Clinical features and risk factors of postoperative in-hospital mortality following surgical repair of Stanford type A acute aortic dissection

Outcomes of two-stage type II hybrid aortic arch repair in elderly patients with acute type A aortic dissection

Acute type A aortic dissection (a-TAAD) is a severe disease characterized by high mortality, which can be fatal in elderly patients. The objective of this study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of two-stage type II hybrid aortic arch repair (HAR) in elderly patients with acute type A aortic dissection (a-TAAD). This was a single-center, retrospective study involving 119 patients with a-TAAD, including 82 males and 37 females, aged 22-81 years old. Eighty-eight patients underwent total aortic arch replacement (TAR) with frozen elephant trunk (FET) implantation (TAR with FET group) and 31 patients underwent two-stage type II HAR (HAR group). Propensity score matching was applied to adjust for preoperative data, and match 25 pairs. The preoperative, perioperative, postoperative and follow-up data were recorded. Fifteen patients died during the perioperative period; 13 cases were in the TAR with FET group and 2 cases were in the HAR group. The age, body mass index, cerebral infarction, renal insufficiency were significantly higher, and the 24-h fluid drainage, the incidence of acute liver injury, acute kidney injury and pulmonary infection were lower in the HAR group (all P < 0.05). Moreover, the mechanical ventilation time, intensive care unit time, hospital stay time were shorter in the HAR group (all P < 0.05). The follow-up period ranged from 12 to 54 months, with 7 deaths (9.3%) in the TAR with FET group and 2 deaths (6.9%) in the HAR group. The true lumen of the aortic arch and the middle descending thoracic aorta were larger and the false lumen thrombosis rates of the middle descending thoracic aorta and renal artery level were higher in the HAR group (all P < 0.05). Two-stage type II HAR is a safe and effective method for the treatment of elderly patients with a-TAAD. It may be a good choice for elderly patients with a-TAAD and comorbidities.

Prediction Model for Postoperative Pressure Injury in Patients with Acute Type A Aortic Dissection

OBJECTIVE

To establish a risk assessment model to predict postoperative National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel stage 2 or higher pressure injury (PI) risk in patients undergoing acute type A aortic dissection surgery.

METHODS

This retrospective assessment included consecutive patients undergoing acute type A aortic dissection surgery in the authors' hospital from September 2017 to June 2021. The authors used LASSO (logistic least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) regression analysis to identify the most relevant variables associated with PI by running cyclic coordinate descent with 10-times cross-validation. The variables selected by LASSO regression analysis were subjected to multivariate logistic analysis. A calibration plot, receiver operating characteristic curve, and decision curve analysis were used to validate the model.

RESULTS

There were 469 patients in the study, including 94 (27.5%) with postoperative PI. Ten variables were selected from LASSO regression: body mass index, diabetes, Marfan syndrome, stroke, preoperative skin moisture, hemoglobin, albumin, serum creatinine, platelet, and d-dimer. Four risk factors emerged after multivariate logistic regression: Marfan syndrome, preoperative skin moisture, albumin, and serum creatinine. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the model was 0.765. The calibration plot and the decision curve analysis both suggested that the model was suitable for predicting postoperative PI.

CONCLUSIONS

This study built an efficient predictive model that could help identify high-risk patients.

Prediction of in-hospital death following acute type A aortic dissection

Background

Our goal was to create a prediction model for in-hospital death in Chinese patients with acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD).

Methods

A retrospective derivation cohort was made up of 340 patients with ATAAD from Tianjin, and the retrospective validation cohort was made up of 153 patients with ATAAD from Nanjing. For variable selection, we used least absolute shrinkage and selection operator analysis, and for risk scoring, we used logistic regression coefficients. We categorized the patients into low-, middle-, and high-risk groups and looked into the correlation with in-hospital fatalities. We established a risk classifier based on independent baseline data using a multivariable logistic model. The prediction performance was determined based on the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). Individualized clinical decision-making was conducted by weighing the net benefit in each patient by decision curve analysis (DCA).

