Prediction of In-Hospital Mortality for Ischemic Cardiogenic Shock Requiring Venoarterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

BACKGROUND

Clinical outcome of ischemic cardiogenic shock (CS) requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is highly variable, necessitating appropriate assessment of prognosis. However, a systemic predictive model estimating the mortality of refractory ischemic CS is lacking. The PRECISE (Prediction of In-Hospital Mortality for Patients With Refractory Ischemic Cardiogenic Shock Requiring Veno-Arterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Support) score was developed to predict the prognosis of refractory ischemic CS due to acute myocardial infarction.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Data were obtained from the multicenter CS registry RESCUE (Retrospective and Prospective Observational Study to Investigate Clinical Outcomes and Efficacy of Left Ventricular Assist Device for Korean Patients With Cardiogenic Shock) that consists of 322 patients with acute myocardial infarction complicated by refractory ischemic CS requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support. Fifteen parameters were selected to assess in-hospital mortality. The developed model was validated internally and externally using an independent external cohort (n=138). Among 322 patients, 138 (42.9%) survived postdischarge. Fifteen predictors were included for model development: age, diastolic blood pressure, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, peak lactic acid, serum creatinine, lowest left ventricular ejection fraction, vasoactive inotropic score, shock to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation insertion time, extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation, use of intra-aortic balloon pump, continuous renal replacement therapy, mechanical ventilator, successful coronary revascularization, and staged percutaneous coronary intervention. The PRECISE score yielded a high area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (0.894 [95% CI, 0.860-0.927]). External validation and calibration resulted in competent sensitivity (area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve, 0.895 [95% CI, 0.853-0.930]).

CONCLUSIONS

The PRECISE score demonstrated high predictive performance and directly translates into the expected in-hospital mortality rate. The PRECISE score may be used to support clinical decision-making in ischemic CS (www.theprecisescore.com).

REGISTRATION

URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT02985008.

Prognostic Impact of Cardiac Diastolic Function and Coronary Microvascular Function on Cardiovascular Death

Background Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) has been considered as a possible cause of cardiac diastolic dysfunction. The current study evaluated the association between cardiac diastolic dysfunction and CMD, and their prognostic implications in patients without significant left ventricular systolic dysfunction and epicardial coronary stenosis. Methods and Results A total of 330 patients without left ventricular systolic dysfunction (ejection fraction ≥50%) and significant epicardial coronary stenosis (fractional flow reserve >0.80) were analyzed. Cardiac diastolic dysfunction was defined by echocardiographic parameters (early diastolic transmitral flow velocity/early diastolic mitral annular velocity, e' velocity, tricuspid regurgitation velocity, and left atrial volume index). Overt CMD was defined as coronary flow reserve <2.0 and index of microcirculatory resistance ≥25 U. The primary end point was cardiovascular death or admission for heart failure during 5 years of follow-up. In patients without left ventricular systolic dysfunction and significant epicardial coronary stenosis, prevalence of cardiac diastolic dysfunction and overt CMD was 25.5% and 11.2%, respectively. Overt CMD was independently associated with cardiac diastolic dysfunction (adjusted odds ratio, 3.440 [95% CI, 1.599-7.401]; P=0.002). Patients with cardiac diastolic dysfunction showed significantly higher risk of the primary outcome than those without (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 2.996 [95% CI, 1.888-4.755]; P<0.001). Patients with overt CMD also showed significantly higher risk of the primary outcome than those without (adjusted HR, 2.939 [95% CI, 1.642-5.261]; P<0.001). Presence of overt CMD was associated with significantly increased risk of cardiovascular death among the patients with cardiac diastolic dysfunction (43.8% versus 14.5%; P=0.006) but not in patients without cardiac diastolic dysfunction (interaction P<0.001). Inclusion of overt CMD into the model with cardiac diastolic dysfunction significantly improved predictive ability for cardiovascular death or heart failure admission (conconrdance index, 0.719 versus 0.737; P for comparison=0.034). Conclusions There was significant association between the presence of cardiac diastolic dysfunction and overt CMD. Both cardiac diastolic dysfunction and overt CMD were associated with increased risk of cardiovascular death or admission for heart failure. Integration of overt CMD into cardiac diastolic dysfunction showed improvement of the risk stratification in patients without significant left ventricular systolic dysfunction and epicardial coronary stenosis. Registration DIAST-CMD (Prognostic Impact of Cardiac Diastolic Function and Coronary Microvascular Function) registry; Unique identifier: NCT05058833.

