Massive Left Ventricular Hypertrophy With Acromegaly: Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy Phenocopy or Phenotype?

Acromegaly-a rare endocrine disorder-results when a growth hormone-secreting somatotroph pituitary adenoma leads to increased insulin-like growth factor 1 production. Acromegaly is known to cause left ventricular hypertrophy. We present a case of acromegaly with massive left ventricular hypertrophy that was determined to be coexistent with gene-positive hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. (Level of Difficulty: Intermediate.).

An Evaluation of the Clinical and Financial Value of Work Station Single Sign-on in 19 Hospitals.

Background: A large health system implemented computer workstation single sign-on (SSO) in 19 community hospitals. In SSO technology, manual keyboard login is replaced with an identification badge reader that clinicians swipe for expedited access to the electronic health record (EHR) and clinical applications while roaming the hospital. Objective: To assess the clinical workflow and financial value of SSO implementation in reducing clinician time logging in to the EHR and clinical applications. Methods: Mean login time duration before and following SSO implementation was measured over 128 logins during two seven-day periods across eight hospitals selected randomly from 19 facilities where the technology was live. Mean first-of-shift login duration and mean reconnect login duration during the rest of shift were compared prior to and post-SSO implementation. Dollar values of keyboard time saved were calculated for physicians, nurses, and ancillary clinicians. Total facility-wide and enterprise-wide clinician time liberated from keyboard use are reported in hours and in dollar value per week and per year. Results: Following SSO implementation, first-of-shift login was reduced by 5.3 seconds (15.3 percent), and reconnect login duration in the remainder of the shift was reduced by 20.4 seconds (69.9 percent). The total weekly time savings realized by SSO was 943.4 hours (the equivalent of 78.6 12-hour shifts) across 19 hospitals, a mean of 49.7 hours (4.1 shifts) per facility. Annually, 49,056.8 hours (4,088.1 shifts) of mixed clinician time were liberated from keyboard use for the enterprise, a mean of 2,584.4 hours (215.4 shifts) per facility per year. The annual dollar value of clinician time liberated from keyboard use to care for patients was $3,201,001 for 19 facilities, or $168,474 per hospital. Future savings due to desktop virtualization and use of a thin client device, in lieu of replacing more costly desktop computers, increases the annual financial value conveyed by SSO to $3,330,601. Conclusions: In the 19 hospitals evaluated, SSO improved clinician efficiency and delivered substantial financial value. The use of SSO is an effective method for liberating clinician time from keyboard use to focus on providing patient care, and can facilitate EHR use.

The association between novel clinical factors and gastrointestinal bleeding among patients supported with continuous-flow left ventricular assist device therapy.

BACKGROUND: This study explores novel preimplantation risk factors associated with gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) after continuous-flow left ventricular assist device (CF-LVAD) implantation. CF-LVAD therapy implantation for patients with advanced heart failure is associated with a 20% to 40% incidence of GIB. METHODS: This study includes patients receiving CF-LVAD at a quaternary medical center from 2006 to 2014 (n = 254). The primary endpoint was GIB within 12 months after implantation; the secondary outcome was 3-year all-cause mortality. The Student t test or the χ2 test compared continuous or categorical variables. Competing risks analysis calculated the cumulative incidence of GIB postimplantation. Cox proportional hazards model was used for univariate/multivariate models predicting GIB. RESULTS: Sixty-four patients had GIB, with incidence rates at 1, 3, and 12 months of 11.8%, 19.3%, and 25.2%, respectively. Endoscopy revealed no identified source of bleeding in 41%; 33% of lesions were localized in the upper gastrointestinal tract, with the bulk (39%) categorized as vascular. Patients with prior gastrointestinal abnormalities (n = 98) had a greater risk of GIB post-CF-LVAD (HR 1.85 [1.11-3.09]; P = 0.02) than those with normal gastrointestinal evaluation results (n = 45) and those without preimplantation gastrointestinal evaluation (n = 111). Baseline blood urea nitrogen, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and prior percutaneous coronary intervention were statistically associated with post-CF-LVAD GIB. The presence of GIB within 12 months of CF-LVAD implantation was associated with an increased risk of 3-year all-cause mortality (HR 2.57 [1.57-4.15]; P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: First-year GIB is associated with increased mortality post-CF-LVAD. We advocate a closer examination of several GIB risk factors when evaluating CF-LVAD candidates.

