Abstract only
Introduction:
Abnormal T wave inversion (ATWI) in the pre-participation screening (PPS) electrocardiogram (ECG) may signify underlying myocardial disorders (e.g. cardiomyopathy, ...myocarditis) associated with sudden cardiac death. Current guidelines for competitive athletes recommend evaluation of ATWI with transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and follow-on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) if TTE is normal (i.e. echo-negative). However, data on evaluation of ATWI detected on PPS outside of competitive athletes (e.g. recreational athletes or military enlistees) is lacking.
Methods:
We studied the yield of ATWI evaluation in a large unselected cohort of 48115 young Asian male military enlistees who underwent PPS between 2019-2021. Individuals with ATWI meeting the International Criteria 2017 definition underwent TTE. Echo-negative individuals with persistent ATWI on repeat ECG further underwent CMR and were followed up for 12 ± 8 months. Routine demographic, anthropometric and ECG parameters were collected. Individuals with known heart disease or conduction abnormalities (e.g. RBBB) were excluded.
Results:
133 (0.3%) individuals had ATWI, amongst whom TTE detected 3 (2.3%) individuals with cardiomyopathy. 105 echo-negative individuals had persistent ATWI and underwent CMR, which detected a further 5 (4.8%) cases of cardiomyopathy and 2 (1.9%) cases of prior myocarditis with residual scar. Echo-negative individuals with myocardial disorders on CMR had deeper ATWI of ≥ 2mm (p=0.047), ATWI in lateral (p=0.046) or all 3 territories (p=0.006), and concomitant ST segment depressions (p=0.030). ATWI depth of < 2mm demonstrated 100% negative predictive value for myocardial disorders on TTE or CMR.
Conclusions:
Evaluation of ATWI in our unselected cohort of young Asian males identified myocardial disorders in 7.5%, with follow-on CMR increasing the diagnostic yield by 3-fold compared to TTE alone. Our findings confirm that CMR has utility in the evaluation of ATWI detected by PPS even in unselected individuals outside the competitive athletic setting. ATWI depth of ≥2mm was present in all individuals with myocardial disorders, and may serve as a cut-off value for further CMR evaluation in settings with resource limitations.
Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant comorbidity in aortic stenosis (AS) patients. We examined the impact of baseline CKD, postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) and CKD ...progression on clinical outcomes in patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). Materials and Methods: Consecutive patients with severe AS who underwent TAVI were classified into CKD stages 1–2 (≥60 mL/min/1.72m2), 3 (30–59 mL/min/1.73m2) and 4–5 (<30 mL/min/1.73m2 or dialysis) based on estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Primary outcome was mortality and secondary outcomes included 1-year echocardiographic data on aortic valve area (AVA), mean pressure gradient (MPG) and aortic regurgitation (AR). Results: A total of 216 patients were included. Higher eGFR was associated with lower overall mortality (adjusted hazards ratio AHR 0.981, 95% confidence interval CI 0.968–0.993, P = 0.002). CKD 4–5 were associated with significantly higher mortality from non- cardiovascular causes (P <0.05). Patients with CKD 3–5 had higher incidence of moderate AR than those with CKD 1–2 (P = 0.010); no difference in AVA and MPG was seen. AKI patients had higher mortality (P = 0.008), but the effect was attenuated on multivariate analysis (AHR 1.823, 95% CI 0.977–3.403, P = 0.059). Patients with CKD progression also had significantly higher mortality (AHR 2.969, 95% CI 1.373–6.420, P = 0.006). Conclusion: CKD in severe AS patients undergoing TAVI portends significantly higher mortality and morbidity. Renal disease progression impacts negatively on outcomes and identifies a challenging subgroup of patients for optimal management. Ann Acad Med Singapore 2020;49:273–84 Key words: Acute kidney injury, Aortic stenosis, Transcatheter aortic valve replacement
The receptiveness of patients towards involving medical trainees in their care is essential to clinical education. Data on patients’ attitude towards trainees and reasons for their attitude is ...currently lacking. Hence the aim was to explore the attitudes and factors influencing the attitudes of patients towards trainees at a tertiary centre for cardiovascular care. A cross-sectional survey was performed among consecutive patients from the cardiac clinics at our tertiary institution in 2014. Of the 723 patients included, nearly all (97.9%) believe that senior doctors make the final decision for their care, and the majority (94.1%) are willing to interact with trainees under supervision of senior doctors. However, less than 60% of patients have actually allowed trainees to participate in their care most or all of the time, with the most important reason for this being fear that care would be compromised (n = 172). Top reasons why trainees were allowed include belief that it is important for trainees to get experience (n = 538), that trainees obtained permission politely (n = 360) and that trainees were professional (n = 284). Multivariate analysis revealed that better education (odds ratio (OR) 2.055, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.393–3.033, p < 0.01), male gender (OR 1.556, 95% CI 1.058–2.338, p = 0.03) and less worry about cost of treatment (OR 1.605, 95% CI 1.058–2.433, p = 0.03) increased receptiveness towards trainees. The study demonstrated largely positive attitudes towards trainees being involved in one’s care. The trainee’s politeness and professionalism, as well as the patient’s perceived importance of trainee education, were important in determining such receptiveness.
