Gender-based outcomes of coronary bifurcation stenting: A report from the National Readmission Database.

BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of data focusing on women's outcomes after percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) for coronary bifurcation lesions (CBLs). METHODS: Patients who received PCI for CBLs in the context of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) during the period of 01 October 2015- 31 December 2017, were identified from the United States National Readmission Database. The primary endpoint of this study was in-hospital major adverse events (MAEs). The secondary endpoints were in-hospital mortality, vascular complications, major bleeding, post-procedural bleeding, need for blood transfusion, severe disability surrogates (non-home discharge and need for mechanical ventilation), resources utilization surrogates (length of stay and cost of hospitalization), and 30-day readmission rate. A 1:1 propensity score matching was used to compare the outcomes between women and men. RESULTS: A total of 25,050 (women = 7,480; men = 17,570) patients were included in the current analysis. After propensity score matching, women had higher in-hospital MAEs (7 vs 5.2%, p < .01), major bleeding (1.8 vs 0.8%, p < .01), post-procedural bleeding (6.1 vs 3.4%, p < .01), need for blood transfusion (6.4 vs 4.2%, p < .01), non-home discharges (10.2 vs 7.1%; p < .01), longer length of hospital stay (3 days [IQR 2-6] vs. 3 days [IQR 2-5], p < .01) and higher 30-day readmission rate compared to men (14.2 vs. 11.5%, p < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Among all-comers who received PCI for CBLs in the context of ACS, women suffered higher MAEs and 30-day readmission rates compared to their men' counterparts. The higher MAEs in the women were mainly driven by higher postprocedural bleeding rates and the need for blood transfusion.

Meta-analysis comparing direct oral anticoagulants versus vitamin K antagonists in patients with left ventricular thrombus.

Current American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines for stroke or ST-elevation myocardial infarction recommend the use of oral vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) as a first-line anticoagulant. Although several studies have compared the use of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) to VKAs for left ventricular thrombus (LVT) anticoagulation therapy, they are small scale and have produced conflicting results. Thus, this meta-analysis was performed to aggregate these studies to better compare the efficacy and safety of DOACs with VKAs in patients with LVT. Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, MEDLINE, and Web of Science database searches through January 10, 2021 were performed. Eight studies evaluating stroke or systemic embolism (SSE), six studies for LVT resolution, and five studies for bleeding were included. There were no statistically significant differences in SSE (OR 0.89; 95% CI 0.46, 1.71; p = 0.73; I2 = 45%) and LVT resolution (OR 1.13; 95% CI 0.75, 1.71; p = 0.56; I2 = 1%) between DOAC and VKA (reference group) therapy. DOAC use was significantly associated with lower bleeding event rates compared to VKA use (OR 0.61; 95% CI 0.40, 0.93; p = 0.02; I2 = 0%). DOACs may be feasible alternative anticoagulants to vitamin K antagonists for LV thrombus treatment. Randomized controlled trials directly comparing DOACs with VKAs are needed.

A Network-Based "Phenomics" Approach for Discovering Patient Subtypes From High-Throughput Cardiac Imaging Data.

OBJECTIVES: The authors present a method that focuses on cohort matching algorithms for performing patient-to-patient comparisons along multiple echocardiographic parameters for predicting meaningful patient subgroups. BACKGROUND: Recent efforts in collecting multiomics data open numerous opportunities for comprehensive integration of highly heterogenous data to classify a patient's cardiovascular state, eventually leading to tailored therapies. METHODS: A total of 42 echocardiography features, including 2-dimensional and Doppler measurements, left ventricular (LV) and atrial speckle-tracking, and vector flow mapping data, were obtained in 297 patients. A similarity network was developed to delineate distinct patient phenotypes, and then neural network models were trained for discriminating the phenotypic presentations. RESULTS: The patient similarity model identified 4 clusters (I to IV), with patients in each cluster showed distinctive clinical presentations based on American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association heart failure stage and the occurrence of short-term major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events. Compared with other clusters, cluster IV had a higher prevalence of stage C or D heart failure (78%; p < 0.001), New York Heart Association functional classes III or IV (61%; p < 0.001), and a higher incidence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (p < 0.001). The neural network model showed robust prediction of patient clusters, with area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve ranging from 0.82 to 0.99 for the independent hold-out validation set. CONCLUSIONS: Automated computational methods for phenotyping can be an effective strategy to fuse multidimensional parameters of LV structure and function. It can identify distinct cardiac phenogroups in terms of clinical characteristics, cardiac structure and function, hemodynamics, and outcomes.

Trends, Outcomes, and Predictors of Revascularization in Cardiogenic Shock.