Clinical impact and value of workstation single sign-on.

BACKGROUND: CHRISTUS Health began implementation of computer workstation single sign-on (SSO) in 2015. SSO technology utilizes a badge reader placed at each workstation where clinicians swipe or "tap" their identification badges. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of SSO implementation in reducing clinician time logging in to various clinical software programs, and in financial savings from migrating to a thin client that enabled replacement of traditional hard drive computer workstations. METHODS: Following implementation of SSO, a total of 65,202 logins were sampled systematically during a 7day period among 2256 active clinical end users for time saved in 6 facilities when compared to pre-implementation. Dollar values were assigned to the time saved by 3 groups of clinical end users: physicians, nurses and ancillary service providers. RESULTS: The reduction of total clinician login time over the 7day period showed a net gain of 168.3h per week of clinician time - 28.1h (2.3 shifts) per facility per week. Annualized, 1461.2h of mixed physician and nursing time is liberated per facility per annum (121.8 shifts of 12h per year). The annual dollar cost savings of this reduction of time expended logging in is $92,146 per hospital per annum and $1,658,745 per annum in the first phase implementation of 18 hospitals. Computer hardware equipment savings due to desktop virtualization increases annual savings to $2,333,745. Qualitative value contributions to clinician satisfaction, reduction in staff turnover, facilitation of adoption of EHR applications, and other benefits of SSO are discussed. CONCLUSIONS: SSO had a positive impact on clinician efficiency and productivity in the 6 hospitals evaluated, and is an effective and cost-effective method to liberate clinician time from repetitive and time consuming logins to clinical software applications.

Biatrial High-Grade Leiomyosarcoma With Nine-Year Post-Surgical Survival.

Primary cardiac leiomyosarcoma is a rare tumor with poor prognosis. We present a 53-year-old female patient with biatrial leiomyosarcoma with inferior vena cava and coronary sinus involvement who underwent aggressive surgical resection with reconstruction of her left and right atrium and coronary sinus with bovine pericardium followed by adjuvant radiation therapy. She is living well with no recurrence 9 years after diagnosis.

Expecting the unexpected: right atrial mass in a transplant patient.

We present a 71-year-old male, who had had a heart transplantation 24 years prior, who came to our clinic with a low-grade fever and a new II/VI holosystolic murmur. Echocardiography showed a large mass in the right atrium with attachment near the junction of the right atrium and superior vena cava. The patient was taken to the operating room for resection of the mass. Microscopic evaluation was consistent with thrombus. Differential diagnosis of cardiac masses after cardiac transplant includes tumour, thrombus, and vegetation. Final diagnosis can be challenging; multimodality imaging and biopsy or resection often are required for final diagnosis.

Emergency Medical Text Classifier: New system improves processing and classification of triage notes.

OBJECTIVE: Automated syndrome classification aims to aid near real-time syndromic surveillance to serve as an early warning system for disease outbreaks, using Emergency Department (ED) data. We present a system that improves the automatic classification of an ED record with triage note into one or more syndrome categories using the vector space model coupled with a 'learning' module that employs a pseudo-relevance feedback mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Terms from standard syndrome definitions are used to construct an initial reference dictionary for generating the syndrome and triage note vectors. Based on cosine similarity between the vectors, each record is classified into a syndrome category. We then take terms from the top-ranked records that belong to the syndrome of interest as feedback. These terms are added to the reference dictionary and the process is repeated to determine the final classification. The system was tested on two different datasets for each of three syndromes: Gastro-Intestinal (GI), Respiratory (Resp) and Fever-Rash (FR). Performance was measured in terms of sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp). RESULTS: The use of relevance feedback produced high values of sensitivity and specificity for all three syndromes in both test sets: GI: 90% and 71%, Resp: 97% and 73%, FR: 100% and 87%, respectively, in test set 1, and GI: 88% and 69%, Resp: 87% and 61%, FR: 97% and 71%, respectively, in test set 2. CONCLUSIONS: The new system for pre-processing and syndromic classification of ED records with triage notes achieved improvements in Se and Sp. Our results also demonstrate that the system can be tuned to achieve different levels of performance based on user requirements.

Implementation of Emergency Medical Text Classifier for syndromic surveillance.

