Reports have suggested an association between the development of myocarditis and the receipt of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), but the frequency and ...severity of myocarditis after vaccination have not been extensively explored.
We searched the database of Clalit Health Services, the largest health care organization (HCO) in Israel, for diagnoses of myocarditis in patients who had received at least one dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech). The diagnosis of myocarditis was adjudicated by cardiologists using the case definition used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We abstracted the presentation, clinical course, and outcome from the patient's electronic health record. We performed a Kaplan-Meier analysis of the incidence of myocarditis up to 42 days after the first vaccine dose.
Among more than 2.5 million vaccinated HCO members who were 16 years of age or older, 54 cases met the criteria for myocarditis. The estimated incidence per 100,000 persons who had received at least one dose of vaccine was 2.13 cases (95% confidence interval CI, 1.56 to 2.70). The highest incidence of myocarditis (10.69 cases per 100,000 persons; 95% CI, 6.93 to 14.46) was reported in male patients between the ages of 16 and 29 years. A total of 76% of cases of myocarditis were described as mild and 22% as intermediate; 1 case was associated with cardiogenic shock. After a median follow-up of 83 days after the onset of myocarditis, 1 patient had been readmitted to the hospital, and 1 had died of an unknown cause after discharge. Of 14 patients who had left ventricular dysfunction on echocardiography during admission, 10 still had such dysfunction at the time of hospital discharge. Of these patients, 5 underwent subsequent testing that revealed normal heart function.
Among patients in a large Israeli health care system who had received at least one dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine, the estimated incidence of myocarditis was 2.13 cases per 100,000 persons; the highest incidence was among male patients between the ages of 16 and 29 years. Most cases of myocarditis were mild or moderate in severity. (Funded by the Ivan and Francesca Berkowitz Family Living Laboratory Collaboration at Harvard Medical School and Clalit Research Institute.).
The appropriate duration of dual antiplatelet therapy in patients at high risk for bleeding after the implantation of a drug-eluting coronary stent remains unclear.
One month after they had undergone ...implantation of a biodegradable-polymer sirolimus-eluting coronary stent, we randomly assigned patients at high bleeding risk to discontinue dual antiplatelet therapy immediately (abbreviated therapy) or to continue it for at least 2 additional months (standard therapy). The three ranked primary outcomes were net adverse clinical events (a composite of death from any cause, myocardial infarction, stroke, or major bleeding), major adverse cardiac or cerebral events (a composite of death from any cause, myocardial infarction, or stroke), and major or clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding; cumulative incidences were assessed at 335 days. The first two outcomes were assessed for noninferiority in the per-protocol population, and the third outcome for superiority in the intention-to-treat population.
Among the 4434 patients in the per-protocol population, net adverse clinical events occurred in 165 patients (7.5%) in the abbreviated-therapy group and in 172 (7.7%) in the standard-therapy group (difference, -0.23 percentage points; 95% confidence interval CI, -1.80 to 1.33; P<0.001 for noninferiority). A total of 133 patients (6.1%) in the abbreviated-therapy group and 132 patients (5.9%) in the standard-therapy group had a major adverse cardiac or cerebral event (difference, 0.11 percentage points; 95% CI, -1.29 to 1.51; P = 0.001 for noninferiority). Among the 4579 patients in the intention-to-treat population, major or clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding occurred in 148 patients (6.5%) in the abbreviated-therapy group and in 211 (9.4%) in the standard-therapy group (difference, -2.82 percentage points; 95% CI, -4.40 to -1.24; P<0.001 for superiority).
One month of dual antiplatelet therapy was noninferior to the continuation of therapy for at least 2 additional months with regard to the occurrence of net adverse clinical events and major adverse cardiac or cerebral events; abbreviated therapy also resulted in a lower incidence of major or clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding. (Funded by Terumo; MASTER DAPT ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03023020.).