Prognostic Impact of Chronic Vasodilator Therapy in Patients With Vasospastic Angina

Background

Chronic vasodilator therapy with long‐acting nitrate is frequently used to treat vasospastic angina. However, the clinical benefits of this approach are controversial. We investigated the prognostic impact of vasodilator therapy in patients with vasospastic angina from the multicenter, prospective VA‐KOREA (Vasospastic Angina in KOREA) registry.

Methods and Results

We analyzed data from 1895 patients with positive intracoronary ergonovine provocation test results. The patients were divided into 4 groups: no vasodilator (n=359), nonnitrate vasodilator (n=1187), conventional nitrate (n=209), and a combination of conventional nitrate and other vasodilators (n=140). The primary end point was a composite of cardiac death, acute coronary syndrome, and new‐onset arrhythmia at 2 years. Secondary end points were the individual components of the primary end point, all‐cause death, and rehospitalization due to recurrent angina.

The groups did not differ in terms of the risk of the primary end point. However, the acute coronary syndrome risk was significantly higher in the conventional nitrate (hazard ratio [HR], 2.49; 95% CI, 1.01–6.14; P=0.047) and combination groups (HR, 3.34; 95% CI, 1.15–9.75, P=0.027) compared with the no‐vasodilator group, as assessed using the inverse probability of treatment weights. Subgroup analyses revealed prominent adverse effects of nitrate in patients with an intermediate positive ergonovine provocation test result and in those with low Japanese Coronary Spasm Association scores.

Conclusions

Long‐acting nitrate‐based chronic vasodilator therapy was associated with an increased 2‐year risk of acute coronary syndrome in patients with vasospastic angina, especially in low‐risk patients.

Associations Between Preoperative Glucose and Hemoglobin A1c Level and Myocardial Injury After Noncardiac Surgery

Background Perioperative blood glucose level has shown an association with postoperative outcomes. We compared the incidences of myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery (MINS) and 30-day mortality, according to preoperative blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels. Methods and Results The patients were divided according to blood glucose level within 1 day before surgery. The hyperglycemia group was defined with fasting glucose >140 mg/dL or random glucose >180 mg/dL. In addition, we compared the outcomes according to HbA1c >6.5% among patients with available HbA1c within 3 months before surgery. The primary outcome was MINS, and 30-day mortality was also compared. A total of 12 304 patients were enrolled and divided into 2 groups: 8324 (67.7%) in the normal group and 3980 (32.3%) in the hyperglycemia group. After adjustment with inverse probability of weighting, the hyperglycemia group exhibited significantly higher incidences of MINS and 30-day mortality (18.7% versus 27.6%; odds ratio, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.18-1.42; P<0.001; and 2.0% versus 5.1%; hazard ratio, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.61-2.49; P<0.001, respectively). In contrast to blood glucose, HbA1c was not associated with MINS or 30-day mortality. Conclusions Preoperative hyperglycemia was associated with MINS and 30-day mortality, whereas HbA1c was not. Immediate glucose control may be more crucial than long-term glucose control in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. Registration URL: https://www.cris.nih.go.kr; Unique identifier: KCT0004244.

