Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Septic Emboli in the Left Main Trunk as a Complication of Infective Endocarditis

Gut-microbiome-based predictive model for ST-elevation myocardial infarction in young male patients

BACKGROUND

ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in young male patients accounts for a significant proportion of total heart attack events. Therefore, clinical awareness and screening for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in asymptomatic patients at a young age is required. The gut microbiome is potentially involved in the pathogenesis of STEMI. The aim of the current study is to develop an early risk prediction model based on the gut microbiome and clinical parameters for this population.

METHODS

A total of 81 young males (age < 44 years) were enrolled in this study. Forty-one young males with STEMI were included in the case group, and the control group included 40 young non-coronary artery disease (CAD) males. To identify the differences in gut microbiome markers between these two groups, 16S rRNA-based gut microbiome sequencing was performed using the Illumina MiSeq platform. Further, a nomogram and corresponding web page were constructed. The diagnostic efficacy and practicability of the model were analyzed using K-fold cross-validation, calibration curves, and decision curve analysis (DCA).

RESULTS

Compared to the control group, a significant decrease in tendency regarding α and β diversity was observed in patients in the case group and identified as a significantly altered gut microbiome represented by Streptococcus and Prevotella. Regarding clinical parameters, compared to the control group, the patients in the case group had a higher body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), triglyceride (TG), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and low blood urea nitrogen (BUN). Additionally, BMI and SBP were significantly (p<0.05) positively correlated with Streptococcus and [Ruminococcus]. Further, BMI and SBP were significantly (p<0.05) negatively correlated with Prevotella and Megasphaera. A significant negative correlation was only observed between Prevotella and AST (p < 0.05). Finally, an early predictive nomogram and corresponding web page were constructed based on the gut microbiome and clinical parameters with an area under the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of 0.877 and a C-index of 0.911. For the internal validation, the stratified K-fold cross-validation (K = 3) was as follows: AUC value of 0.934. The calibration curves of the model showed good consistency between the actual and predicted probabilities. The DCA results showed that the model had a high net clinical benefit for use in the clinical setting.

CONCLUSION

In this study, we combined the gut microbiome and common clinical parameters to construct a prediction model. Our analysis shows that the constructed model is a non-invasive tool with potential clinical application in predicting STEMI in the young males.

Gut Microbiota Combined with Metabolites Reveals Unique Features of Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients Different from Stable Coronary Artery Disease

INTRODUCTION

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) accounts for the majority of deaths caused by coronary artery disease (CAD). Early warning of AMI, especially for patients with stable coronary artery disease (sCAD), is urgently needed. Our previous study showed that alterations in the gut microbiota were correlated with CAD severity.

OBJECTIVES

Herein, we tried to discover accurate and convenient biomarkers for AMI by combination of gut microbiota and fecal/blood/urinary metabolomics.

METHODS

We recruited 190 volunteers including 93 sCAD patients, 49 AMI patients, and 48 subjects with normal coronary artery (NCA), and measured their blood biochemical parameters, 16S rRNA-based gut microbiota and NMR-based fecal/blood/urinary metabolites. We further selected 20 subjects from each group and analyzed their gut microbiota by whole-metagenome shotgun sequencing.

RESULTS

Multi-omic analyses revealed that AMI patients exhibited specific changes in gut microbiota and serum/urinary/fecal metabolites as compared to subjects with sCAD or NCA. Fourteen bacterial genera and 30 metabolites (11 in feces, 10 in blood, 9 in urine) were closely related to AMI phenotypes and could accurately distinguish AMI patients from sCAD patients. Some species belonging to Alistipes, Streptococcus, Ruminococcus, Lactobacillus and Faecalibacterium were effective to distinguish AMI from sCAD and their predictive ability was confirmed in an independent cohort of CAD patients. We further selected nine indicators including 4 bacterial genera, 3 fecal and 2 urinary metabolites as a noninvasive biomarker set which can distinguish AMI from sCAD with an AUC of 0.932.

CONCLUSION

Combination of gut microbiota and fecal/urinary metabolites provided a set of potential useful and noninvasive predictive biomarker for AMI from sCAD.

Primary percutaneous coronary intervention during ST elevation myocardial infarction in prosthetic valve endocarditis: a case report

Background

Infective endocarditis (IE) is still a condition with high mortality and morbidity, especially in the elderly, and in patients with prosthetic valves. The concept of “time-to-therapy” plays a key role for the prompt management of IE and related complications, and the currently available multimodality imaging may play a key role in this setting. Myocardial ischemia due to extrinsic coronary compression from an aortic abscess is an extremely rare condition where the optimal therapeutic strategy has not been defined yet. We present herein the first case of a patient with ST elevation myocardial infarction caused by an aortic root abscess treated with percutaneous stent implantation.

Case presentation

An 82-year-old woman with a history of atrial fibrillation, chronic renal failure, anemia and a bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement performed in 2014, was admitted to hospital with profound asthenia and a pyrexia of unknown origin. Because of high clinical suspicion of endocarditis, a trans-esophageal echocardiogram was performed. Empirical broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy was initiated, followed by targeted treatment based on the results of blood cultures (Staphylococcus aureus). The echocardiogram did not show vegetations and the patient was managed conservatively. She suddenly deteriorated, due to an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) with anterior ST segment elevation. An urgent angiogram was performed, and extrinsic compression of the left coronary system, due to an aortic root abscess, was suspected. After discussion with the surgical team, percutaneous revascularization was attempted, aiming to restore satisfactory hemodynamics, in order to plan surgery. Unfortunately, the patient rapidly developed cardiogenic shock, with multi organ failure, and died in less than 24 h.

Conclusions

Patients with fever, and significant risk factors for endocarditis, who develop ACS, need a prompt diagnostic work up, including trans-esophageal echocardiography. At present, the specific timing of echocardiographic follow-up and surgical intervention is still a matter of debate, and our case aims to highlight the importance of this aspect in the management of endocarditis, in order to avoid severe complications that adversely affect patient prognosis.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12872-018-0750-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.