Results

We created a risk prediction model using risk scores weighted by five preoperatively chosen variables [AUC: 0.7039 (95% CI, 0.643–0.765)]: serum creatinine (Scr), D-dimer, white blood cell (WBC) count, coronary heart disease (CHD), and blood urea nitrogen (BUN). Following that, we categorized the cohort's patients as low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups. The intermediate- and high-risk groups significantly increased hospital death rates compared to the low-risk group [adjusted OR: 3.973 (95% CI, 1.496–10.552), P &lt; 0.01; 8.280 (95% CI, 3.054–22.448), P &lt; 0.01, respectively). The risk score classifier exhibited better prediction ability than the triple-risk categories classifier [AUC: 0.7039 (95% CI, 0.6425–0.7652) vs. 0.6605 (95% CI, 0.6013–0.7197); P = 0.0022]. The DCA showed relatively good performance for the model in terms of clinical application if the threshold probability in the clinical decision was more than 10%.

Conclusion

A risk classifier is an effective strategy for predicting in-hospital death in patients with ATAAD, but it might be affected by the small number of participants.

Hotspots and development frontiers of postoperative complications of AD: Bibliometric analysis - a review

The research on the postoperative complications of aortic dissection (AD) has received great attention from scholars all over the world, and the number of research articles in this field has consistently increased year after year. However, no bibliometric reports have been published yet to analyze the scientific output and the current situation in this field. The Bibliometrix R-package, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace software were used to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the hotspots and development frontiers of AD. A total of 1242 articles were retrieved. The USA, China, and Japan had the highest number of publications. The five keywords with the highest frequency were "analysis," "incidence," "acute type," "graft," and "risk factor." The results also indicated that the research in related fields had shifted from surgical treatment and utilizing experience to the evidence-based exploration of risk factors and the construction of prediction models to help better manage postoperative complications of AD. This is the first bibliometric analysis of global publications on the postoperative complications of AD. The current research hotspots focus on three areas: common postoperative complications of AD, exploration of the related risk factors, and management of complications. Future research could focus on identifying risk factors through meta-analysis and using a multicenter database for AD as well as building relevant models to predict the development of complications to better facilitate the clinical management of AD patients.

Predictive value of admission CO2 combining power combined with serum sodium for the prognosis in acute Stanford type A aortic dissection patients

Acute Stanford type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) with sudden onset and high mortality requiries a standard Bentall operation and a accurate prognosis in common, together with alteration of CO₂ combining power (CO₂CP) and serum sodium rase concern, hence, we evaluated the prognostic value of CO₂CP combined with serum sodium in ATAAD patients. This retrospective study included 183 patients who underwent Bentall operation for ATAAD from 2015 to 2021 in the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, subsequently followed grouping by the levels of CO₂CP and serum sodium. The study endpoint was 30-day all-cause mortality, and the prognostic value of CO₂CP combined with serum sodium levels in ATAAD patients were evaluated with multivariate logistic regression method. The postoperative incidence of in-hospital death and adverse events in patients with ATAAD were 18% and 25.7%, respectively. Combination of CO₂CP and serum sodium for predicting ATAAD death and adverse events presented a higher predictive value than each single indicator with ROC curve analysis (the AUC of CO₂CP combined with serum sodium was 0.786, 95% CI 0.706-0.869, P < 0.001), along with CO₂CP < 22.5 mmol/L + serum sodium > 138.5 mmol/L group had the worst prognostic. Multivariate regression analyse showed that CO₂CP < 22.5 mmol/L combined with serum sodium > 138.5 mmol/L preferably predicted the prognosis of ATAAD (OR =6.073, 95% CI 2.557-14.425, P < 0.001). Consistently, the cumulative 30-day survival after surgery in ATAAD patients with the low CO₂CP and high serum sodium simultaneously was the worst (log-rank P < 0.05). The combination of CO₂CP and serum sodium increases the predictive value of prognosis, which is conducive to risk stratification of patients with ATAAD.

Ischemia modified albumin can act as an independent predictor of inhospital mortality in patients with acute aortic dissection

