Papillary muscle abnormality as an electrocardiographic mimicker of apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a case report.

Background: Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (ApHCM) is often associated with characteristic giant T wave inversions (GNT) in precordial leads without septal Q waves and increased QRS voltage on 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs). However, these electrocardiographic findings are not specific to ApHCM and can be mimicked by papillary muscle abnormalities. Differentiation between the two is important as the disease course, treatment, and prognosis differ substantially. Case summary: We report a case report of two such patients both of which presented with abnormal ECGs concerning for ApHCM. Echocardiogram did not show characteristic findings of ApHCM. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed apically displaced, hypertrophied papillary muscles responsible for electrocardiographic abnormalities. Discussion: Papillary muscle abnormalities including hypertrophy and/or apical displacement can result in giant negative T wave and increased QRS voltage like those seen in ApHCM and should be considered especially in otherwise healthy individuals with normal or near-normal transthoracic echocardiograms. Role of cardiac MRI is critical in this context and is the imaging modality of choice for accurate diagnosis.

Relation Between Hospital Length of Stay and Quality of Care in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes (from the American Heart Association's Get With the Guidelines--Coronary Artery Disease Data Set).

Worries regarding short length of stay (LOS) adversely impacting quality of care prompted us to assess the relation between hospital LOS and inpatient guideline adherence in patients with acute coronary syndrome. We used the American Heart Association's Get with The Guidelines (GWTG)--Coronary Artery Disease data set. Data were collected from January 2, 2000, to March 21, 2010, for patients with acute coronary syndrome from 405 different sites. Of the 119,398 patients in the study, the mean LOS was 5.5 days with a median of 4 days. There was no difference in the LOS on the basis of hospital size, hospital type, or cardiac surgery availability. The population with an LOS <4 days were younger (63.8 ± 14.1 vs 70 ± 14.5, p <0.0001), men (63.8% vs 55.3%, p <0.0001) and had fewer clinical co-morbidities. The overall adherence was high in the GWTG participating hospitals. Those with the LOS <4 days were more likely to receive aspirin (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.12, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.19; p <0.001), clopidogrel (OR 1.77, 95% CI 1.60 to 1.95; p <0.001), lipid-lowering therapy if indicated (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.21; p <0.001), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker for left ventricular systolic dysfunction (OR 1.10, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.21; p = 0.04) and smoking cessation counseling (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.24; p <0.001) compared to those with the LOS ≥ 4 days. In contrast, those with the LOS <4 days were less likely to receive beta blockers (OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.84 to 0.93; p <0.001). The odds of receiving defect-free care were greater for patients with the LOS <4 days (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.21; p <0.001). In conclusion, in GWTG participating hospitals, a shorter LOS did not appear to adversely affect adherence to discharge quality of care measures.

Weekend/holiday versus weekday hospital discharge and guideline adherence (from the American Heart Association's Get with the Guidelines--Coronary Artery Disease database).

Most hospitals have reduced medical staff on weekends. Furthermore, a recent study on acute myocardial infarction suggested that weekend admissions were associated with higher mortality compared with weekday admissions. We sought to determine if compliance with guideline recommendations for acute coronary syndrome performance measures would be worse on weekends/holidays compared with weekdays. We utilized the American Heart Association's Get with the Guidelines (GWTG)--Coronary Artery Disease database. This study included 154,910 patients admitted to 515 various hospitals from January 14, 2000 to April 30, 2007 with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Patients discharged on weekdays were older and were more likely to be women, have a history of atrial fibrillation, cerebral vascular accident/transient ischemic attack and chronic renal insufficiency, and present with unstable angina. Although patients discharged on the weekends/holidays were slightly less likely to receive angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors than those discharged on weekdays (68.3% vs 69.5%, p <0.0001), all other measures were similar, and a composite performance measure for 100% compliance was equal in both groups (81.5% vs 81.4%, p = 0.77). In conclusion, within GWTG participating hospitals, weekend/holiday staffing provides the same quality of care in ACS for discharge medications and counseling compared with full weekday staffing. However, there remain further opportunities to improve utilization of guideline-recommended therapies irrespective of discharge day.