BACKGROUND Electrocardiography (ECG) may be performed as part of preparticipation sports screening. Recommendations on screening of athletes to identify individuals with previously unrecognized ...cardiac disease are robust; however, data guiding the preparticipation screening of unselected populations are scarce. T wave inversion (TWI) on ECG may suggest an undiagnosed cardiomyopathy. This study aims to describe the prevalence of abnormal TWI in an unselected young male cohort and the outcomes of an echocardiography-guided approach to investigating these individuals for structural heart diseases, focusing on the yield for cardiomyopathies. METHODS AND RESULTS Consecutive young male individuals undergoing a national preparticipation cardiac screening program for 39 months were studied. All underwent resting supine 12-lead ECG. Those manifesting abnormal TWI, defined as negatively deflected T waves of at least 0.1 mV amplitude in any 2 contiguous leads, underwent echocardiography. A total of 69 714 male individuals with a mean age of 17.9±1.1 years were studied. Of the individuals, 562 (0.8%) displayed abnormal TWI. This was most frequently observed in the anterior territory and least so in the lateral territory. A total of 12 individuals (2.1%) were diagnosed with a cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy diagnoses were significantly associated with deeper maximum TWI depth and the presence of abnormal TWI in the lateral territory, but not with abnormal TWI in the anterior and inferior territories. No individual presenting with TWI restricted to solely leads V
to V
, 2 inferior leads or both was diagnosed with a cardiomyopathy. CONCLUSIONS Cardiomyopathy diagnoses were more strongly associated with certain patterns of abnormal TWI. Our findings may support decisions to prioritize echocardiography in these individuals.
Resumo Fundamento A síndrome de Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) é uma condição pró-arrítmica que pode exigir restrição de atividades extenuantes e é caracterizada por sinais de ECG, incluindo ondas ...delta. Observamos casos de padrões intermitentes de WPW apresentando-se como QRS alternante (‘WPW alternante’) em uma grande coorte de triagem de ECG pré-participação de homens jovens que se candidataram ao recrutamento militar. Objetivos Nosso objetivo foi determinar o padrão de WPW alternante, as características do caso e a prevalência de outros diagnósticos diferenciais relevantes apresentando-se como alternância de QRS em um ambiente de pré-participação. Métodos Cento e vinte e cinco mil cento e cinquenta e oito recrutas militares do sexo masculino prospectivos foram revisados de janeiro de 2016 a dezembro de 2019. Uma revisão de prontuários médicos eletrônicos identificou casos de WPW alternante e padrões ou síndrome de WPW. A revisão de prontuários médicos eletrônicos identificou casos de diagnósticos diferenciais relevantes que podem causar alternância de QRS. Resultados Quatro indivíduos (2,2%) apresentaram WPW alternante em 184 indivíduos com diagnóstico final de padrão ou síndrome de WPW. Dois desses indivíduos manifestaram sintomas ou achados eletrocardiográficos compatíveis com taquicardia supraventricular. A prevalência geral de WPW alternante foi de 0,003%, e a prevalência de WPW foi de 0,147%. As WPW alternantes representaram 8,7% dos indivíduos com QRS alternantes, e QRS alternantes tiveram prevalência de 0,037% em toda a população. Conclusões A WPW alternante é uma variante da WPW intermitente, que compreendeu 2,2% dos casos de WPW em nossa coorte de triagem pré-participação. Não indica necessariamente um baixo risco de taquicardia supraventricular. Deve ser reconhecido na triagem de ECG e distinguido de outras patologias que também apresentam QRS alternantes.
