Intra-pericardial thrombin injection in iatrogenic cardiac tamponade: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, percutaneous procedures are expanding in use, and this comes with complications associated with the procedure itself. Cardiac tamponade is rare but may be life threatening since it can involve hemodynamic instability. It is known that after pleural effusion during a percutaneous procedure, pericardiocentesis should be used as drainage of the cavity. However, that does not achieve hemostasis in some cases, and in those patients who are hemodynamically unstable, a sealing agent to promote hemostasis might be useful, like thrombin. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a case report of 89-year-old patient with history of melanoma undergoing treatment with pembrolizumab, who attended the emergency department referring chest pain (intensity 5/10) and palpitations that have lasted hours. He had TnTUs 554/566 ng/L and an echocardiogram that showed dilated right chambers, hypertrophy and global hypokinesia of the left ventricle, increased filling pressures of the left ventricle and pulmonary hypertension. Myocarditis associated with pembrolizumab was suspected, so high dose steroids were initiated and endomyocardial biopsy was conducted, resulting in iatrogenic cardiac tamponade. To determine the etiology of the suspected myocarditis, an endomyocardial biopsy was performed. Unfortunately, an intraprocedural complication arose: pleural effusion resulting in iatrogenic cardiac tamponade, leading to hemodynamic instability. It required immediate pericardial drainage via subxiphoid puncture, obtaining a 550 mL hematic debit. Clinical manifestations raised suspicion of tamponade, prompting a bedside echocardiogram for a definitive diagnosis. Despite these efforts, the patient remained hemodynamically unstable, and due to the elevated surgical risk, intrapericardial thrombin was employed to achieve successful hemostasis. CONCLUSIONS: Cardiac tamponade is a life-threatening condition that can sometimes be induced iatrogenically, resulting from percutaneous interventions. Despite limited evidence regarding this therapeutic strategy, in patients experiencing iatrogenic cardiac tamponade with hemodynamic instability and high surgical risk, the administration of intra-pericardial thrombin could be contemplated.

Surgical Risk Scoring in TAVR: Still Needed? A Metaregression Analysis.

Several randomized controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) against surgical aortic valve replacement have been published to date. The fact that higher risk populations were implemented first does not necessarily mean that they benefit more from a TAVR procedure. We performed meta-analysis of the 8 randomized clinical trials performing TAVR for both mortality and stroke outcomes. Meta-regression was used to evaluate the association between mean surgical risk using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) score and hazard ratio observed in each of the trials. Overall, TAVR was associated with a significant reduction of both mortality and stroke across the whole spectrum of patients enrolled, with no evidence of significant heterogeneity. Metaregression analysis does not suggest a statistically significant association between STS score and hazard ratio for both mortality and stroke. This observation suggests reconsidering the use of risk scores to prioritize TAVR utilization in higher risk patients, while more focus should be done on patient's life expectancy related to TAVR durability.

High-sensitivity cardiac troponin T as a predictor of acute Total occlusion in patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome.

BACKGROUND: A large percentage of patients with non-ST-segment acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS) present with acute total occlusion (TO) of some major epicardial vessel that does not generate electrocardiographic changes. Ongoing research into the methods of accurately predicting acute TO have not yielded great success. HYPOTHESIS: High-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) has a good predictive value for the presence of acute TO of the culprit artery in patients with NSTE-ACS. METHODS: A single-center retrospective study of 1011 patients diagnosed with NSTE-ACS who underwent coronary angiography and hs-cTnT measured on admission. The predictive value of hs-cTnT in the presence of acute TO was assessed by the area under the ROC curve. RESULTS: The mean age of the population was 67.12 ± 13.18 and 74.1% were male. 7.3% of the patients presented with acute TO. The AUC for hs-cTnT to predict acute TO was 0.95. A hs-cTnT value of 1006 ng/L (71.8 fold of the URL) best predicted the presence of acute TO, with a sensitivity of 86% and specificity of 95% positive predictive value (PPV): 86% and negative predictive value (NPV): 94%. CONCLUSIONS: Hs-cTnT was a good predictor of acute TO in patients with NSTE-ACS. Hs-cTnT values greater than 1006 ng/L were highly predictive of acute TO of a major coronary vessel.