensive pre-processing. We also compared the proposed model with state-of-the-art deep learning architectures such as ResNet18, ResNet200d, and InceptionV4 in discriminating brain tumors based on their spatial features. We achieved the best micro-average results with 99.85% test accuracy, 99.89% Area under the Curve (AUC), 98.16% precision, 98.17% recall, and 98.21% f1-score. Furthermore, the experimental results of the improved model were compared to various CNN-based architectures using key performance metrics and were shown to have a strong impact on tumor categorization. The proposed system has been experimentally evaluated with different optimizers and compared with recent CNN architectures, on both augmented and original data. The results demonstrated a convincing performance in tumor detection and diagnosis.

MediNet: transfer learning approach with MediNet medical visual database

The rapid development of machine learning has increased interest in the use of deep learning methods in medical research. Deep learning in the medical field is used in disease detection and classification problems in the clinical decision-making process. Large amounts of labeled datasets are often required to train deep neural networks; however, in the medical field, the lack of a sufficient number of images in datasets and the difficulties encountered during data collection are among the main problems. In this study, we propose MediNet, a new 10-class visual dataset consisting of Rontgen (X-ray), Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Ultrasound, and Histopathological images such as calcaneal normal, calcaneal tumor, colon benign colon adenocarcinoma, brain normal, brain tumor, breast benign, breast malignant, chest normal, chest pneumonia. AlexNet, VGG19-BN, Inception V3, DenseNet 121, ResNet 101, EfficientNet B0, Nested-LSTM + CNN, and proposed RdiNet deep learning algorithms are used in the transfer learning for pre-training and classification application. Transfer learning aims to apply previously learned knowledge in a new task. Seven algorithms were trained with the MediNet dataset, and the models obtained from these algorithms, namely feature vectors, were recorded. Pre-training models were used for classification studies on chest X-ray images, diabetic retinopathy, and Covid-19 datasets with the transfer learning technique. In performance measurement, an accuracy of 94.84% was obtained in the traditional classification study for the InceptionV3 model in the classification study performed on the Chest X-Ray Images dataset, and the accuracy was increased 98.71% after the transfer learning technique was applied. In the Covid-19 dataset, the classification success of the DenseNet121 model before pre-trained was 88%, while the performance after the transfer application with MediNet was 92%. In the Diabetic retinopathy dataset, the classification success of the Nested-LSTM + CNN model before pre-trained was 79.35%, while the classification success was 81.52% after the transfer application with MediNet. The comparison of results obtained from experimental studies observed that the proposed method produced more successful results.

Graphical abstract

Blockchain-based medical health record access control scheme with efficient protection mechanism and patient control

The patient's medical health record (PMHR) has always provided a large amount of research data to medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies, etc., and has contributed to the development in medical research. However, such PMHR data contains the patient's personal privacy and should be shared under the control of the patients, not the hospital where this data is acquired. In order to protect the privacy of PMHR data while realizing efficient data sharing, this paper proposes a blockchain-based sharing and protection scheme. In this solution, the PMHR data are encrypted and stored in a cloud server, which is equipped with an access control scheme implemented as a smart contract on a blockchain. Different from previous works, in order to ensure efficient access and reduce the workload of patients, the types of users who can apply for access are limited to hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. In order to resist the potential Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack, we have introduced an improved proxy re-encryption scheme to ensure the secrecy of PMHR data while reducing the computational complexity. The whole system is implemented using Solidity and tested on 10 nodes for function verification. Experimental result shows that the proposed system is more efficient than previous systems. Security under the MITM attack is also ensured by security analysis.

Resilience learning from the COVID-19 pandemic and its relevance for routine immunization programs

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a threat that has posed a challenge to public health response and threatens immunization programs globally. Despite recommendations to continue routine immunization services, disruptions have been observed to these and mass vaccination campaigns. This may result in setbacks to immunization initiative successes and a rise in cases of vaccine-preventable diseases.

AREAS COVERED

We conducted a systematic literature review to identify studies globally that described how indicators of health system resilience, defined using the Resilient Health System Framework, enabled routine immunizations to continue during the COVID-19 pandemic. A systematic search was conducted in Embase, Web of Science, PsychInfo, medRxiv, bioRxiv, and the gray literature between 1 January 2020, and 12 November 2021. Information was extracted from the studies identified describing how the specific elements of resiliency (being aware, diverse, self-regulating, integrated, and adaptive) were applied to their routine immunization programs.

EXPERT OPINION

Our study demonstrates the use of tools that contributed to immunization program resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic in all geographic regions and for countries with different income levels. These tools may help inform preparations for other immunization programs to catch up from the COVID-19 pandemic or mitigate the impact of future threats.

COVID-19 pandemic effects on the distribution of healthcare services in India: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought fundamental changes to our problems and priorities, especially those related to the healthcare sector. India was one of the countries severely affected by the harsh consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

AIM

To understand the challenges faced by the healthcare system during a pandemic.

METHODS

The literature search for this review was conducted using PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. We also used Reference Citation Analysis (RCA) to search and improve the results. We focused on the published scientific articles concerned with two major vital areas: (1) The Indian healthcare system; and (2) COVID-19 pandemic effects on the Indian healthcare system.

