Gender differences in symptoms and functional status in patients with atrial fibrillation undergoing catheter ablation.

BACKGROUND: Catheter ablation improves symptoms and quality of life in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF); however, despite its benefit, women are less likely than men to undergo catheter ablation. Women with AF have been described to have more frequent and severe symptoms with a lower quality of life than men, and it is therefore unclear why women are less likely to undergo catheter ablation. We prospectively characterized gender differences in AF symptoms among men and women undergoing ablation at UNC using questionnaire data. METHODS: Functional capacity was assessed with the Duke Activity Status Index (DASI) and quality of life was assessed with the Canadian Cardiovascular Society Symptoms of AF score (CCS-SAF) and the AF Effect on Quality-of-Life Questionnaire Tool (AFEQT). RESULTS: Among 191 patients in the study, women were less likely to undergo catheter ablation and had higher rates of paroxysmal AF and higher CHADS2 -VASc scores than men. Women had a worse functional capacity with significantly lower DASI scores than men; quality of life was also worse among women, with higher CCS-SAF scores and lower AFEQT scores than men. After adjustment for AF type, there was a persistent gender difference for functional capacity and symptom measures. CONCLUSIONS: At the time of catheter ablation, women with AF had a significantly lower functional status with worse symptoms and a lower quality of life than men. The role of this symptom difference on the gender gap in enrollment for catheter ablation is unclear and likely due to multiple patient and provider factors.

An electronic health record based model predicts statin adherence, LDL cholesterol, and cardiovascular disease in the United States Military Health System.

HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (or "statins") are important and commonly used medications to lower cholesterol and prevent cardiovascular disease. Nearly half of patients stop taking statin medications one year after they are prescribed leading to higher cholesterol, increased cardiovascular risk, and costs due to excess hospitalizations. Identifying which patients are at highest risk for not adhering to long-term statin therapy is an important step towards individualizing interventions to improve adherence. Electronic health records (EHR) are an increasingly common source of data that are challenging to analyze but have potential for generating more accurate predictions of disease risk. The aim of this study was to build an EHR based model for statin adherence and link this model to biologic and clinical outcomes in patients receiving statin therapy. We gathered EHR data from the Military Health System which maintains administrative data for active duty, retirees, and dependents of the United States armed forces military that receive health care benefits. Data were gathered from patients prescribed their first statin prescription in 2005 and 2006. Baseline billing, laboratory, and pharmacy claims data were collected from the two years leading up to the first statin prescription and summarized using non-negative matrix factorization. Follow up statin prescription refill data was used to define the adherence outcome (> 80 percent days covered). The subsequent factors to emerge from this model were then used to build cross-validated, predictive models of 1) overall disease risk using coalescent regression and 2) statin adherence (using random forest regression). The predicted statin adherence for each patient was subsequently used to correlate with cholesterol lowering and hospitalizations for cardiovascular disease during the 5 year follow up period using Cox regression. The analytical dataset included 138 731 individuals and 1840 potential baseline predictors that were reduced to 30 independent EHR "factors". A random forest predictive model taking patient, statin prescription, predicted disease risk, and the EHR factors as potential inputs produced a cross-validated c-statistic of 0.736 for classifying statin non-adherence. The addition of the first refill to the model increased the c-statistic to 0.81. The predicted statin adherence was independently associated with greater cholesterol lowering (correlation = 0.14, p < 1e-20) and lower hospitalization for myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, and stroke (hazard ratio = 0.84, p = 1.87E-06). Electronic health records data can be used to build a predictive model of statin adherence that also correlates with statins' cardiovascular benefits.

Benefits and risks of P2Y12 inhibitor preloading in patients with acute coronary syndrome and stable angina.

