Intra-aortic Balloon Pump Does Not Impede Cerebral Microcirculation During Central Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Support: Evaluation With Laser Speckle Flowgraphy

Mortality risk factors in patients receiving ECPR after cardiac arrest: Development and validation of a clinical prognostic prediction model

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown an increasing trend of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) use in patients with cardiac arrest (CA). Although ECPR have been found to reduce mortality in patients with CA compared with conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CCPR), the mortality remains high. This study was designed to identify the potential mortality risk factors for ECPR patients for further optimization of patient management and treatment selection.

METHODS

We conducted a prospective, multicentre study collecting 990 CA patients undergoing ECPR in 61 hospitals in China from January 2017 to May 2022 in CSECLS registry database. A clinical prediction model was developed using cox regression and validated with external data.

RESULTS

The data of 351 patients meeting the inclusion criteria before October 2021 was used to develop a prediction model and that of 68 patients after October 2021 for validation. Of the 351 patients with CA treated with ECPR, 227 (64.8%) patients died before hospital discharge. Multivariate analysis suggested that a medical history of cerebrovascular diseases, pulseless electrical activity (PEA)/asystole and higher Lactate (Lac) were risk factors for mortality while aged 45-60, higher pH and intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) during ECPR have protective effects. Internal validation by bootstrap resampling was subsequently used to evaluate the stability of the model, showing moderate discrimination, especially in the early stage following ECPR, with a C statistic of 0.70 and adequate calibration with GOF chi-square = 10.4 (p = 0.50) for the entire cohort. Fair discrimination with c statistic of 0.65 and good calibration (GOF chi-square = 6.1, p = 0.809) in the external validation cohort demonstrating the model's ability to predict in-hospital death across a wide range of probabilities.

CONCLUSION

Risk factors have been identified among ECPR patients including a history of cerebrovascular diseases, higher Lac and presence of PEA or asystole. While factor such as age 45-60, higher pH and use of IABP have been found protective against in-hospital mortality. These factors can be used for risk prediction, thereby improving the management and treatment selection of patients for this resource-intensive therapy.

Clinical Application of Laser Speckle Flowgraphy to Assess Changes in Blood Flow to the Foot After a Lumbar Sympathetic Ganglion Block: A Case Report

Background

The lumbar sympathetic ganglion block (LSGB) has been used as a diagnostic and therapeutic procedure for treating pain conditions such as neuropathic and ischemia-related pain, affecting the lower extremities. In general, an increase in skin temperature is useful in confirming the effectiveness of the sympathetic nerve block in clinical settings. However, the assessment of skin temperature in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) occasionally provides false negatives.

Case Presentation

A novel technology, laser speckle flowgraphy (LSFG) enables noninvasive quantitative and qualitative blood flow assessments. LSFG is a novel neuro-monitor for quantitative blood flow detection in the optic nerve head during cardiac surgery. Herein, we report on measuring foot blood flow using LSFG before and after LSGB in a PAD patient. This research aimed to determine whether LSFG could detect any improvement in the dynamics of foot blood flow after an LSGB in a situation where changes in skin temperature alone could not determine the procedure's outcome.

Conclusion

LSFG can be used to assess blood flow changes in a foot with PAD, following a LSGB.

Effect of an intra-aortic balloon pump with venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation on mortality of patients with cardiogenic shock: a systematic review and meta-analysis†

An intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) concomitant with venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) is frequently used to support patients with refractory cardiogenic shock (CS). Because of the lack of evidence of the adjunctive benefit, the goal of the study was to compare the effect of VA-ECMO plus IABP with that of VA-ECMO alone. Systematic searches were conducted to identify studies using PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. Studies reporting on patients with adult CS treated with VA-ECMO plus IABP or VA-ECMO alone were identified and included. The primary outcome was in-hospital death. The secondary outcomes included neurological, gastrointestinal and limb-related complications. The study protocol was registered at PROSPERO (CRD42017069259). A total of 29 studies comprising 4576 patients were included. The pooled in-hospital deaths of patients on VA-ECMO were 1441/2285 (63.1%) compared with 1339/2291 (58.4%) for patients with adjunctive IABP. VA-ECMO plus IABP was associated with decreased in-hospital deaths [risk ratio (RR) 0.90; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.85-0.95; P < 0.0001]. Moreover, IABP was related to decreased in-hospital deaths of patients with extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation, postcardiotomy CS and ischaemic heart disease (RR 0.78; 95% CI 0.64-0.95; P = 0.01; RR 0.91; 95% CI: 0.85-0.98; P = 0.008; RR 0.83; 95% CI 0.73-0.96, P = 0.009). Neurological, gastrointestinal and limb-related complications did not differ significantly between patients on ECMO with and without concurrent IABP. VA-ECMO plus IABP was associated with decreased in-hospital deaths in patients with CS.