Third-Generation Transcatheter Aortic Heart Valve with Reverse Parachute Sealing Cuff in Patients with Aortic Valve Disease.

BACKGROUND: The Navitor (Abbott Inc, IL, USA) transcatheter heart valve is a novel third-generation self-expanding bioprosthesis with specific features to mitigate paravalvular regurgitation (PVR). Owing to its novelty, there is a paucity of data on its application in clinical practice. METHODS: Consecutive cohort analysis of the use of the Navitor system in an as-treated clinical setting at a quaternary heart hospital. RESULTS: Sixty consecutive non-clinical trial patients treated with Navitor were identified. All patients underwent a successful procedure. The mean age was 79.3 years (±SD 7.82), 56.67% (n=34) were female, and the mean STS score was 4.87 (±SD 5.70). At 30 days post-procedure, all patients were alive with no readmissions for heart failure. One patient had a major vascular complication (1.7%). Four patients (7.14% of patients without a pre-existing pacemaker) received a new permanent pacemaker. Two patients (3.4%) had a non-disabling stroke. PVR at 30 days was trivial or none in 75% of patients, and no patient had worse than mild PVR. CONCLUSIONS: The Navitor system in this as-treated cohort was associated with favourable clinical, haemodynamic, and safety outcomes.

Del Nido cardioplegia in adult cardiac surgery: analysis of myocardial protection and post-operative high-sensitivity Troponin T.

BACKGROUND: del Nido cardioplegia has been adopted for use in adult cardiac surgery, despite a lack of robust randomised evidence supporting equivalence or superiority to conventional hyperkalaemic blood cardioplegia. We investigated the clinical surrogates of myocardial protection, and performed an extensive analysis of post-operative high-sensitivity Troponin T (hs-TnT) values in a general adult cardiac surgery population receiving del Nido, in comparison to a historical hyperkalaemic blood cohort. METHOD: 171 consecutive patients of a single surgeon from between November 2018 and June 2020 received del Nido, and were compared to a historical cohort of 326 patients between January 2016 and November 2018 who received hyperkalaemic blood cardioplegia. Clinical markers of myocardial protection were compared, as were hs-TnT values at 6, 12, 24, and 72-h post-operatively. Equivalence between groups was determined using the two one-sided tests procedure. RESULTS: There was no difference between the groups in the incidence of post-operative low cardiac output state, inotropic support, or myocardial infarction. Del Nido patients had less defibrillation requirement, and more spontaneous resumption of normal sinus rhythm. High-sensitivity Troponin T values were similar at all time-points including in a coronary artery bypass graft subgroup, and in those patients with elevated pre-operative hs-TnT. CONCLUSION: In a broad cohort of adult cardiac surgery patients, including those undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery and those with recent myocardial infarction, del Nido provides equivalent myocardial protection and clinical outcomes when compared to hyperkalemic blood cardioplegia. Post-operative high-sensitivity Troponin T values were also equivalent between the groups.

Postoperative Pain in Thoracic Surgical Patients: An Analysis of Factors Associated With Acute and Chronic Pain.

BACKGROUND: Thoracic surgery is associated with high levels of acute and chronic pain, which is associated with significant morbidity, reduced quality of life, and increased health care expenditure. This study aims to identify patient-care factors associated with higher levels of acute and chronic pain after thoracic surgery. METHODS: The acute pain component of this study retrospectively analysed 53 patients, surgical, anaesthetic, and postoperative factors against an average measure of acute pain during a patient's hospital admission, for 134 individual acute admission episodes. The chronic pain component analysed 58 care factors against a binary chronic pain outcome based on the Neuropathic Pain Scale and the Brief Pain Inventory, for 72 patients, at an average of 7 months postoperatively. RESULTS: Younger age, chronic opioid use, use of talc, and multi-port video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) compared to uniport VATS, were all associated with higher levels of acute postoperative pain. Seven (7) months postoperatively, the rate of chronic sensation change or numbness was 31%. The rate of troublesome chronic pain was 8%. History of a mental health condition, chronic opioid use, urgent operation, and the use of tramadol postoperatively were independently associated with a higher risk of chronic pain. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies several factors associated with higher rates of acute and chronic postoperative pain, and defines the rate of chronic pain in a large tertiary thoracic surgery centre. Consideration should be given to modifying those surgical practices which were identified as being associated with higher levels of pain, including multi-port VATS, and the use of talc. It is important that non-modifiable risk factors for pain, including history of mental health condition, opioid use, age, and urgency of operation, are taken into consideration when informing a patient of the risk of pain postoperatively.