Patterns of aspirin dosing in non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes in the CRUSADE Quality Improvement Initiative.

Recent studies have suggested that low-dose aspirin has preserved benefit with less bleeding compared with standard-dose aspirin when given with or without clopidogrel in patients with high-risk non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE ACSs). We evaluated 22,618 patients with NSTE ACSs and high-risk features (ischemic ST-segment changes and/or positive cardiac markers) from 369 hospitals included in the CRUSADE initiative from May 4, 2003 to September 30, 2004. We analyzed acute (<24 hours of admission) and discharge aspirin doses in relation to concomitant clopidogrel use and other clinical predictors. Dosing of aspirin in the first 24 hours was as follows: 17.3% of patients (n = 3,911) received 81 mg, 13.5% (n = 3,062) received 162 mg, 67.4% (n = 15,247) received 325 mg, and 1.8% (n = 398) received >325 mg. Use of lower dose aspirin increased at discharge: 40.2% (n = 7,524) received 81 mg, 3.1% (n = 579) received 162 mg, and 55.7% (n = 10,423) received 325 mg. In patients who received concomitant clopidogrel at discharge (n = 12,635), 37.6% received aspirin 81 mg and 58.5% received 325 mg. Compared with patients who did not receive concomitant discharge clopidogrel (n = 4,772), 44.0% received aspirin 81 mg and 51.2% received 325 mg. Use of aspirin 81 mg was significantly lower in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (31.5% vs 46.2%, p <0.0001). In conclusion, most patients with high-risk NSTE ACSs in the United States continue to be treated with aspirin 325 mg at discharge with and without concomitant clopidogrel, despite recent studies that have shown a better safety profile with low-dose aspirin.

Patients' understanding of advance directives and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

OBJECTIVE: To describe understanding of end-of-life issues and compare characteristics of patients with and without advance directives. SETTING: A 325-bed community teaching hospital. MEASUREMENTS: Questionnaires were administered to all patients admitted to the medical-surgical wards. RESULTS: Of 755 patients admitted during the study period, 264 patients participated in the study, and 82 (31%) had living wills. Patients with living wills were more likely to be white, Protestant, and highly educated. Most (76%) created them with a lawyer or family member, whereas only 7% involved physicians. Although these patients were able to identify some components of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), few (19%) understood the prognosis after CPR. After explaining CPR, 37% of those with living wills did not want it, which was not stated in their directive or hospital record. If life-sustaining therapies were already started, 39% of these patients stated that they would not want CPR or mechanical ventilation if the likelihood of recovery was < or =10%. Patients without living wills either had not heard (18%) or did not know enough (51%) about them. After education, 5% did not want CPR, and 32% would terminate life-sustaining therapies if the likelihood of recovery was < or =10%. Seventy percent of these patients expressed interest in creating a living will. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with living wills understand poorly "life-sustaining therapies" and the implications of their advance directives. Most fail to involve physicians in creating directives. A significant number of those without living wills have end-of-life wishes that could be addressed by and appear open to the idea of creating advance directives.

Outcomes of critically ill patients.

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that critically ill patients who remain in the ED for more than 24 hours experience worse outcomes and longer lengths of stay than those transferred to the medical intensive care unit (MICU) within 24 hours. METHODS: Medical records were examined of all patients admitted to the MICU directly from the ED of a 325-bed community teaching hospital between 2001 and 2002. RESULTS: Of 443 patients, 104 remained in the ED for 24 hours or longer (ED>or=24) before being transferred to the MICU. There were no significant differences in demographic characteristics of the 339 who were in the ED for less than 24 hours (ED <24 ) as compared with ED>or=24. APACHE II scores were 18.9+/-1.0 for a random sample of ED<24 and 20.5+/-0.9 for ED>or=24 (P=.2). Lengths of hospital stay were 10.9+/-0.8 days for ED<24 and 9.8+/-0.9 days for ED>or=24 (P=.7). Mortality rates were 26.8% for ED<24 and 26.9% for ED>or=24 (P=.5). CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that outcomes of critically ill patients transferred from the ED to our MICU within 24 hours were not better than those who remained in the ED for longer durations. Larger studies are required to examine this hypothesis.