There are no studies evaluating comprehensive predictors of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) outcomes encompassing frailty assessments in a South-East Asian cohort. In this longitudinal ...single-center cohort, all patients who underwent TAVI in a tertiary cardiac center and comprehensively assessed for frailty at baseline were included in a registry. The primary outcome was to investigate frailty indices predictive of prolonged index hospitalization after TAVI. Seventy-six patients with a mean age of 77.6 ± 8.5 years were included. Mean Society of Thoracic Society Predicted Risk of Mortality score was 5.2 ± 3.0, with 11 (14.5%) patients classified as high-risk (Society of Thoracic Society Predicted Risk of Mortality >8). Mean and median index hospitalization duration were 9.2 ± 5.6 and 7 4.5 to 9.5 days, respectively. Univariate analysis demonstrated that lower hemoglobin (Hb) (p <0.01), longer 5-meter walk test (5MWT) (p <0.01), lower dominant hand grip strength (p <0.01), the use of transaortic access (p = 0.01), new atrial fibrillation post-TAVI (p <0.01), and lower postprocedural Hb (p <0.01) were associated with longer index hospitalization duration. Multivariate linear regression demonstrated preoperative Hb, preoperative atrial fibrillation and 5MWT were independent baseline predictors of index hospitalization duration (p <0.05). Additionally, a 5MWT cutoff of 11 seconds (0.45 m/s) had a high specificity (88.6%) in predicting prolonged index hospitalization duration. In conclusion, this is the first comprehensive frailty assessment in a South-East Asian cohort demonstrating 5MWT to be a significant predictor of prolonged index hospitalization. This simple and effective frailty assessment index may be considered to optimize patient selection for TAVI.
Introduction: Data on patients with small aortic annuli (SAA) undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) are limited. We aim to describe the impact of aortic annular size, particularly ...SAA and TAVI valve type on valve haemodynamics, durability and clinical outcomes.
Method: All patients in National Heart Centre Singapore who underwent transfemoral TAVI for severe symptomatic native aortic stenosis from July 2012 to December 2019 were included. Outcome measures include valve haemodynamics, prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPM), structural valve degeneration (SVD) and mortality.
Results: A total of 244 patients were included. The mean Society of Thoracic Surgeons score was 6.22±6.08, with 52.5% patients with small aortic annulus (<23mm), 33.2% patients with medium aortic annulus (23–26mm) and 14.3% patients with large aortic annulus (>26mm). There were more patients with self-expanding valve (SEV) (65.2%) versus balloon-expandable valve (BEV) (34.8%). There were no significant differences in indexed aortic valve area (iAVA), mean pressure gradient (MPG), PPM, SVD or mortality across all aortic annular sizes. However, specific to the SAA group, patients with SEV had larger iAVA (SEV 1.19±0.35cm2/m2 vs BEV 0.88±0.15cm2/m2, P<0.01) and lower MPG (SEV 9.25±4.88 mmHg vs BEV 14.17±4.75 mmHg, P<0.01) at 1 year, without differences in PPM or mortality. Aortic annular size, TAVI valve type and PPM did not predict overall mortality up to 7 years. There was no significant difference in SVD between aortic annular sizes up to 5 years.
Conclusion: Valve haemodynamics and durability were similar across the different aortic annular sizes. In the SAA group, SEV had better haemodynamics than BEV at 1 year, but no differences in PPM or mortality. There were no significant differences in mortality between aortic annular sizes, TAVI valve types or PPM.
Keywords: Aortic stenosis, small aortic annulus, transcatheter aortic valve implantation
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