The Rise of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine-Associated Myocarditis and Its Implications on the Future Use of This New Vaccine Platform.

Vaccine-associated myocarditis is becoming increasingly documented as a complication of the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccination platform. This complication so far has been found to predominantly affect the younger male population within seven days of receiving the second dose of an mRNA vaccine. We present a case of a 45-year-old male found to have clinical, biochemical, and radiological evidence of myocarditis three days after receipt of the second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Troponin I and inflammatory marker trends, in addition to the use of cardiac MRI imaging, was important in making the diagnosis. Symptom resolution was achieved after two months of colchicine and anti-heart failure medications. We highlight the occurrence of this rare vaccine complication in an endeavor to stress the need for further research to better understand this condition so that better guidance can be provided to the medical community on how best to screen and manage it.

Acute Severe Mitral Regurgitation Secondary to Ischemic Papillary Muscle Rupture: A Case Report.

Mitral valve rupture secondary to ischemic papillary muscle necrosis is rare in the contemporary era due to improved revascularization techniques. However, when it does occur, prompt diagnosis and urgent surgical intervention can be lifesaving. A 69-year-old male with morbid obesity, hypothyroidism, and a family history of coronary artery disease presented to the hospital with chest pain and dyspnea that began five hours prior. He had an acute infero-postero-lateral myocardial infarction due to total occlusion of the left circumflex artery that was revascularized with the deployment of a drug-eluting stent. Two days after the myocardial infarction, the patient had an episode of ventricular tachycardia. He subsequently went into respiratory distress from flash pulmonary edema and developed cardiogenic shock due to acute mitral valve rupture. The patient underwent surgical mitral valve replacement, extracorporeal membranous oxygenation (ECMO), and hemodialysis. His course was complicated by an acute lower gastrointestinal bleed that progressed into multiorgan failure and eventually his demise. This case highlights the need to include papillary muscle rupture high on the differential when evaluating a hemodynamically unstable patient in the setting of an acute myocardial infarction (MI). Rapid diagnosis by urgent bedside echocardiogram and surgical intervention is crucial.

Pericardial effusion with tamponade - an uncommon presentation leading to the diagnosis of eosinophilic granulomatosis polyangiitis: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Eosinophilic granulomatosis polyangiitis (EGPA) is a small vessel necrotizing vasculitis that commonly presents as peripheral eosinophilia and asthma; however, it can rarely manifest with cardiac involvement such as pericarditis and cardiac tamponade. Isolated pericardial tamponade presenting as the initial symptom of EGPA is exceedingly rare. Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are crucial to prevent life-threatening outcomes. CASE SUMMARY: 52-year-old woman with no past medical history presented with progressive dyspnea and dry cough. On physical exam she had a pericardial friction rub and bilateral rales. Vital signs were notable for tachycardia at 119 beats per minute and hypoxia with 89% oxygen saturation. On laboratory exam, she had 45% peripheral eosinophilia, troponin elevation of 1.1 ng/mL and N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide of 2101 pg/mL. TTE confirmed a large pericardial effusion and tamponade physiology. She underwent urgent pericardial window procedure. Pericardial and lung biopsy demonstrated eosinophilic infiltration. Based on the American College of Radiology guidelines, the patient was diagnosed with EGPA which manifested in its rare form of cardiac tamponade. She was treated with steroid taper and mepolizumab. CONCLUSION: This case highlights that when isolated pericardial involvement occurs in EGPA, diagnosis is recognized by performing pericardial biopsy demonstrating histopathologic evidence of eosinophilic infiltration.

Achilles Tendon Xanthoma Thickness and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness in a Patient With Heterozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia on PCSK9 Inhibition: A Case Report and Literature Review.

Ultrasound-guided measurement of carotid intima-media thickness can be used as a surrogate marker to predict future risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and to understand the efficacy of lipid-lowering drugs. Aggressive lipid-lowering drugs such as proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors have been shown to reduce carotid artery plaque burden, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein-c in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). We describe a patient with heterozygous FH treated with PCSK9 inhibitor over the course of two years, and the drug's impact on carotid intima-media thickness, Achilles tendon thickness, and cardiovascular disease risk reduction.