Myocarditis and pericarditis are inflammatory conditions of the heart that present a range of symptoms, often including chest pain, fatigue, breathlessness and palpitations that may be irregular due ...to cardiac rhythm disturbances. Myocarditis has been proposed to account for a fraction of cardiac injury among patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and associated systemic inflammation; and it might be one of the reasons for the high mortality seen in COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, following vaccination with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (ie, Comirnaty and Spikevax), myocarditis and pericarditis can develop within a few days of vaccination, particularly following the second dose. Based on recent reviewed data, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have determined that the risk for both of these conditions is overall ‘very rare’ (~1 in 10 000 vaccinated people may be clinically affected), with the highest risk among younger males. Both EMA and FDA agree that the benefits of all authorised COVID-19 vaccines continue to outweigh their risks, given the threat of serious COVID-19 illness and related complications. Since myocarditis has a very wide clinical spectrum, ranging from mild to fulminant life-threatening disease, we present in this review a sum of the latest findings and considerations for the proper diagnosis and management of affected patients.
Measuring fractional flow reserve (FFR) with a pressure wire remains underutilized because of the invasiveness of guide wire placement or the need for a hyperemic stimulus. FFR derived from routine ...coronary angiography (FFR
) eliminates both of these requirements and displays FFR values of the entire coronary tree. The FFR
Accuracy versus Standard FFR (FAST-FFR) study is a prospective, multicenter, international trial with the primary goal of determining the accuracy of FFR
.
Coronary angiography was performed in a routine fashion in patients with suspected coronary artery disease. FFR was measured in vessels with coronary lesions of varying severity using a coronary pressure wire and hyperemic stimulus. Based on angiograms of the respective arteries acquired in ≥2 different projections, on-site operators blinded to FFR then calculated FFR
using proprietary software. Coprimary end points were the sensitivity and specificity of the dichotomously scored FFR
for predicting pressure wire-derived FFR using a cutoff value of 0.80. The study was powered to meet prespecified performance goals for sensitivity and specificity.
Ten centers in the United States, Europe, and Israel enrolled a total of 301 subjects and 319 vessels meeting inclusion/exclusion criteria which were included in the final analysis. The mean FFR was 0.81 and 43% of vessels had an FFR≤0.80. The per-vessel sensitivity and specificity were 94% (95% CI, 88% to 97%) and 91% (86% to 95%), respectively, both of which exceeded the prespecified performance goals. The diagnostic accuracy of FFR
was 92% overall and remained high when only considering FFR values between 0.75 to 0.85 (87%). FFR
values correlated well with FFR measurements ( r=0.80, P<0.001) and the Bland-Altman 95% confidence limits were between -0.14 and 0.12. The device success rate for FFR
was 99%.
FFR
measured from the coronary angiogram alone has a high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy compared with pressure wire-derived FFR. FFR
has the promise to substantially increase physiological coronary lesion assessment in the catheterization laboratory, thereby potentially leading to improved patient outcomes.
URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique Identifier: NCT03226262.
Complex diseases, such as coronary artery disease (CAD), are often multifactorial, caused by multiple underlying pathological mechanisms. Here, to study the multifactorial nature of CAD, we performed ...comprehensive clinical and multi-omic profiling, including serum metabolomics and gut microbiome data, for 199 patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) recruited from two major Israeli hospitals, and validated these results in a geographically distinct cohort. ACS patients had distinct serum metabolome and gut microbial signatures as compared with control individuals, and were depleted in a previously unknown bacterial species of the Clostridiaceae family. This bacterial species was associated with levels of multiple circulating metabolites in control individuals, several of which have previously been linked to an increased risk of CAD. Metabolic deviations in ACS patients were found to be person specific with respect to their potential genetic or environmental origin, and to correlate with clinical parameters and cardiovascular outcomes. Moreover, metabolic aberrations in ACS patients linked to microbiome and diet were also observed to a lesser extent in control individuals with metabolic impairment, suggesting the involvement of these aberrations in earlier dysmetabolic phases preceding clinically overt CAD. Finally, a metabolomics-based model of body mass index (BMI) trained on the non-ACS cohort predicted higher-than-actual BMI when applied to ACS patients, and the excess BMI predictions independently correlated with both diabetes mellitus (DM) and CAD severity, as defined by the number of vessels involved. These results highlight the utility of the serum metabolome in understanding the basis of risk-factor heterogeneity in CAD.
