Background:Two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) after ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI) can predict the prognosis. This study ...investigated the clinical significance of a serial 3D-STE can predict the prognosis after onset of STEMI.Methods and Results:This study enrolled 272 patients (mean age, 65 years) with first-time STEMI treated with reperfusion therapy. At 24 h after admission, standard 2D echocardiography and 3D full-volume imaging were performed, and 2D-STE and 3D-STE were calculated. Within 1 year, 19 patients who experienced major adverse cardiac events (MACE; cardiac death, heart failure requiring hospitalization) were excluded. Among the 253 patients, 248 were examined with follow-up echocardiography. The patients were followed up for a median of 108 months (interquartile range: 96–129 months). The primary endpoint was the occurrence of a MACE; 45 patients experienced MACEs. Receiver operating characteristic curves and Cox hazard multivariate analysis showed that the 2D-global longitudinal strain (GLS) and 3D-GLS at 1-year indices were significant predictors of MACE. The Kaplan-Meier curve demonstrated that a 3D-GLS of >−13.1 was an independent predictor for MACE (log-rank χ2=165.5, P<0.0001). The deterioration of 3D-GLS at 1 year was a significant prognosticator (log-rank χ2=36.7, P<0.0001).Conclusions:The deterioration of 3D-GLS measured by STE at 1 year after the onset of STEMI is the strongest predictor of long-term prognosis.
We encountered a case of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) as the first clinical manifestation of essential thrombocythemia (ET). Platelet function tests revealed high ...thrombogenicity during primary percutaneous coronary intervention compared with general cardiovascular patients, whereas the platelet function two weeks after admission was effectively suppressed by dual antiplatelet therapy. The patient, who lacked cytoreduction, suffered from recurrent STEMI because of poor compliance with antiplatelet drugs. The risk of acute coronary occlusion may be high during the acute phase of STEMI in ET patients because of high thrombogenicity. Insufficient antiplatelet therapy and no cytoreduction are also risk factors for recurrent coronary events.
Background:We hypothesized the cardio-ankle vascular stiffness index (CAVI) could predict future cardiovascular events.Methods and Results:We enrolled 288 consecutive patients with acute coronary ...syndrome (ACS) who underwent CAVI measurement soon after the onset of ACS. Exclusion criteria were as follows: unable to detect significant stenosis by coronary angiography, severe aortic insufficiency, peripheral artery disease, atrial fibrillation (AF), informed consent was not given. We divided the patients into 2 groups according to the cutoff value of CAVI determined by receiver-operating characteristics curve for the prediction of cardiovascular events: low CAVI group, 135 patients with CAVI ≤8.325; high CAVI group, 153 patients with CAVI >8.325. Patients were followed up for a median period of 15 months. The primary and secondary endpoints were the incidence of cardiovascular events (cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal ischemic stroke), and nonfatal ischemic stroke. Of the 288 patients, cardiovascular events occurred in 19 patients (6.6%). The Kaplan-Meier estimate of the event-free rate revealed cardiovascular events occurred more frequently in the high CAVI group than in the low CAVI group (log-rank, P<0.001). Multiple adjusted Cox proportional hazards analysis, including age, indicated the high CAVI group was an independent predictor of cardiovascular events (hazard ratio HR 18.00, P=0.005), and nonfatal ischemic stroke (HR 9.371, P=0.034).Conclusions:High CAVI is an independent predictor of cardiovascular events and nonfatal ischemic stroke in patients with ACS. (Circ J 2016; 80: 1420–1426)
Background: Patients with refractory cardiogenic shock (CS) necessitating peripheral veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) often require an intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) or ...Impella for unloading; however, comparative effectiveness data are currently lacking.Methods and Results: Using Diagnosis Procedure Combination data from approximately 1,200 Japanese acute care hospitals (April 2018–March 2022), we identified 940 patients aged ≥18 years with CS necessitating peripheral VA-ECMO along with IABP (ECMO-IABP; n=801) or Impella (ECPella; n=139) within 48 h of admission. Propensity score matching (126 pairs) indicated comparable in-hospital mortality between the ECPella and ECMO-IABP groups (50.8% vs. 50.0%, respectively; P=1.000). However, the ECPella cohort was on mechanical ventilator support for longer (median interquartile range 11.5 5.0–20.8 vs. 9.0 4.0–16.8 days; P=0.008) and had a longer hospital stay (median interquartile range 32.5 12.0–59.0 vs. 23.0 6.3–43.0 days; P=0.017) than the ECMO-IABP cohort. In addition, medical costs were higher for the ECPella than ECMO-IABP group (median interquartile range 9.09 7.20–12.20 vs. 5.23 3.41–7.00 million Japanese yen; P<0.001).Conclusions: Our nationwide study could not demonstrate compelling evidence to support the superior efficacy of Impella over IABP in reducing in-hospital mortality among patients with CS necessitating VA-ECMO. Further investigations are imperative to determine the clinical situations in which the potential effect of Impella can be maximized.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have shown significant efficacy in various cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, melanoma, classical Hodgkin lymphoma, head and ...neck squamous cell carcinoma, urothelial cancer, and renal cell carcinoma ...