Primary Cardiac Undifferentiated High-Grade Intimal Pleomorphic Sarcoma: A Case Series Report.

We report two patients with primary cardiac sarcomas. The first patient was admitted for dyspnea on exertion secondary to congestive heart failure. She was later diagnosed with intimal pleomorphic sarcoma involving the right ventricular outflow tract extending into the pulmonary artery, which was further complicated by metastasis to the lung. The second patient was admitted for left-sided weakness secondary to a right frontal lobe ischemic stroke. The patient was later diagnosed with left atrial intimal pleomorphic sarcoma, which was further complicated by metastasis to the small bowel and right femur.

Health disparities among adult patients with a phenotypic diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolemia in the CASCADE-FH™ patient registry.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Most familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) patients remain undertreated, and it is unclear what role health disparities may play for FH patients in the US. We sought to describe sex and racial/ethnic disparities in a national registry of US FH patients. METHODS: We analyzed data from 3167 adults enrolled in the CAscade SCreening for Awareness and DEtection of Familial Hypercholesterolemia (CASCADE-FH) registry. Logistic regression was used to evaluate for disparities in LDL-C goals and statin use, with adjustments for covariates including age, cardiovascular risk factors, and statin intolerance. RESULTS: In adjusted analyses, women were less likely than men to achieve treated LDL-C of <100 mg/dL (OR 0.68, 95% CI, 0.57-0.82) or ≥50% reduction from pretreatment LDL-C (OR 0.79, 95% CI, 0.65-0.96). Women were less likely than men to receive statin therapy (OR, 0.60, 95% CI, 0.50-0.73) and less likely to receive a high-intensity statin (OR, 0.60, 95% CI, 0.49-0.72). LDL-C goal achievement also varied by race/ethnicity: compared with whites, Asians and blacks were less likely to achieve LDL-C levels <100 mg/dL (Asians, OR, 0.47, 95% CI, 0.24-0.94; blacks, OR, 0.49, 95% CI, 0.32-0.74) or ≥50% reduction from pretreatment LDL-C (Asians, OR 0.56, 95% CI, 0.32-0.98; blacks, OR 0.62, 95% CI, 0.43-0.90). CONCLUSIONS: In a contemporary US population of FH patients, we identified differences in LDL-C goal attainment and statin usage after stratifying the population by either sex or race/ethnicity. Our findings suggest that health disparities contribute to the undertreatment of US FH patients. Increased efforts are warranted to raise awareness of these disparities.

Heterozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia With APOE Haplotype: A Prospective Harbinger of a Catastrophic Cardiovascular Event.

We report a very young man with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) with APOE haplotype and a significant cardiac family history who underwent cardiac catheterization for intermittent episodes of exertional dyspnea and was noted to have a severe triple vessel coronary artery disease (CAD). He underwent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery which was uneventful. He was discharged on antiplatelet, beta blocker, nitrate, and statin. On routine health maintenance evaluation, he had no cardiac complaints and had been tolerating well his activities of daily living.

Detection of acute myocardial ischemic injury by gender using a novel cardiac electrical biomarker.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study us to stratify by gender a new cardiac electrical biomarker (CEB) diagnostic accuracy for detection of acute myocardial ischemic injury (AMII). METHODS: This is a noninferiority retrospective, case-control, blinded study of 310 archived measured electrocardiograms (ECGs) acquired from 218 men and 92 women. The CEB is constructed from the derived ECG (dECG) synthesized from 3 leads. Electrocardiograms were included if acquired less than or equal to 1 day from patient presentation. Electrocardiograms were interpreted by 2 blinded physicians and adjudicated by consensus. Standard ST analyses and computerized ECG interpretations were active controls. Electrocardiograms were excluded for noise and baseline wander, age younger than 18 years, and ectopic beats in the 10-second ECG acquisition. Diagnostic accuracy measures of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and likelihood ratios were stratified by gender. Measured vs derived ECG correlations were quantitatively compared using Pearson correlation and qualitatively by percent agreement methodology. RESULTS: The CEB sensitivities for AMII detection in men and women were 93.9% and 90.5%, respectively, and CEB specificities were 90.7% and 95.2%, respectively, and were superior to active controls. Derived and measured ECGs showed high correlation for both men and women with r = 0.857 and r = 0.893, respectively. Reference standard intra-agreement analysis for measured ECGs and dECGs with AMII was 99.4%. CONCLUSIONS: The CEB demonstrates high diagnostic accuracy for detection of AMII in men and women. The ECG can be derived with accuracy from 3 leads. This technology is an efficient real-time method of identifying patients with AMII who are being monitored in acute care settings.