Abstract
Aims
To describe the cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging findings of patients who developed myocarditis following messenger RNA (mRNA) coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination.
...Methods and results
The present study retrospectively evaluated patients with clinically adjudicated myocarditis within 42 days of the first Pfizer-BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, between 20 December 2020 and 24 May 2021 who underwent CMR. A total of 15 out 54 patients (28%) with myocarditis underwent a CMR and were included, 100% males, median age of 32 years (interquartile range = 22.5–40). Most patients presented with chest pain (87%) and had an abnormal electrocardiogram (79%). The severity of the disease was mild in 67% and intermediate in 33%. All patients survived and one patient was readmitted during the study period. CMR was performed at a median of 65 days (range 3–130 days) following diagnosis. Median ejection fraction was 58% (range 51–74%) global- and regional wall motion abnormalities were present in one and three patients, respectively. Native T1 was available in 13/15 patients (2/3 in 3 T and 11/12 in the 1.5 T), with increased values among 6/13. Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) was found among 13/15 patients with a median of 2% (range 0–15%) with inferolateral wall being the most common location (8/13). The patterns of the LGE were: mid-wall in six patients; epicardial in five patients; and mid-wall and epicardial in two patients.
Conclusions
Among patients who were diagnosed with post-vaccination clinical myocarditis, CMR imaging findings are mild and consistent with ‘classical myocarditis’. The short-term clinical course and outcomes were favourable.
Key points
The cardiac damage classification characterized the extent of cardiac pathology associated with AS before AVR.
Such classification has important prognostic implications for clinical ...outcomes and repeat HF or CV hospitalizations after TAVR.
Adjunctive cardiac pathology could extend beyond AS per se, which makes it a wide‐ranging syndrome with diverse prognostic and therapeutic implications.
Abstract
Aims
Pressure-wire assessment of coronary stenosis is considered the invasive reference standard for detection of ischaemia-generating lesions. Recently, methods to estimate the fractional ...flow reserve (FFR) from conventional angiography without the use of a pressure wire have been developed, and were shown to have an excellent diagnostic accuracy. The present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed at determining the diagnostic performance of angiography-derived FFR for the diagnosis of haemodynamically significant coronary artery disease.
Methods and results
A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies assessing the diagnostic performance of angiography-derived FFR systems were performed. The primary outcome of interest was pooled sensitivity and specificity. Thirteen studies comprising 1842 vessels were included in the final analysis. A Bayesian bivariate meta-analysis yielded a pooled sensitivity of 89% (95% credible interval 83–94%), specificity of 90% (95% credible interval 88–92%), positive likelihood ratio (+LR) of 9.3 (95% credible interval 7.3–11.7) and negative likelihood ratio (−LR) of 0.13 (95% credible interval 0.07–0.2). The summary area under the receiver-operating curve was 0.84 (95% credible interval 0.66–0.94). Meta-regression analysis did not find differences between the methods for pressure-drop calculation (computational fluid dynamics vs. mathematical formula), type of analysis (on-line vs. off-line) or software packages.
Conclusion
The accuracy of angiography-derived FFR was good to detect haemodynamically significant lesions with pressure-wire measured FFR as a reference. Computational approaches and software packages did not influence the diagnostic accuracy of angiography-derived FFR. A diagnostic strategy trial with angiography-derived FFR evaluating clinical endpoints is warranted.
Abstract
Aims
The aim of this study was to compare clinical outcomes of patients undergoing transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) with balloon-expandable (BE) valves vs. ...self-expandable (SE) valves. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation is a minimally invasive and lifesaving treatment in patients with aortic valve stenosis. Even though BE-valves and SE-valves are both commonly used on a large scale, adequately sized trials comparing clinical outcomes in patients with severe aortic valve stenosis treated with BE-valves compared with SE-valves are lacking.
