Coronavirus disease 2019 infection in patients with recent cardiac surgery: does chronic anticoagulant therapy have a protective effect?

AIMS: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical course of COVID-19 in patients who had recently undergone a cardiac procedure and were inpatients in a cardiac rehabilitation department. METHODS: All patients hospitalized from 1 February to 15 March 2020 were included in the study (n = 35; 16 men; mean age 78 years). The overall population was divided into two groups: group 1 included 10 patients who presented with a clinical picture of COVID-19 infection and were isolated, and group 2 included 25 patients who were COVID-19-negative. In group 1, nine patients were on chronic oral anticoagulant therapy and one patient was on acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and clopidogrel. A chest computed tomography scan revealed interstitial pneumonia in all 10 patients. RESULTS: During hospitalization, COVID-19 patients received azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine in addition to their ongoing therapy. Only the patient on ASA with clopidogrel therapy was transferred to the ICU for mechanical ventilation because of worsening respiratory failure, and subsequently died from cardiorespiratory arrest. All other patients on chronic anticoagulant therapy recovered and were discharged. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that COVID-19 patients on chronic anticoagulant therapy may have a more favorable and less complicated clinical course. Further prospective studies are warranted to confirm this preliminary observation.

Interaction between severe chronic kidney disease and acute kidney injury in predicting mortality after transcatheter aortic valve implantation: Insights from the Italian Clinical Service Project.

AIMS: We aim at exploring whether severe chronic kidney disease (CKD) may modify the impact of acute kidney injury (AKI) post-transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) on early, mid, and long-term mortality. METHODS AND RESULTS: The analysis included 2,733 TAVI patients from the Italian Clinical Service Project. The population was stratified in four groups according to the presence of baseline severe CKD and postprocedural AKI. All-cause mortality was the primary end point. Postprocedural AKI is associated with an increased risk of early and mid-term mortality after TAVI regardless of baseline severe CKD. Preprocedural severe CKD is associated with an increased risk of long-term mortality after TAVI regardless of postprocedural AKI. No interaction between preprocedural severe CKD and postprocedural AKI was observed in predicting mortality at both 30-day (CKD: hazard ratio [HR] = 2.65, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.15-6.12; no-CKD: HR = 3.83, 95% CI = 2.23-6.58; Pint = .129) and 1-year (CKD: HR = 2.29, 95% CI = 1.37-3.82; no-CKD: HR = 2.47, 95% CI = 1.75-3.49; Pint = .386). Preprocedural severe CKD is an independent predictor of postprocedural AKI (HR = 2.17, 95% CI = 1.56-3.03; p < .001) as well as general anesthesia and access alternative to femoral. Among no-AKI patients, those with severe CKD at admission underwent kidney function recovery after TAVI (serum creatinine at baseline 2.24 ± 1.57 mg/dL and at 48-hr 1.80 ± 1.17 mg/dL; p = .003). CONCLUSIONS: Preprocedural severe CKD did not modify the impact of postprocedural AKI in predicting early and mid-term mortality after TAVI. Closely monitoring of serum creatinine and strategies to prevent AKI post-TAVI are needed also in patients without severe CKD at admission.

A new score based on the PEGASUS-TIMI 54 criteria for risk stratification of patients with acute myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients are at increased risk of death and recurrent ischemic events. We aimed to elaborate a risk score, based on the PEGASUS-TIMI 54 criteria, to predict mortality and non-fatal AMI in AMI patients. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed two prospectively collected AMI cohorts. We calculated a cut-off for the developed score and investigated its 1-year prognostic power in the derivation cohort (n = 1257). We externally validated our score in 913 AMI patients with a longer follow-up. RESULTS: In the derivation cohort, the area under the curve of the score for the primary endpoint (1-year death and non-fatal AMI) was 0.70 (95% CI 0.65-0.76; P < 0.0001) and a cut-off of 6 was identified. The primary endpoint incidence in patients with a score above and below the cut-off was 12% and 3% (P < 0.001) in the derivation cohort and 16% and 6% in the validation cohort (P < 0.001). At multivariate analysis, the HR for the primary endpoint associated with a score ≥ 6 was 4.45 (P < 0.0001) in the derivation cohort and 2.86 (P < 0.0001) in the validation cohort. One-year major bleeding rate was low (<0.2% overall) and similar between risk groups. The prognostic performance of the score cut-off persisted beyond the first year after AMI in the validation cohort, maintaining a similar risk for death and non-fatal AMI (HR 3) at every following year. CONCLUSIONS: Our score, based on the PEGASUS-TIMI 54 criteria, may identify AMI patients at high risk of recurrent ischemic events, who might benefit from thorough preventive strategies.

Blood pressure control in older patients with carotid artery stenosis.

Stroke is the second largest cause of European cardiovascular and total mortality, largely due to atherosclerotic carotid artery narrowing or thromboembolism consequent to internal carotid artery stenosis. Current therapeutic indications suggest lifestyle interventions (smoking cessation, healthy diet and physical activity), adequate control of LDL-cholesterol and glycemic balance. It is nonetheless established that the most important factors in preventing stroke are antiplatelet therapy and blood pressure regulation. In fact, many physiological parameters, including age, drugs' effects and especially systemic blood pressure, can be involved in maintaining cerebral blood flow through compensation for impairment of flow within carotid arteries. Many studies demonstrate the benefits of blood pressure lowering in terms of prevention of stroke, but there are conflicting data about a specific pressure target to achieve, with some evidence in favor of "the lower the better" idea, while other identifying a too low systolic blood pressure as a cause of cerebral ischemia worsening, especially in symptomatic patients. In summary, the available data suggest the need of a tailored blood pressure treatment without inflexible targets, according to the assessment of the cardiovascular risk of each patient, the benefits of an intensive antihypertensive therapy and the comorbidities-related response to the treatment.