Cardiogenic shock (CS) carries high mortality and morbidity. Early revascularization is an important strategy in management of these patients. We sought to determine the outcomes and predictors of revascularization among patients with CS. Patients with CS and acute myocardial infarction were identified using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) data from January 2002 to December 2014 using the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes. Subsequently, patients who underwent revascularization were then selected. A total of 118,618 patients with CS were identified. Out of these, about 55,735 (47%) patients underwent revascularization. Mean age of patients who underwent revascularization was lower when compared with patients not who underwent revascularization (66.40 vs 72.24 years, p < 0.01). Patients who underwent revascularization had lower mortality when compared with patients not who underwent revascularization (25.1% vs 52.2%, p < 0.01). Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and mechanical circulatory support devices were often utilized more in patients who underwent revascularization. Overall, we found modest increased trend of revascularization over our study years with decline in mortality. Female gender, weekend admission, drug abuse, pulmonary hypertension, anemia, renal failure, neurological disorders, malignancy were associated with lower odds of revascularization. In conclusion, in this large nationally represented US population sample of CS patients, we found revascularization rate of about 47% with improvement in overall mortality over our study years.

Meta-Analysis Comparing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation With Balloon Versus Self-Expandable Valves.

Two transcatheter aortic valve systems are currently in use in the United States; balloon-expandable valves (BEV) and the self-expanding valve (SEV). However, comparative data outcomes between the 2 systems are limited, as only one randomized trial (RCT) performed a head-to-head comparison between BEVs and SEVs. However, there are several RCTs comparing BEV or SEV to surgical valve replacement. In this analysis, we used Bayesian network meta-analysis techniques to compare BEVs and SEVs. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality at maximum follow-up. Secondary outcomes were cardiovascular mortality, stroke, pacemaker implantation, reintervention, heart failure hospitalization, and moderate-severe paravalvular leak (PVL.). Eight RCTs with 8,095 patients were included. With the exception of less pacemaker implantation in BEV versus SEV (odds ratio [OR] 0.29, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.11 to 0.77, I2 = 51%), there was no difference between BEV and SEV in 30-day outcomes. During long-term follow-up (mean 3 ± 2 years); there was no difference between BEV and SEV in all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 1.1, 95% CI 0.87 to 1.5, I2 = 19.6%), cardiovascular mortality (HR 1.1, 95% CI 0.73 to 1.6, I2 = 18.5%), stroke (HR 1.3, 95% CI 0.73 to 2.1, I2 = 16.9%), hospitalization (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.41 to 1.6, I2 = 62%), and reintervention (HR 0.68, 95% CI 0.2 to 2.3, I2 = 62%). New pacemaker implantation and PVL were significantly less in BEV group (HR 0.45, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.80, I2 = 38.2%), and (HR 0.03, 95% CI 0.0004 to 0.28, I2 = 79%), respectively. In conclusion, similar outcomes were seen following transcatheter aortic valve implantation with BEV and SEV with the exception of higher rates of pacemaker implantation and PVL in SEV group.

Meta-Analysis of Outcomes of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Among Patients With Low Gradient Severe Aortic Stenosis.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has emerged as an effective therapy for patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS). However, data on TAVI outcomes in patients with low gradient (LG) AS are limited. We performed a meta-analysis of studies comparing TAVI outcomes between patients with classic high gradient (HG) and LG AS through November 2018. The 30-day mortality, mid-term all-cause, and cardiovascular mortality at maximum follow-up were compared between patients with HG and LG AS (Pairwise meta-analysis), and between the three distinct groups of AS including HG, paradoxical low-flow low-gradient and low gradient with reduced ejection fraction (rEF-LG) (Network meta-analysis). Nineteen studies (n = 27,204 patients) met the inclusion criteria. The HG group had less 30-day, mid-term all-cause and cardiovascular mortality compared with the low-gradient AS group overall, (6% vs 7.5%, OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.87, I2 = 18%), (21% vs 29%, OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.67, I2 = 62%), and (12.6% vs 18.7%, OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.76, I2 = 62%), respectively, p <0.0001. These outcomes were confirmed in a trial sequential analysis in which the cumulative Z-curve crossed the conventional test boundary as well as the trial sequential monitoring boundary for all outcomes. The network meta-analysis revealed that patients with rEF-LG had similar outcomes to those with pLFLG, and both had worse outcomes than patients with classic HG AS. In conclusion patients with classic HG have better 30-day mortality, mid-term all-cause and cardiovascular mortality compared with LG patients following TAVI. Among patients with LG severe AS, TAVI outcomes were similar in patients with rEF-LG and pLFLG.