Late Survival Benefit of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Compared With Medical Therapy in Patients With Coronary Chronic Total Occlusion: A 10-Year Follow-Up Study

Background

As an initial treatment strategy, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO) did not show midterm survival benefits compared with optimal medical therapy (OMT). We sought to evaluate the benefit of PCI compared with OMT in patients with CTO over extended long‐term follow‐up.

Methods and Results

Between March 2003 and February 2012, 2024 patients with CTO were enrolled in a single‐center registry and followed for ≈10 years. We excluded patients with CTO who underwent coronary artery bypass graft (n=477) and classified patients into the CTO‐PCI group (n=883) or OMT group (n=664) according to initial treatment strategy. Patients with multivessel disease received PCI for obstructive non‐CTO lesions in both groups. In the CTO‐PCI group, 699 patients (79.2%) underwent successful revascularization. The CTO‐PCI group had a lower 10‐year rate of cardiac death (10.4% versus 22.3%; hazard ratio [HR], 0.44 [95% CI, 0.32–0.59]; P<0.001) than the OMT group. After propensity score matching analyses, the CTO‐PCI group had a lower 10‐year rate of cardiac death (13.6% versus 20.8%; HR, 0.64 [95% CI, 0.45–0.91]; P=0.01) than the OMT group. The relative reduction in cardiac death at 10 years was mainly driven by a relative reduction between 3 and 10 years (8.3% versus 16.6%; HR, 0.43 [95% CI, 0.27–0.71]; P<0.001) but not at 3 years (5.7% versus 5.0%; HR, 1.12 [95% CI, 0.63–2.00]; P=0.71). The beneficial effects of CTO‐PCI were consistent among subgroups.

Conclusions

As an initial treatment strategy, CTO‐PCI might reduce late cardiac death compared with OMT in patients with CTO. Extended follow‐up of randomized trials may confirm the findings of the present study.

Intraoperative blood loss may be associated with myocardial injury after non-cardiac surgery

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to evaluate the association between intraoperative blood loss and myocardial injury after non-cardiac surgery (MINS), which is a severe and common postoperative complication.

METHODS

We compared the incidence of MINS based on significant intraoperative bleeding, defined as an absolute hemoglobin level < 7 g/dL, a relative hemoglobin level less than 50% of the preoperative measurement, or need for packed red cell transfusion. We also estimated a threshold for intraoperative hemoglobin level associated with MINS.

RESULTS

We stratified a total of 15,926 non-cardiac surgical patients with intraoperative hemoglobin and postoperative cardiac troponin (cTn) measurements according to the occurrence of significant intraoperative bleeding; 13,416 (84.2%) had no significant bleeding while 2,510 (15.8%) did have significant bleeding. After an adjustment with inverse probability weighting, the incidence of MINS was higher in the significant bleeding group (35.2% vs. 16.4%; odds ratio, 1.58; 95% confidence interval, 1.43-1.75; p < 0.001). The threshold of intraoperative hemoglobin associated with MINS was estimated to be 9.9 g/dL with an area under the curve of 0.643.

CONCLUSION

Intraoperative blood loss appeared to be associated with MINS. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

CLINICAL REGISTRATION

The cohort was registered before patient enrollment at https://cris.nih.go.kr (KCT0004244).

Elements of a successful short-stay inpatient psychiatric service

In 1989 Johns Hopkins Hospital modified the Meyer 3 short-stay psychiatric service, which has allowed the hospital to comply with state requirements to control inpatient costs and has increased revenues. Strategies and organizational changes that were implemented to reduce length of stay include use of a screening tool by the admitting physician to ensure appropriate referrals to the service, modification of morning and afternoon rounds and strengthening of linkages with the psychiatric emergency department and outpatient services to enhance communication, replacement of inexperienced first-year residents in the emergency department with senior residents on 24-hour call who are closely supervised by short-stay service staff, and enhanced training for service nurses. Patients who are functionally disabled and who need assistance in activities of daily living have longer stays. Patients with substance use disorders are now referred to an ultra-short-stay unit.