Treatment with P2Y12 inhibitors is an integral part of the standard of care for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. However, the most appropriate timing for P2Y12 inhibitor administration remains unclear, and the value of "preloading" with P2Y12 inhibitors prior to cardiac catheterization is controversial. While pre-catheterization treatment with P2Y12 inhibitors is performed with the goal of decreasing adverse cardiovascular events, this potential benefit must be weighed against the increased risk of bleeding complications and operative delay if coronary artery bypass graft surgery is indicated. A number of studies have been conducted to evaluate the utility of preloading with P2Y12 inhibitors prior to cardiac catheterization for varying indications including stable angina and acute coronary syndrome (ACS). In this article, we review the literature and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the preloading strategy. Several individual studies offer inconclusive and even conflicting findings. However, when taken in sum, these studies allow for several conclusions about the utility of P2Y12 inhibitor pretreatment. The existing literature demonstrate that preloading is associated with some degree of reduction in adverse ischemic events, although this benefit comes with an increased risk of bleeding complications. The appropriateness of preloading therefore varies based on the indication for catheterization, likely justified in patients with ACS but unlikely to benefit patients with stable angina.

Identification of Factors Associated With Improved Survival After Renal Artery Stenting.

Atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (RAS) is associated with high mortality rates, but large randomized trials have not shown improvement in survival with renal artery stenting. These results suggest that factors other than ongoing renal hypoperfusion are important in determining survival in patients with RAS. Using logistic regression models, we performed a single-center, case-control study that included 188 patients with ≥70% RAS with an average age of 67 ± 10 years, 54% women, 20% black, and 70% smokers; 118 patients (63%) underwent renal artery stenting. A total of 89 patients (47%) died during an average follow-up of 5.1 years. Previous myocardial infarction (MI) (odds ratio 2.6 95% confidence interval [1.4 to 4.7]), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤35% (odds ratio 4.1 95% confidence interval [1.6 to 10.6]), and renal insufficiency were predictors of mortality in this study. The risk associated with LVEF ≤35% and previous MI were additive with mortality of 40%, 54%, and 85%, respectively, with 0, 1, or both these factors. Renal artery stenting was associated with a 43% reduction in mortality in patients with 0 or 1 mortality risk factors (defined as LVEF ≤35%, previous MI, and glomerular filtration rate ≤45 ml/min/1.73 m2) but had no effect on mortality in patients with 2 or 3 mortality risk factors. Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, or severity of RAS did not correlate with survival. In conclusion, this retrospective analysis suggests that clinical, in addition to anatomic and physiological, factors should be considered in future studies examining effects of renal artery stenting on survival.

Familial Adenomatous Polyposis Manifesting as Lactococcus Endocarditis: A Case Report and Review of the Association of Lactococcus with Underlying Gastrointestinal Disease.

A 45-year-old male with a prosthetic aortic valve presented to the hospital with several months of generalized malaise. On admission, he was noted to have anemia of unclear etiology and subsequently became febrile with multiple blood cultures growing Lactococcus garvieae. Inpatient workup was concerning for infectious endocarditis (IE) secondary to Lactococcus. The patient was discharged home with appropriate antimicrobial therapy; however, he was readmitted for persistent, symptomatic anemia and underwent colonoscopy, which revealed innumerable colonic polyps consistent with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP) that was later confirmed with genetic testing. Surveillance computed tomography (CT) imaging of the aortic repair later demonstrated valve dehiscence with surrounding fluid collection; he underwent redo surgery and was found to have destruction of the aortic annulus and a large pseudoaneurysm. Histopathology of the valve prosthesis confirmed IE. It is suspected that the patient developed Lactococcus IE from enteric translocation. Review of the literature provides several reports of Lactococcus infections in association with underlying gastrointestinal disease, including colorectal cancer. Given this association, we raise the question of whether the diagnosis of Lactococcus IE should evoke suspicion and encourage evaluation for gastrointestinal pathology, as occurs with Streptococcus bovis.

Effects of Restoration of Blood Flow on the Development of Aortic Atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- Mice With Unilateral Renal Artery Stenosis.

