Baseline Characteristics and Prescription Patterns of Standard Drugs in Patients with Angiographically Determined Coronary Artery Disease and Renal Failure (CAD-REF Registry)

Living Lab Data of Patient Needs and Expectations for eHealth-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation in Germany and Spain From the TIMELY Study: Cross-Sectional Analysis

BACKGROUND

The use of eHealth technology in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a promising approach to enhance patient outcomes since adherence to healthy lifestyles and risk factor management during phase III CR maintenance is often poorly supported. However, patients' needs and expectations have not been extensively analyzed to inform the design of such eHealth solutions.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this study was to provide a detailed patient perspective on the most important functionalities to include in an eHealth solution to assist them in phase III CR maintenance.

METHODS

A guided survey as part of a Living Lab approach was conducted in Germany (n=49) and Spain (n=30) involving women (16/79, 20%) and men (63/79, 80%) with coronary artery disease (mean age 57 years, SD 9 years) participating in a structured center-based CR program. The survey covered patients' perceived importance of different CR components in general, current usage of technology/technical devices, and helpfulness of the potential features of eHealth in CR. Questionnaires were used to identify personality traits (psychological flexibility, optimism/pessimism, positive/negative affect), potentially predisposing patients to acceptance of an app/monitoring devices.

RESULTS

All the patients in this study owned a smartphone, while 30%-40% used smartwatches and fitness trackers. Patients expressed the need for an eHealth platform that is user-friendly, personalized, and easily accessible, and 71% (56/79) of the patients believed that technology could help them to maintain health goals after CR. Among the offered components, support for regular physical exercise, including updated schedules and progress documentation, was rated the highest. In addition, patients rated the availability of information on diagnosis, current medication, test results, and risk scores as (very) useful. Of note, for each item, except smoking cessation, 35%-50% of the patients indicated a high need for support to achieve their long-term health goals, suggesting the need for individualized care. No major differences were detected between Spanish and German patients (all P>.05) and only younger age (P=.03) but not sex, education level, or personality traits (all P>.05) were associated with the acceptance of eHealth components.

CONCLUSIONS

The patient perspectives collected in this study indicate high acceptance of personalized user-friendly eHealth platforms with remote monitoring to improve adherence to healthy lifestyles among patients with coronary artery disease during phase III CR maintenance. The identified patient needs comprise support in physical exercise, including regular updates on personalized training recommendations. Availability of diagnoses, laboratory results, and medications, as part of a mobile electronic health record were also rated as very useful.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05461729; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05461729.

Contemporary in-hospital and long-term prognosis of patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction depending on renal function: a retrospective analysis

BACKGROUND

Cardiovascular disease is often associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD), resulting in an increased risk for poor outcome. We sought to determine short-term mortality and overall survival in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients with different stages of CKD.

METHODS

In our retrospective cohort study with health insurance claims data of the Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse (AOK), anonymized data of all STEMI patients hospitalized between 2010 and 2017 were analyzed regarding presence and severity of concomitant CKD.

RESULTS

A total of 175,187 patients had an index-hospitalisation for STEMI (without CKD: 78.6% patients, CKD stage 1: 0.8%, CKD stage 2: 4.8%, CKD stage 3: 11.7%, CKD stage 4: 2.8%, CKD stage 5: 0.7%, CKD stage 5d: 0.6%). Patients with CKD were older and had more co-morbidities than patients without CKD. With increasing CKD severity, patients received less revascularization therapies (91.2%, 85.9%, 87.0%, 81.8%, 71.7%, 76.9% and 78.6% respectively, p < 0.001). After 1 year, guideline-recommended medications were prescribed less frequently in advanced CKD (83.4%, 79.3%, 81.5%, 74.7%, 65.0%, 59.4% and 53.7%, respectively, p < 0.001). CKD stages 4, 5 and 5d as well as chronic limb threatening ischemia (CLTI) were associated with decreased overall survival [CKD stage 4: hazard ratio (HR) 1.72; 95% CI 1.66-1.78; CKD stage 5: HR 2.55; 95% CI 2.37-2.73; CKD stage 5d: 5.64; 95% CI 5.42-5.86; CLTI: 2.06; 95% CI 1.98-2.13; all p < 0.001].

