Intense exercise may not be so benign: chest pain in a young athletic woman may be spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD).

We present a 26-year-old woman who came to the emergency department with chest pain of 1 hour duration that started while she was exercising on the treadmill. At presentation, ECG showed sinus bradycardia. Initial troponin level was 0.05 ng/mL and her chest pain resolved within 3 hours of onset. Troponins were trended serially, which continued to rise and peaked at 28.77 ng/mL and so heparin drip was started. On the second day of admission, a coronary angiogram was performed along with intravascular ultrasound, which revealed type 3 spontaneous coronary artery dissection. No obstructive atherosclerotic disease was noted in any of the coronary vessels. No coronary intervention was performed. Patient was started on aspirin and clopidogrel. Patient was discharged home in stable condition and was followed outpatient, where she remained in excellent health condition at her first clinic visit.

Predictors, Burden, and the Impact of Arrhythmia on Patients Admitted for Acute Myocarditis.

A significant proportion of patients with acute myocarditis experience sudden cardiac death presumably due to cardiac arrhythmia. In this study, we explore the burden, the predictors of arrhythmia in acute myocarditis and the association between arrhythmias and adverse in-hospital outcomes. After evaluating the frequency of various tachyarrhythmias and bradyarrhythmia in myocarditis population, we built a logistic model to determine the independent predictors of arrhythmias in myocarditis and a 1:1 propensity-matched analysis to examine the impact of arrhythmias. Overall, cardiac arrhythmias were identified in 33.71% of the hospitalized myocarditis cases. Ventricular tachycardia and atrial fibrillation were most common arrhythmias. There were increased odds of in-hospital mortality, cardiogenic shock, use of mechanical circulatory support, pacemaker implantation, and nonroutine hospital discharges in the arrhythmia cohorts. Length of stay and cost of hospitalization were also significantly higher. A significant proportion of patients with myocarditis have cardiac arrhythmias. As the occurrence of arrhythmias in myocarditis is associated with worse outcomes, it may be important to risk stratify patient to identify those who will benefit from early intervention.

Regional disparity in outcomes among patients hospitalized for Takotsubo cardiomyopathy in the United States✰.

INTRODUCTION: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTCM), an entity first described in Japan over two decades ago following myocardial stunning cases without evidence of coronary stenosis, has emerged as a unique entity with global recognition. We sought to investigate the extent and magnitude of regional variations in its outcomes. METHOD: We used the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2010-2014). Risk-adjusted rates of outcomes across the US geographical regions were calculated by fitting a Poisson regression model with a robust error variance under generalized estimating equations. Discrete numeric variables with over-dispersed count distributions -length of stay and continuous variables with a right skewed spread- cost of hospitalization were modeled using a generalized linear regression with a negative binomial function and gamma function respectively. RESULT: We found significant regional variations in-patient mortality. While there was significantly higher risk of in-hospital death in the West (5.28 [4.34-6.44]) vs 4.40 [3.57-5.43] vs 4.10 [3.38-498] vs 4.78 [3.96-5.77]), there was a different pattern of variation in the length of days with longer hospital stay in the Northeast. Likewise, the risk-adjusted rate of non-routine home discharges was highest for Northeast. The West had the highest cost of hospitalization (West: $40,217 vs. South: $28,465) CONCLUSION: Significant geographic variation exists in the cost of hospitalization and in-hospital mortality of TTCM across the US. Understanding this variation requires a detailed understanding of the processes of care and identification of effective strategies to eliminate these disparities.

Incidence and outcomes of cardiac tamponade in patients undergoing cardiac resynchronization therapy.

INTRODUCTION: Cardiac tamponade is a severe complication of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) implantations. We provide a contemporary large-scale study evaluating the incident trends, predictors and impact of cardiac tamponade in patients undergoing CRT. METHOD: Data were obtained from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) of 2007 through 2014. Trends in the annual rates of tamponades in CRT implantation were assessed using negative binomial regressions. Hierarchical mixed-effects logistic regression models were built to determine the independent predictors of tamponade in CRT implantation and 1:1 propensity-matched analysis performed to examine the impact of tamponade on outcomes. RESULT: An estimated 310,704 CRT implantations were performed in the United States between 2007 and 2014, out of which 536 patients (0.17%) developed procedure-related cardiac tamponade. A significant increasing trend in the tamponade incidence was observed over the 8-year study period [1.65 per 10,000 CRT implantation in 2007 to 38.16 in 2014 (p < 0.001)]. After multivariable adjustment, female sex and coagulation disorder were found to be independently associated with higher odds of tamponade. Conversely, prior history of CABG procedure was associated with lower odds of tamponade. CRT complicated with tamponade had significantly increased in-hospital mortality, bleeding requiring transfusion, prolonged hospital stay and increased cost. CONCLUSION: We found an increasing trend in the incidence of post CRT tamponade among hospitalized patients between 2007 and 2014. Female gender and coagulation disorder were associated with the development of tamponade among recipients of CRT. Risk stratification of patients who are undergoing CRT is crucial to improving outcome in CRT implantation.