Diagnostic accuracy of a new cardiac electrical biomarker for detection of electrocardiogram changes suggestive of acute myocardial ischemic injury.

OBJECTIVE: A new cardiac "electrical" biomarker (CEB) for detection of 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) changes indicative of acute myocardial ischemic injury has been identified. Objective was to test CEB diagnostic accuracy. METHODS: This is a blinded, observational retrospective case-control, noninferiority study. A total of 508 ECGs obtained from archived digital databases were interpreted by cardiologist and emergency physician (EP) blinded reference standards for presence of acute myocardial ischemic injury. CEB was constructed from three ECG cardiac monitoring leads using nonlinear modeling. Comparative active controls included ST voltage changes (J-point, ST area under curve) and a computerized ECG interpretive algorithm (ECGI). Training set of 141 ECGs identified CEB cutoffs by receiver-operating-characteristic (ROC) analysis. Test set of 367 ECGs was analyzed for validation. Poor-quality ECGs were excluded. Sensitivity, specificity, and negative and positive predictive values were calculated with 95% confidence intervals. Adjudication was performed by consensus. RESULTS: CEB demonstrated noninferiority to all active controls by hypothesis testing. CEB adjudication demonstrated 85.3-94.4% sensitivity, 92.5-93.0% specificity, 93.8-98.6% negative predictive value, and 74.6-83.5% positive predictive value. CEB was superior against all active controls in EP analysis, and against ST area under curve and ECGI by cardiologist. CONCLUSION: CEB detects acute myocardial ischemic injury with high diagnostic accuracy. CEB is instantly constructed from three ECG leads on the cardiac monitor and displayed instantly allowing immediate cost-effective identification of patients with acute ischemic injury during cardiac rhythm monitoring.

Derivation of the 12-lead electrocardiogram and 3-lead vectorcardiogram.

OBJECTIVE: The cardiac dipolar field is represented by the measured 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) and 3-lead vectorcardiogram (VCG). The objective is to derive the 12-lead ECG and 3-lead VCG from 3 measured leads acquired from only 5 electrodes. METHODS: This is a retrospective blinded study comparing measured and derived ECG and VCG tracings. A nonlinear optimization model was used to synthesize the derived 12-lead ECG and 3-lead derived VCG from leads I, II, and V2. A total of 367 measured 12-lead electrocardiograms and 3-lead vectorcardiograms of varying morphologies were acquired from archived digital ECG databases. All tracings were interpreted by 2 blinded physician reference standards. The derived vs measured tracings were compared quantitatively using Pearson correlation and root mean square error. Qualitative comparisons were determined by physician percent agreement analysis and adjudication. RESULTS: The correlations between the measured and derived ECGs and VCGs were high (r=0.867). No clinically significant differences were noted in 98.1% of cases. Electrocardiographic rate, rhythm, segment, axis, and acute myocardial infarction interpretations showed 100% correlation. Root mean square error compared favorably against other synthesis techniques. Overall percent agreements for the various ECG morphologies were noted to be 98.4% to 100%. CONCLUSIONS: The 12-lead ECG and 3-lead VCG can be derived accurately from 3 measured leads with high quantitative and qualitative correlations. These derived tracings can be acquired instantaneously and displayed in real time from a cardiac rhythm monitor. This will allow for immediate, on-demand, convenient, and cost-effective acquisition and analysis of the 12-lead ECG and 3-lead VCG in areas of acute patient care.