Background:The results of previous clinical trials on the effects of ezetimibe-statin combination therapy on atherosclerosis are inconsistent, and the anti-atherosclerotic effect of ezetimibe remains ...controversial.Methods and Results:We conducted a prospective, randomized open-label study at 10 centers. One hundred and twenty-eight statin-naïve patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) undergoing intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided percutaneous coronary intervention were randomized to receive either 2 mg/day pitavastatin plus 10 mg/day ezetimibe, or 2 mg/day pitavastatin. One hundred and 3 patients had evaluable IVUS of non-culprit coronary lesions at baseline and at follow-up. The primary endpoint was the percentage change in non-culprit coronary plaque volume (PV) and lipid PV on integrated backscatter IVUS. Mean low-density lipoprotein cholesterol was reduced from 123 mg/dL to 64 mg/dL in the combination therapy group (n=50) and 126 mg/dL to 87 mg/dL in the statin alone group (n=53; between-group difference, 16.9%, P<0.0001). The percent change in PV was −5.1% in the combination therapy group and −6.2% in the statin alone group (P=0.66), although both groups had reduction of PV compared with baseline (both P<0.01). The percent change in lipid PV did not differ between the groups (4.3 vs. −3.0%, P=0.37).Conclusions:In statin-naïve patients with ACS, combined therapy with ezetimibe and statin did not result in a significant change in coronary plaque regression or tissue component compared with statin alone. Clinical Trial Registration: www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT00549926)
In this updated expert consensus document, the methods for the quantitative measurement and morphological assessment of optical coherence tomography (OCT)/optical frequency domain imaging images ...(OFDI) are briefly summarized. The focus is on the clinical application and the clinical evidence of OCT/OFDI to guide percutaneous coronary interventions.
Objectives This study sought to determine the additional clinical value of gait speed to Framingham risk score (FRS), cardiac function, and comorbid conditions in predicting cardiovascular events in ...patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. Background There is growing evidence that gait speed is inversely associated with all-cause mortality, particularly cardiovascular mortality, among the elderly. Methods We undertook a single-center prospective observational study of gait speed in 472 patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction in Japan, between 2001 and 2008. Gait speeds were measured using a 200-m course before discharge in all patients, and we followed up cardiovascular events, which consist of cardiovascular deaths, nonfatal myocardial infarctions, and nonfatal ischemic strokes. Results During the 2,596 person-years of follow-up, 83 patients (17.6%) experienced cardiovascular events. Cardiovascular events increased across decreasing tertiles of gait speed (fastest tertile: n = 5, 3.2%; middle tertile: n = 20, 12.6%; slowest tertile, n = 58, 36.7%). By multiple adjusted Cox proportional hazards analysis, gait speed was a significant and independent predictor of cardiovascular events (hazard ratio for increasing 0.1 m/s of gait speed: 0.71, 95% confidence interval CI: 0.63 to 0.81, p < 0.001). The addition of gait speed to the model incorporating FRS, B-type natriuretic peptide levels, and comorbidity index improved reclassification (net reclassification index: 32.8%, 95% CI: 17.4 to 48.3, p < 0.001) and the C-statistics with a reasonable global fit and calibration (C-statistics: from 0.703 95% CI: 0.636 to 0.763 to 0.786 95% CI: 0.738 to 0.829). Conclusions Among patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, slow gait speed was significantly associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. (Gait Speed for Predicting Cardiovascular Events After Myocardial Infarction; NCT01484158 )
Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of arterial stiffness assessed using Cardio-ankle Vascular Index (CAVI) on long-term outcome after acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods: ...A total of 387 consecutive patients (324 males; age, 64±11 years) with ACS were enrolled. We examined CAVI and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (ba PWV) as the parameters of arterial stiffness. The patients were divided into two groups according to the cut-off value of CAVI determined using the receiver operating characteristic curve for the prediction of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE): low-CAVI group, 177 patients with CAVI ＜8.35; high-CAVI group, 210 patients with CAVI ≥ 8.35. The primary endpoint was the incidence of MACE (cardiovascular death, recurrence of ACS, heart failure requiring hospitalization, or stroke). Results: A total of 62 patients had MACE. Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated a significantly higher probability of MACE in the high-CAVI group than in the low-CAVI group (median follow-up: 62 months; log-rank, p＜0.001). Multivariate analysis suggested that CAVI was an independent predictor of MACE (hazard ratio HR, 1.496; p=0.02) and cardiovascular death (HR, 2.204; p=0.025), but ba PWV was not. We investigated the incremental predictive value of adding CAVI to the GRACE score (GRS), a validated scoring system for risk assessment in ACS. Stratified by CAVI and GRS, a significantly higher rate of MACE was seen in patients with both higher CAVI and higher GRS than the other groups (p＜0.001). Furthermore, the addition of CAVI to GRS enhanced net reclassification improvement (NRI) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) (NRI, 0.337, p=0.034; and IDI, 0.028, p=0.004). Conclusion: CAVI was an independent long-term predictor of MACE, especially cardiovascular death, adding incremental clinical significance for risk stratification in patients with ACS.
Background:The efficacy and bleeding complications of direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) therapy for cancer-associated venous thromboembolism (VTE) in routine clinical practice remain unclear. ...Moreover, data on long-term outcomes in patients with cancer-associated VTE who received DOAC therapy are limited.Methods and Results:This retrospective study enrolled 1,096 consecutive patients with acute VTE who received warfarin or DOAC therapy between April 2014 and May 2017. The mean follow-up period was 665±490 days. The number of cancer-associated VTE patients who received DOAC therapy was 334. Patients who could not be followed up and those prescribed off-label under-dose DOAC were excluded. Finally, 303 patients with cancer-associated VTE were evaluated. The number of cases of major bleeding and VTE recurrence was 54 (17.8%) and 26 (8.6%), respectively. In the multivariate analysis, the factors correlated with major bleeding were high cancer stage, high performance status, liver dysfunction, diabetes mellitus, and stomach cancer; those correlated with recurrent VTE were initial diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, uterine cancer, and previous cerebral infarction. Major bleeding was an independent risk factor of all-cause death. In the Kaplan-Meier analysis, those who received prolonged DOAC therapy had lower composite major bleeding and recurrent VTE risks than those who did not.Conclusions:In DOAC therapy for cancer-associated VTE, major bleeding prevention is important because it is an independent risk factor of death.
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