CONCLUSIONS

CKD is a frequent co-morbidity in patients with STEMI and is associated with a worse prognosis especially in advanced stages. Guideline-recommended therapies in patients with STEMI and CKD are still underused.

Sex-specific differences and long-term outcome of patients with coronary artery disease and chronic kidney disease: the Coronary Artery Disease and Renal Failure (CAD-REF) Registry

BACKGROUND

Cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are closely linked to chronic kidney disease (CKD). Sex-specific long-term outcome data of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and CKD are scarce.

METHODS

In the prospective observational multicenter Coronary Artery Disease and REnal Failure (CAD-REF) Registry, 773 (23.1%) women and 2,579 (76.9%) men with angiographically documented CAD and different stages of CKD were consecutively enrolled and followed for up to 8 years. Long-term outcome was evaluated using survival analysis and multivariable Cox-regression models.

RESULTS

At enrollment, women were significantly older than men, and suffered from more comorbidities like CKD, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and multivessel coronary disease. Regarding long-term mortality, no sex-specific differences were observed (Kaplan-Meier survival estimates: 69% in women vs. 69% in men, plog-rank = 0.7). Survival rates decreased from 89% for patients without CKD at enrollment to 72% for patients with CKD stages 1-2 at enrollment and 49% for patients with CKD stages 3-5 at enrollment (plog-rank < 0.001). Cox-regression analysis revealed that sex or multivessel coronary disease were no independent predictors of long-term mortality, while age, CKD stages 3-5, albumin/creatinine ratio, diabetes, valvular heart disease, peripheral artery disease, and left-ventricular ejection fraction were predictors of long-term mortality.

CONCLUSIONS

Sex differences in CAD patients mainly exist in the cardiovascular risk profile and the extent of CAD. Long-term mortality was not depended on sex or multivessel disease. More attention should be given to treatment of comorbidities such as CKD and peripheral artery disease being independent predictors of death. Clinical Trail Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00679419.

Post-PCI acute heart failure is an independent predictor of long-term mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to clarify the association of post-percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) acute heart failure (AHF) with all-cause long-term mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

METHODS

In this prospective, observational study, 610 patients with CKD and coronary artery disease (CAD) undergoing PCI were included in the final analysis. Patients were divided to the non post-PCI AHF group (n = 557) and the post-PCI AHF group (n = 53). The diagnosis of post-PCI AHF was based on symptoms, prior cardiovascular history, and potential cardiac and noncardiac precipitants.

RESULTS

The overall incidence of post-PCI AHF was 53/610 (8.7%). The incidence of all-cause long-term mortality was significantly higher in the post-PCI AHF group than in the non post-PCI AHF group (50.9% vs 23.2%, P < .01). The median follow-up period was 7.3 years (interquartile range: 3.7-8.4). After adjusting for left ventricular ejection fraction <40% at discharge, CKD stage, acute myocardial infarction, age and smoking, post-PCI AHF was the strongest predictor of all-cause long-term mortality (hazard ratio: 8.08; 95% CI: 3.04-21.48; P < .01).

CONCLUSIONS

In patients with CKD and CAD undergoing PCI, post-PCI AHF is the strongest predictor of all-cause long-term mortality.

ODM Data Analysis-A tool for the automatic validation, monitoring and generation of generic descriptive statistics of patient data

INTRODUCTION

A required step for presenting results of clinical studies is the declaration of participants demographic and baseline characteristics as claimed by the FDAAA 801. The common workflow to accomplish this task is to export the clinical data from the used electronic data capture system and import it into statistical software like SAS software or IBM SPSS. This software requires trained users, who have to implement the analysis individually for each item. These expenditures may become an obstacle for small studies. Objective of this work is to design, implement and evaluate an open source application, called ODM Data Analysis, for the semi-automatic analysis of clinical study data.

METHODS

The system requires clinical data in the CDISC Operational Data Model format. After uploading the file, its syntax and data type conformity of the collected data is validated. The completeness of the study data is determined and basic statistics, including illustrative charts for each item, are generated. Datasets from four clinical studies have been used to evaluate the application's performance and functionality.

RESULTS

The system is implemented as an open source web application (available at https://odmanalysis.uni-muenster.de) and also provided as Docker image which enables an easy distribution and installation on local systems. Study data is only stored in the application as long as the calculations are performed which is compliant with data protection endeavors. Analysis times are below half an hour, even for larger studies with over 6000 subjects.