RESULTS

The Indian healthcare system was suffering even before the pandemic. The pandemic has further stretched the healthcare services in India. The main obstacle in the healthcare system was to combat the rising number of communicable as well as noncommunicable diseases. Besides the pandemic measures, there was a diversion of focus of the already established healthcare services away from the chronic conditions and vaccinations. The disruption of the vaccination services may have more severe short and long-term consequences than the pandemic’s adverse effects.

CONCLUSION

Severely restricted resources limited the interaction of the Indian healthcare system with the COVID-19 pandemic. Re-establishment of primary healthcare services, maternal and child health services, noncommunicable diseases programs, National Tuberculosis Elimination Program, etc. are important to prevent serious long-term consequences of this pandemic.

Lost in circulation

BACKGROUND

Device complications in complex percutaneous coronary interventions are rare but potentially deadly. Surgical removal is often required. However, an evaluation of surgical therapy beyond case reports is practically not existent.

METHODS

We prospectively followed all cases of retained guide wires and/or other devices referred to us for surgical removal between 2015 and 2019 and retrospectively searched our database for such cases between 2010 and 2014.

RESULTS

From 2015 on, eight cases were referred for surgical removal from six different cardiology departments. In the 5 years before, there was not a single case. Six patients were operated emergently. Patients were 60.5 ± 5.42 years old, overweight (body mass index 30.1 ± 3.77) and except for one case (left ventricular-assist device) showed preserved ejection fraction (EF) (mean EF 57 ± 18.01). The retained devices were mostly located in the right coronary artery (50%), followed by the circumflex artery (37.5%) and diagonal branch (12.5%). The devices were remnants of guide wires (n = 4), balloon catheters (n = 3), and in one case a rotablator. Full sternotomy was performed in six patients and two received a left-sided minithoracotomy (n = 2). The operations were performed on-pump in five (62.5%) and off-pump in three patients. Complete extraction of the foreign bodies was possible in all patients. Two patients died; one in unrelated multiorgan failure and one due to retained-device-related right heart failure. The other patients survived and had uneventful postoperative courses.

CONCLUSIONS

Retained foreign bodies from cardiac interventions can be completely removed surgically using individualized approaches. There appears to be a trend toward a rising incidence of such interventional complications.

Surgical rescue of guidewire in-stent entrapment during coronary angioplasty

During a percutaneous coronary procedure, the device may become stuck and break in the coronary circulation. This complication occurs in 0.1% of all procedures. Even with technological improvements, this event still happens because percutaneous coronary interventions are frequently used to treat complex lesions. We report a case of a patient undergoing a percutaneous stenting procedure in which the 0.014″ guidewire was caught in the right coronary artery. Removal of the guidewire was impossible, and it broke in the brachiocephalic artery. Emergency coronary artery bypass grafting was performed.

Successful device retrieval using simple balloon method during cardiac procedures

Objectives

Although rare, incidents of broken/dislodged fragment of various angioplasty hardwares, including catheters, guidewires, angioplasty balloons, and stents, are being increasingly reported in recent years. Since these broken fragments may cause life-threatening consequences for a patient, it is vital for an interventional cardiologist to be acquainted with different retrieval techniques. Here, we are reporting our observations of several incidents of device dislodgement/fracture during cardiac interventions and their retrieval using simple balloon method.

Methods

We present a study of eight patients in whom we attempted to retrieve dislodged/fractured cath-lab hardwares during cardiac interventions, using simple balloon method. These cases include two cases of balloon, three cases of stent, and three cases of guidewire dislodgement/fracture.

Results

Fractured/dislodged cath-lab hardwares were successfully retrieved using a simple balloon method in six out of eight cases (75%), without any need of other retrieval hardwares. We observed no major complications in any patient.

Conclusions

The balloon-assisted retrieval method is a simple, safe, and cost-effective way to avoid complications of endothelial injury, myocardial infarction, emergency coronary artery bypass graft, and sudden cardiac death. This study, particularly the context of retrieval technique used in each case, will offer valuable information to fellow interventional cardiologists.

Successful Retrieval of Uncoiled Coronary Guidewire Using Simple Balloon Method

Breakage of angioplasty device in coronary artery can cause panic in the catheterization laboratory. These broken fragments may serve as a nidus for thrombus formation; hence, removal of these fragments becomes mandatory. Since the incidence of guidewire fracture during angioplasty are rarely reported, evidence-based approaches are not available for the management of such incidental conditions. Here, we report an interesting case of entrapment and unravelling of guidewire. We successfully retrieved unravelled guidewire using a noncompliant balloon inflated in the guiding catheter. Subsequently, the procedure was completed successfully with an implantation of a stent in the culprit lesion. We are of opinion that this novel technique is quite easy and less cumbersome than other described techniques reported earlier.

A rare instructive complication of balloon catheter fracture during percutaneous coronary intervention

The entrapment, fracture, and dislodgement of catheterization devices during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are rare complications, for which cardiac surgery is sometimes required. Here, we encountered a rare but instructive case of balloon catheter fracture during PCI. Although there have been some reports of guidewire fracture in PCI, reports on balloon catheter fracture are very rare to our knowledge. A simulation test to examine the mechanism of balloon catheter fracture revealed that overuse of the balloon catheter, both for kissing balloon inflation and balloon anchor, was highly likely to have been the cause of the fracture.