Assessment of arterially hyper-enhancing liver lesions using virtual monoenergetic images from spectral detector CT: phantom and patient experience.

PURPOSE: To investigate a benefit from virtual monoenergetic reconstructions (VMIs) for assessment of arterially hyper-enhancing liver lesions in phantom and patients and to compare hybrid-iterative and spectral image reconstructions of conventional images (CI-IR and CI-SR). METHODS: All imaging was performed on a SDCT (Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands). Images of a non-anthropomorphic phantom with a lesion-mimicking insert (containing iodine in water solution) and arterial-phase images from contrast-enhanced patient examinations were evaluated. VMIs (40-200 keV, 10 keV increment), CI-IR, and CI-SR were reconstructed using different strengths of image denoising. ROIs were placed in lesions, liver/matrix, muscle; signal-to-noise, contrast-to-noise, and lesion-to-liver ratios (SNR, CNR, and LLR) were calculated. Qualitatively, 40, 70, and 110 keV and CI images were assessed by two radiologists on five-point Likert scales regarding overall image quality, lesion assessment, and noise. RESULTS: In phantoms, SNR was increased threefold by VMI40keV compared with CI-IR/SR (5.8 ± 1.1 vs. 18.8 ± 2.2, p ≤ 0.001), while no difference was found between CI-IR and CI-SR (p = 1). Denoising was capable of noise reduction by 40%. In total, 20 patients exhibiting 51 liver lesions were assessed. Attenuation was the highest in VMI40keV, while image noise was comparable to CI-IR resulting in a threefold increase of CNR/LLR (CI-IR 1.3 ± 0.8/4.4 ± 2.0, VMI40keV: 3.8 ± 2.7/14.2 ± 7.5, p ≤ 0.001). Subjective lesion delineation was the best in VMI40keV image (p ≤ 0.01), which also provided the lowest perceptible noise and the best overall image quality. CONCLUSIONS: VMIs improve assessment of arterially hyper-enhancing liver lesions since they increase lesion contrast while maintaining low image noise throughout the entire keV spectrum. These data suggest that to consider VMI screening after arterially hyper-enhancing liver lesions.

Surgical management of mitral valve infective endocarditis with annular abscess and calcification in the setting of a leaking mycotic infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm: a case report.

We present the case of a previously well seventy-four year old male caucasian grazier who presented with mild back pain and was subsequently found to have a large posterior mitral valve leaflet perivalvular abscess associated with mitral annulus calcification and a mycotic infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) of Staphylococcal origin. He underwent a right axillofemoral bypass with oversewn aorta and a right to left femoral crossover graft, and a subsequent mitral valve repair with decalcification/debridement of the annulus and extensive posterior leaflet reconstruction with pericardium patch. Despite multiple sequelae and an extended intensive care and hospital stay, the patient was discharged home after six months.

Implications of a simple mathematical model to cancer cell population dynamics.

Recent research in cancer progression and treatment indicates that many forms of cancer arise from the development of a small subpopulation of abnormal cancer stem cells (CSCs) that promote cancer growth and spread. Many potential treatments preferentially interact with cells at certain stages of the cell cycle by either selective killing or halting the cell cycle, such as intense, nanosecond-duration pulsed electric fields (nsPEFs). Simple mathematical models of unfed cancer cell populations at the plateau of their growth characteristics may estimate the long-term consequences of these treatments on proliferating and quiescent cell populations. Applying such a model with no transition from the quiescent to proliferating state shows that it is possible for the proliferating cell population to fall below 1 if the quiescent cell population obtains a sufficient competitive advantage with respect to nutrient consumption and/or survival rate. Introducing small, realistic transition rates did not appreciably alter short-term or long-term population behaviour, indicating that the predicted small cell population behaviour (< 1 cell) is not an artefact of the simpler model. Experimental observations of nsPEF-induced effects on the cell cycle suggest that such a model may serve as a first step in assessing the viability of a given cancer treatment in vitro prior to clinical application.

Factors affecting radiation exposure and radiographic image contrast in urology.

An evaluation of certain radiographic factors affecting patient exposure during urography is made. Factors considered include selection of tube kilovoltage, total beam filtration and film-screen combination. The effect on image quality is also considered. Experimental results suggest specific actions which would result in decreased patient exposure without compromising quality of the examination.