DISCUSSION

Medical experts have ensured the usefulness of this application to grant an overview of their collected study data for monitoring purposes and to generate descriptive statistics without further user interaction. The semi-automatic analysis has its limitations and cannot replace the complex analysis of statisticians, but it can be used as a starting point for their examination and reporting.

[Anticoagulation in patients with chronic kidney disease : Recommendations from the working group "Heart-Kidney" of the German Cardiac Society and the German Society of Nephrology]

Indications for anticoagulation are thromboembolic events, prosthetic heart valves, and atrial fibrillation with a corresponding risk score. Clinical trials have excluded patients with advanced chronic kidney disease and these data cannot be always generalized to patients with chronic kidney disease. Non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are mostly not recommended or are contraindicated in advanced stages of chronic kidney disease. Observational studies have shown that dialysis patients with atrial fibrillation do not profit from coumarin anticoagulants; prospective studies are lacking.

Two-year outcome and risk factors for mortality in patients with coronary artery disease and renal failure: The prospective, observational CAD-REF Registry

BACKGROUND

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and coronary artery disease (CAD) are strongly associated. CAD is the most frequent cause of cardiovascular death in patients with CKD.

METHODS

The prospective observational nationwide multicenter Coronary Artery Disease and REnal Failure (CAD-REF) Registry enrolled 3352 patients with angiographically documented CAD classified according to their baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) into 5 groups according to the K/DOQI-guidelines. Patients were followed for two years. The aim of this study was the analysis of outcome and the identification of risk factors for two-year mortality in patients with both CKD and CAD.

RESULTS

With decreasing renal function, patients had more often diabetes mellitus, hypertension, peripheral artery disease, and previous cardiovascular events and interventions. The amount of diseased vessels increased with decreasing renal function. For the whole cohort, two-year mortality was 6.5%. Kaplan-Meier-curves showed highest mortality in patients with CKD stages 4 and 5 (22.4%). In multivariate Cox-regression analyses, significant risk factors for two-year all-cause mortality were lower eGFR, current smoking, left ventricular ejection fraction, diabetes mellitus treated with oral medication or insulin, age, and peripheral artery disease. Coronary status missed the level of statistical significance as a risk factor for mortality in multivariable regression analysis. An eGFR reduction of 10ml/min/1.73m² increased the risk of mortality by 19% regardless of other risk factors.

CONCLUSIONS

Two-year morbidity and mortality increased with the degree of renal impairment. To improve survival of patients with CAD and CKD, nephroprotection is urgently needed especially for patients with atherosclerotic burden.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

NCT00679419, http://clinicaltrials.gov/.

Elevated copeptin is a prognostic factor for mortality even in patients with renal dysfunction

BACKGROUND

Copeptin has turned out to give valuable prognostic information for future cardiovascular events. However, since its plasma concentration directly depends on renal function, the value of copeptin as a predictor for outcome also in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is unknown.

METHODS

In this single-center substudy of the German Coronary Artery Disease-REnal Failure (CAD-REF) registry, 301 patients with an angiographically diagnosed stenosis ≥50% in at least one major coronary vessel were included. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was determined using the MDRD formula and patients were classified according to their CKD stage. Copeptin concentrations were measured before initial angiography. Follow-up was performed at 180days, study endpoint was all-cause mortality.

RESULTS

Of the 301 included patients, 35 (11.6%) patients had no CKD, 113 (37.5%) had CKD stage 1 or 2, 117 (38.9%) had CKD stage 3, and 36 (12.0%) had CKD stage 4 or 5. Copeptin was elevated (≥14pmol/L) in 81 (26.9%) patients and normal (<14pmol/L) in 220 (73.1%) patients. Copeptin values significantly increased with decreasing eGFR (p<0.001) and were strongly correlated with creatinine values (r=0.567, p<0.001). During 180days of follow-up, 15 patients (5.0%) died, 10 of them with elevated copeptin values. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that copeptin was the sole predictor for mortality (HRR 5.317 (95% CI 1.653-17.098), p=0.005), independent of serum creatinine.

CONCLUSION

Elevated copeptin can be used as a valuable prognostic factor for intermediate-term mortality in patients with both coronary artery and renal disease.