Acute aortic dissection (AAD) is a serious disease characterized by high mortality. However, there are no accurate indicators to predict in-hospital mortality. The objective of this study was to identify the potential value of ischemia modified albumin (IMA) in prediction of in-hospital mortality of AAD patients. This was a single-center, prospective study involved 314 patients undergoing AAD, including 197 males and 117 females, aged 26-87 (57.14 ± 21.71) years old, 116 cases of TAAD and 198 cases of TBAD (37 cases of complicated, 114 cases of high risk, and 47 cases of uncomplicated), 228 cases were underwent surgery/intervention treatment (77 cases of TAAD,151 cases of TBAD) and 86 cases were underwent conservative therapy (39 cases of TAAD, 47 cases of TBAD). The basic data, on-admission IMA level, and the all-cause in-hospital mortality was recorded. IMA in the non-survivor group and TAAD group was found to be significantly higher than that in the survivor group and TBAD group (P < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis results revealed that age (OR = 1.923, 95%CI: 1.102-4.481, P = 0.020), conservative therapy (OR = 17.892, 95%CI: 7.641-24.748, P < 0.001), D-dimer level (OR = 3.517, 95%CI: 1.874-7.667, P = 0.011) and IMA level (OR = 5.406, 95%CI: 2.951-10.395, P = 0.004) served as independent risk factors for in-hospital mortality of TAAD patients. And D-dimer level (OR = 2.241, 95%CI: 1.475-5.663, P = 0.018), IMA level (OR = 3.115, 95%CI: 1.792-6.925, P = 0.009) also served as independent risk factors for in-hospital mortality of TBAD patients, whereas surgery (OR = 0.110, 95%CI: 0.075-0.269, P < 0.001) was the protective factor of in-hospital mortality of TAAD patients. After IMA prediction, the AUC, optimal cut-off value, sensitivity, and the specificity of in-hospital mortality of AAD patients were observed to be 0.801 (95%CI: 0.744-0.858), 86.55 U/mL, 79.1%, and 73.2%, respectively. In addition, it was found that AUC was 0.799 (95%CI: 0.719-0.880) in TAAD and 0.753 (95% CI: 0.641-0.866) in TBAD. Overall, it was concluded that on-admission IMA level acted as an independent prediction index for in-hospital mortality of AAD patients.

Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells are dysregulated, but only Th17 cells relate to C-reactive protein, D-dimer, and mortality risk in Stanford type A aortic dissection patients

BACKGROUND

T helper (Th) cells are closely involved in vascular inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and atherogenesis, which are the hallmarks of aortic dissection (AD). This study aimed to evaluate the clinical value of Th1, Th2, and Th17 cell measurements in Stanford type A AD patients.

METHODS

Stanford type A AD patients (N=80) and non-AD patients with chest pain (N = 40) were recruited. Then, Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells in peripheral blood CD4⁺ T cells from all participants were detected by flow cytometry. The 30-day mortality of Stanford type A AD patients was recorded.

RESULTS

Th1 and Th17 cells were higher, while Th2 cells were lower in Stanford type A AD patients compared with non-AD patients (all p < 0.001). Meanwhile, Th1 cells (area under curve (AUC): 0.734, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.640-0.828), Th2 cells (AUC: 0.841, 95% CI: 0.756-0.925), and Th17 cells (AUC: 0.898, 95% CI: 0.839-0.957) could distinguish Stanford type A patients from non-AD patients. Moreover, Th1 cells (p = 0.037) and Th17 cells (p = 0.001) were positively related to CRP, and Th17 cells (p = 0.039) were also positively associated with D-dimer in Stanford type A AD patients. Furthermore, Th17 cells were elevated in deaths compared with survivors (p = 0.001), also, it could estimate 30-day mortality risk in Stanford type A AD patients with an AUC of 0.741 (95% CI: 0.614-0.867), which was similar to the value of CRP (AUC: 0.771, 95% CI: 0.660-0.882), but lower than the value of D-dimer (AUC: 0.818, 95% CI: 0.722-0.913).

CONCLUSION

Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells are dysregulated, but only the Th17 cells relate to CRP, D-dimer, and 30-day mortality risk in Stanford type A AD patients.

D-dimer: an analyte with increasing application in Covid-19 infection

INTRODUCTION

: D- Dimer levels from peripheral blood are increasingly used to assess various pathological conditions. Initially an area for haematologists, now this analyte is evaluated more extensively from many specialities of medicine. Covid-19 infection has not only added a new dimension to D-Dimer level assessment in this disease but has also shed newer lights to the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms for its elevation in this disease.

AREAS COVERED

Innate variability in measuring D- Dimer levels, Impact of various techniques in measuring D- Dimer, non availability of uniform controls and standards, molecular heterogeneity of the product, how it is produced. Reasons for raised D- Dimer in covid-19 infection. D- Dimer in other pathological states. Articles with relevant key words from 1990 searched in PubMed were utilized for review.

EXPERT OPINION

: D-Dimer has important application in diagnosis, prognosis, management and understanding various conditions. Its level can rise with increased coagulability of blood, sepsis, cytokine storm and snake bite etc. Renal function, age influences its reference ranges. Units of measurement, its expression varies in different reports needing international standardization. In Covid-19 infection its levels correlate with stage of the disease, pathology and complications.