Public health officials use syndromic surveillance systems to facilitate early detection and response to infectious disease outbreaks. Emergency department clinical notes are becoming more available for surveillance but present the challenge of accurately extracting concepts from these text data. The purpose of this study was to implement a new system, Emergency Medical Text Classifier (EMT-C), into daily production for syndromic surveillance and evaluate system performance and user satisfaction. The system was designed to meet user preferences for a syndromic classifier that maximized positive predictive value and minimized false positives in order to provide a manageable workload. EMT-C performed better than the baseline system on all metrics and users were slightly more satisfied with it. It is vital to obtain user input and test new systems in the production environment.

Evaluation of the PAS-Port Proximal Anastomosis System in coronary artery bypass surgery (the EPIC trial).

OBJECTIVE: During coronary surgery, proximal vein graft anastomoses have been performed by using an aortic partial occlusion clamp to allow for a hand-sewn anastomosis. The purpose of this multicenter, prospective, randomized trial was to evaluate the efficacy of the PAS-Port device (Cardica, Inc, Redwood City, Calif), which allows an automated proximal anastomosis to be performed without aortic clamping. METHODS: Between June 22, 2006, and March 22, 2007, 220 patients requiring coronary artery bypass grafting with at least 2 vein grafts were enrolled. Within each patient, 1 graft was randomly assigned to receive a PAS-Port device, and the other was assigned to receive a hand-sewn anastomosis to the ascending aorta. The primary end point was angiographic patency (<50% stenosis) 9 months after surgical intervention. Secondary end points included average time to complete each anastomosis and 9-month freedom from major adverse cardiac events. RESULTS: One hundred eighty-three patients received matched grafts that were angiographically assessed at 9 months. The 9-month graft patency was 82.0% (150/183) for hand-sewn and 80.3% (147/183) for PAS-Port grafts. The patency rate of PAS-Port anastomoses was statistically noninferior to that of hand-sewn anastomoses (95% lower confidence limit for difference, -7.95%). The freedom from major adverse cardiac events at 9 months was 97.7% for PAS-Port (95% confidence interval, 94.5%-99.0%) and 98.2% for hand-sewn (95% confidence interval, 95.1%-99.3%) grafts. The PAS-port device was associated with a 4.6 +/- 3.9-minute reduction in anastomotic time compared with that seen with a hand-sewn anastomosis (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The PAS-Port proximal anastomotic device produces an effective anastomosis with a 9-month patency rate that is comparable with that of a hand-sewn anastomosis. It allows for construction of a proximal anastomosis without aortic clamping and requires less time than a hand-sewn anastomosis.

Comparison of Novacor and HeartMate vented electric left ventricular assist devices in a single institution.

We compared the survival outcomes, left ventricular assist device (LVAD)-related hospitalization, stroke, infection, panel reactive antibody, and blood product use data among 13 Novacor and 51 HeartMate system recipients. Stroke was significantly higher in Novacor patients, as was blood product use at the time of heart transplantation, likely due to long-term anti-coagulation, while the LVAD-related hospitalization and infections did not differ between the 2 groups. A positive panel reactive antibody was seen more among the HeartMate patients, but did not have a significant clinical impact and may not represent a true allosensitization.

Detecting malingered performance on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Validation of Mittenberg's approach in traumatic brain injury.

This study assesses the effectiveness of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) performance validity markers devised by Mittenberg et al. [Prof. Psychol.: Res. Pract. 26 (1995) 491] in the detection of malingered neurocognitive dysfunction (MND). Subjects were 65 traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients referred for neuropsychological evaluation. Twenty-eight met the Slick et al. [Clin. Neuropsychol. 13 (1999) 545] criteria for at least probable MND. The control group was comprised of 37 patients without external incentive and who thus did not meet the Slick et al. criteria. All subjects completed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R or WAIS-III). The discriminant function score (DFS) and the vocabulary-digit span (VDS) difference score were calculated and sensitivity, specificity, and predictive power were examined for several cut-offs for each marker individually and the two combined. Classification accuracy for the DFS was acceptable and better than for VDS. The use of the two markers in combination resulted in no incremental increase in classification accuracy. Issues related to the clinical application of these techniques are discussed.

A miniature right heart support system improves cardiac output and stroke volume during beating heart posterior/lateral coronary artery bypass grafting.

