ABSTRACT
Background: in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), radial access should be favoured over femoral access as it reduces the risk of vascular complications and bleeding. Furthermore, a preventive role of radial access in the occurrence of acute kidney injury (AKI), mainly mediated by the reduction of bleeding and cholesterol crystal embolization into renal circulation, has been investigated in several studies, yielding conflicting results. Methods: we designed a retrospective study to appraise the effect of the use of a vascular access site on the occurrence of AKI in a cohort of 633 patients with acute myocardial infarction treated by PCI at our centre from 2018 to 2020. Results: after propensity score adjustment, radial access was associated with a reduced, albeit statistically not significant, incidence of AKI (14.7% vs. 21.0%; p = 0.06) and major bleeding (12.5% vs. 18.7%; p = 0.04) as compared to femoral access. At multivariate analysis, femoral access was an independent predictor of AKI, together with in-hospital occurrence of BARC 3-5 bleeding, Killip class >1 at presentation, female gender, baseline eGFR <60 mL/min, and baseline haemoglobin <12 g/dL. Conclusions: although limited by the observational design, our study supports the hypothesis that radial access may exert a protective role on the occurrence of AKI in patients with acute myocardial infarction undergoing PCI.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Previous studies showed that exercise may increase cardiac troponin serum levels; whether the occurrence of myocardial ischemia influences the changes of exercise-induced troponin raise, however, remains debatable. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled consecutive patients undergoing for the first time an elective stress myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS) because of clinical suspicion of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Patients were divided into 3 groups based on the evidence and degree of stress-induced myocardial ischemia at MPS: 1) group 1, no myocardial ischemia (≤4 %); 2) group 2, mild myocardial ischemia (5-10 %); 3) group 3, moderate-to-severe myocardial ischemia (≥10 %). High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (cTnI) was measured immediately before (T0) and 1 hour (T1) and 4 h (T2) after the stress test. RESULTS: One hundred-seven patients (71 males; age 65.6 ± 9.4 years) were enrolled in the study. Serum hs-cTnI concentrations (logarithmic values) significantly increased after MPS, compared to baseline, in the whole population, from 1.47±1.26 ng/L at T0, to 1.68±1.12 ng/L at T1 (p<0.001) and 2.15±1.02 ng/L at T2 (p<0.001 vs. both T0 and T1). The increase in hs-cTnI did not significantly differ between the 3 groups (p = 0.44). The heart rate achieved during the test was the strongest determinant of cTnI increase (p < 0.001) after the stress test. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with suspected CAD, stress MPS induces an increase of cTnI that is independent of the induction and extension/severity of myocardial ischemia and is mainly related to myocardial work, as indicated by the heart rate achieved during the test.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The role of lipoprotein(a) (Lp[a]) in risk stratification following an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is still debated. We aimed to investigate whether elevated Lp(a) levels in patients with AMI treated by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are associated with worse outcomes. METHODS: We designed a retrospective registry including patients with AMI undergoing PCI. The occurrence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE), defined as death from cardiovascular causes, recurrent myocardial infarction, unplanned coronary revascularization and stroke, was assessed at follow-up and compared between patients with high (≥30 mg/dL) and low (<30 mg/dL) Lp(a) levels. Cox proportional hazard analysis was performed in order to assess independent predictors of MACCE. RESULTS: During a 3-year period (2018-2020) we identified 634 patients with AMI treated by PCI and known Lp(a) blood levels; follow-up visits were performed in 414 patients (median length 29 months [19-38]). Median Lp(a) level was 18 mg/dL [8-42]. The incidence of MACCE was significantly higher in high as compared to low Lp(a) group (log-rank P=0.018). The following independent predictors were identified at multivariate Cox regression: Lp(a) ≥30 mg/dL (HR 1.82 [95% CI 1.04-3.19], peripheral artery disease (HR 4.62 [95% CI 2.50-8.54]), number of diseased coronary vessels (HR 1.51 [95% 1.03-2.24] and presence of a coronary chronic total occlusion at coronary angiography (HR 3.46 [95% CI 1.77-6.76]). CONCLUSIONS: in this study, Lp(a) values ≥30 mg/dL were associated to worse outcomes in patients with AMI receiving PCI. Lp(a) could represent a useful tool to identify patients at high risk of recurrent events.