Methods and results
In this CENTER-collaboration, data from 10 registries or clinical trials, selected through a systematic search, were pooled and analysed. Propensity score methodology was used to reduce treatment selection bias and potential confounding. The primary endpoints were mortality and stroke at 30 days follow-up in patients treated with BE-valves compared with SE-valves. Secondary endpoints included clinical outcomes, e.g. bleeding during hospital admission. All outcomes were split for early-generation BE-valves compared with early-generation SE-valves and new-generation BE-valves with new-generation SE-valves. The overall patient population (N = 12 381) included 6239 patients undergoing TAVI with BE-valves and 6142 patients with SE-valves. The propensity matched population had a mean age of 81 ± 7 years and a median STS-PROM score or 6.5% interquartile range (IQR) 4.0–13.0%. At 30-day follow-up, the mortality rate was not statistically different in patients undergoing TAVI with BE-valves compared with SE-valves BE: 5.3% vs. SE: 6.2%, relative risk (RR) 0.9; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.7–1.0, P = 0.10. Stroke occurred less frequently in patients treated with BE-valves (BE: 1.9% vs. SE: 2.6%, RR 0.7; 95% CI 0.5–1.0, P = 0.03). Also, patients treated with BE-valves had a three-fold lower risk of requiring pacemaker implantation (BE: 7.8% vs. SE: 20.3%, RR 0.4; 95% CI 0.3–0.4, P < 0.001). In contrast, patients treated with new-generation BE-valves more frequently experienced major and life-threatening bleedings compared with new-generation SE-valves (BE: 4.8% vs. SE: 2.1%, RR 2.3; 95% CI 1.6–3.3, P < 0.001).
Conclusion
In this study, which is the largest study to compare valve types in TAVI, we demonstrated that the incidence of stroke and pacemaker implantation was lower in patients undergoing transfemoral TAVI with BE-valves compared with SE-valves. In contrast, patients treated with new-generation BE-valves more often suffered from major or life-threatening bleedings than patients with new-generation SE-valves. Mortality at 30-days was not statistically different in patients treated with BE-valves compared with SE-valves. This study was a propensity-matched analysis generated from observational data, accordingly current outcomes will have to be confirmed in a large scale randomized controlled trial.
Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a novel treatment for high risk or inoperable patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis. However, significant atrioventricular (AV) conduction ...system abnormalities requiring permanent pacemaker (PPM) implantation might complicate this procedure. We used best subsets logistic regression analysis to identify the independent predictors for the development of high-degree AV block (HDAVB) among 70 patients who underwent TAVI at 3 referral centers in Israel from 2008 to 2010. The mean age of the study patients was 83 ± 4.6 years. Of the 70 patients, 28 (40%) developed AV conduction abnormalities requiring PPM implantation within 14 days (median 2) of the procedure. The indications for PPM implantation were HDAVB (n = 25), new-onset left bundle branch block with PR prolongation (n = 2), and slow atrial fibrillation (n = 1). Best subsets logistic regression analysis showed that, among the 15 prespecified clinical, electrocardiographic, and echocardiographic candidate risk factors, only right bundle branch block at baseline (odds ratio 43; p = 0.002) and deep valve implantation (<6 mm from the lower edge of the noncoronary cusp to the ventricular end of the prosthesis, odds ratio 22; p <0.001) were independently associated with the development of periprocedural HDAVB. At 3 months of follow-up, HDAVB was still present in 40% of the patients who received PPM implantation for this indication. In conclusion, 40% of the patients who undergo CoreValve TAVI require PPM implantation after the procedure, with most cases (36%) associated with the development of postprocedural HDAVB. Baseline conduction abnormalities (right bundle branch block) and deep valve implantation (>6 mm) independently predicted the development of HDAVB and the need for PPM implantation after CoreValve TAVI.
PDF