BACKGROUND: Certain heart manipulations carried out to access anastomotic sites during beating heart coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) compromise hemodynamics, and these risks can affect end-organ perfusion and limit patient selection. Evidence suggests that right heart support (RHS) augments left ventricular preload and provides hemodynamic stability. This study evaluated hemodynamic measures in OPCAB with RHS with respect to individual target vessels and general target distribution groups. METHODS: Beating heart surgery was performed on 52 patients with left ventricular preload managed with RHS. The average patient age was 69.9 years, and the average ejection fraction was 42.9% +/- 10.9%. Measurements of cardiac output, stroke volume, mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate, and cardiac index (CI) were taken at baseline, during each anastomosis with the optimal heart position, and when the RHS was momentarily interrupted prior to heart release. Anastomoses were categorized individually and into posterior/lateral (n = 91) or anterior/right (n = 90) groups and divided into the following output groups based on CI with optimal heart positioning without RHS: group 1 (low output; CI < 1.8), group 2 (marginal output; 1.8 < or = CI < 2.2), group 3 (acceptable output; CI > or = 2.2), and group 4 (output unchanged or increased). RESULTS: One hundred eighty-one vessels were grafted with an average of 3.5 per patient. Significant reductions in CI, MAP, and stroke volume were observed for all target vessels when RHS was briefly off, especially for posterior and lateral target vessels (12%-26% decrease). In both posterior/lateral and anterior/right target vessel groups, RHS improved CI and MAP in > or = 90% of the anastomoses (groups 1-3). Without RHS, 60% of posterior/lateral and 54% of anterior/right target positions resulted in critically low or marginal output (groups 1 and 2). There was one bypass conversion and no surgical interruptions, intraoperative intra-aortic balloon pump placements, or deaths. CONCLUSION: Augmenting left ventricular preload with RHS improves hemodynamic measures during OPCAB for all target vessel positions and provides critical support in a large number of anastomoses.

Detecting malingered performance with the Wisconsin card sorting test: a preliminary investigation in traumatic brain injury.

The present study examined the classification accuracy of four potential Wisconsin Card Sorting Test malingering indicators (Bernard and Suhr formulas and two types of Unique responses). Participants were 89 traumatic brain-injury (TBI) patients assigned to malingering and nonmalingering groups on the basis of the Slick, Sherman, and Iversion (1999) criteria. Individual Sensitivities were greater than .33 with acceptable Specificity. Combined Sensitivity for two of the indicators was greater than.60. Overall, this study demonstrated three distinct approaches to the WCST used by probable malingerers. The clinical relevance of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Detecting malingered neurocognitive dysfunction using the reliable digit span in traumatic brain injury.

This study assessed the effectiveness of Greiffenstein's Reliable Digit Span (RDS) score for the detection of malingered neurocognitive dysfunction. Participants were 54 traumatic brain injury patients referred for neuropsychological evaluation. Twenty-four met the Slick, Sherman, and Iverson criteria for at least probable malingered neurocognitive dysfunction. The control group was composed of 30 patients without external incentive and who thus did not meet the Slick criteria. All patients completed the digit span test as part of either the WAIS-R or WAIS-III. The RDS scores were calculated, and sensitivity, specificity, and predictive power were examined for several cutoffs. Classification accuracy for the RDS was excellent. Issues related to the clinical application of this technique are discussed.

Correlating selection criteria with subsequent performance as residents.

The objective of this study was to determine which criteria in the residency application had the highest correlation with subsequent performance of orthopaedic residents. Data collected from the application files of 58 residents included scores on standardized tests, number of honors grades in the basic and clinical years of medical school, election to Alpha Omega Alpha, numbers of research projects and publications, and numbers of extracurricular activities. Measures of performance included scores on the Orthopaedic In-Training Examination and American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery Part I Examination, and faculty evaluations of overall, cognitive, affective, and psychomotor performance. The number of honors grades on clinical rotations was the strongest predictor of performance, whereas election to Alpha Omega Alpha was second. The only other significant correlation was between the number of fine motor activities and psychomotor performance. None of the predictor variables had a significant correlation with Orthopaedic In-Training Examination or American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery Examination scores. Consistency between faculty rankings in each of the four categories was supported by regression analysis. From the results of this study, it appears that academic performance in clinical clerkships in medical school is the most predictive of resident performance. Range restriction in the data available for orthopaedic residency applicants, however, likely precludes the development of a reliable model to assist in the selection of orthopaedic residents.