BACKGROUND: Chronic unilateral renal artery stenosis (RAS) causes accelerated atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE(-/-)) mice, but effects of restoration of renal blood flow on aortic atherosclerosis are unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: Male ApoE(-/-) mice underwent sham surgery (n=16) or had partial ligation of the right renal artery (n=41) with the ligature being removed 4 days later (D4LR; n=6), 8 days later (D8LR; n=11), or left in place for 90 days (chronic RAS; n=24). Ligature removal at 4 or 8 days resulted in improved renal blood flow, decreased plasma angiotensin II levels, a return of systolic blood pressure to baseline, and increased plasma levels of neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin. Chronic RAS resulted in increased lipid staining in the aortic arch (33.2% [24.4, 47.5] vs 11.6% [6.1, 14.2]; P<0.05) and descending thoracic aorta (10.2% [6.4, 25.9] vs 4.9% [2.8, 7.8]; P<0.05), compared to sham surgery. There was an increased amount of aortic arch lipid staining in the D8LR group (22.7% [22.1, 32.7]), compared to sham-surgery, but less than observed with chronic RAS. Lipid staining in the aortic arch was not increased in the D4LR group, and lipid staining in the descending aorta was not increased in either the D8LR or D4LR groups. There was less macrophage expression in infrarenal aortic atheroma in the D4LR and D8LR groups compared to the chronic RAS group. CONCLUSIONS: Restoration of renal blood flow at either 4 or 8 days after unilateral RAS had a beneficial effect on systolic blood pressure, aortic lipid deposition, and atheroma inflammation.

Diagnosing pulmonic valve infective endocarditis with positron emission tomography-CT.

Infective endocarditis (IE) affects the pulmonic valve in less than 2% of cases. Not only is pulmonary valve IE rare, it is also challenging to visualise with commonly used imaging modalities. In this vignette, we present a 50-year-old patient with a history of repaired Tetralogy of Fallot who underwent a prolonged hospitalisation and extensive work up for fever of unknown origin. Although we suspected IE as the source of his fevers, he had persistently negative transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiograms. We were ultimately able to establish the diagnosis with the use of positron emission tomography-CT (PET-CT). Although PET-CT is not part of the traditional work up for IE, it can be a useful imaging modality when there is a high index of suspicion for IE with negative echocardiography findings.

Controversies in the Management of ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Transradial Versus Transfemoral Approach.

This article discusses the controversies surrounding the use of transradial versus transfemoral approaches in the management of patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, beginning with a review of the benefits of transradial percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in this population. The unanswered questions about the mechanism underlying the mortality benefit of transradial PCI are discussed, concluding with recommendations for safe and effective strategies for adoption of the transradial approach to optimize outcomes in these high-risk patients.

Relation of pulse and systolic and mean blood pressure to severe renal artery stenosis in patients undergoing concurrent coronary and renal angiography.

Abrupt onset of renal ischemia is associated with increased blood pressure (BP), but it is unknown whether BP remains elevated in patients with chronic severe atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (RAS). Patients undergoing coronary angiography who had concurrent renal angiography were divided into 3 groups: severe (stenosis ≥70% diameter reduction), moderate (10%-69%), and minimal RAS. Aortic BP was measured at the time of angiography. Renal angiography was performed in 762 (5.4%) of 14,181 patients undergoing coronary angiography. The mean age was 62 ± 12 years, 52% were women, 93% had hypertension, and 42% had diabetes mellitus. Minimal, moderate, or severe RAS was found in 62%, 30%, and 9% of patients. Patients with minimal RAS were younger, less likely to have hypercholesterolemia or coronary artery disease, and had a lower creatinine than patients with severe RAS. Severe RAS was associated with a lower diastolic BP and mean BP and a higher pulse pressure (PP), but there was no difference in systolic BP or the number of antihypertensive medications between the 3 groups. The degree of RAS had a weak positive correlation with PP, a weak negative correlation with diastolic BP, and almost no correlation with systolic BP or mean BP. In multivariate linear regression analysis, there was an association between severity of RAS and PP but not with mean BP or systolic BP. In conclusion, PP, but not systolic BP, diastolic BP, mean BP, or number of antihypertensive medications, was elevated in patients with severe RAS.