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Journal and News Scan
March 19, 2018
Submitted by: Aristotle Protopapas
A medium-size RCT comparing full sternotomy to limited sternotomy for conventional aortic valve replacement, presented at the SCTS Annual Meeting in Glasgow. The 7-10% one year attrition rate seems quite disappointing, and will most probably be discussed. We will await the full paper to see what was the learning curve for the innovative approach.
Please scroll to page 14 in the link provided to read the presentation summary.
Beware of E-mails Soliciting for Articles: Journal Hijacking Is a New Menace for Academics Worldwide
March 19, 2018
Submitted by: Joel Dunning
A hijacked journal is a legitimate scientific journal that offers print-only version, for which a bogus website has been created by a malicious third party fake publisher for the purpose of fraudulently offering research scientists the chance to rapidly publish their paper online with publication fee. Journal hijackers are dominant in analyzing the behaviors of researchers and journalism worldwide. They find the email addresses of authors from the websites of commercial and non-peer-reviewed journals. During last few years, more than one hundred of hijacked journals have been observed. They charge a fee, but your article does not get published and you will not get a medline indexed citation.
March 18, 2018
Submitted by: Edward Savage
The authors studied 852 adults with bicuspid aortic valves. The prevelance of three morphotypes was tallied. Relative fusion rates were: RL 72.9%, RN 24.1% and LN 3%. Additionally, 18.3% had no raphe. Aortic regurgitation was unrelated to morphotype. Aortic stenosis was more common in the RN fusion group and in the presence of a raphe. Seventy-six percent had ascending aortic dilation unrelated to morphotype but associated with valve dysfunction. Aortic root dilation was present in 34% and was more commonly associated with male sex and aortic regurgitation.
March 17, 2018
Submitted by: Joel Dunning
Read the amazing story of the 44-year-old nurse who got acute chest pain in a remote area of Australia. He was the only clinican in the area, so he took his own ECG, diagnosed his acute MI, and cannulated and thrombolysed himself!
They make them tough in Australia.
March 16, 2018
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
Patient Care
Some Syrian refugee children have received surgery for congenital heart defects in Jordan, however many refugees in need of complex medical care are unable to receive such care.
A hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is working to increase the rate of patient referral for cardiac rehab after surgery.
Several Rwandan heart patients will receive surgical treatment as part of a free surgery camp at King Faisal Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda, an initiative sponsored by the Rwandan Ministry of Health, King Faisal Hospital, and the non-profit organization Team Heart.
Drugs and Devices
The US Food and Drug Administration took the first formal step toward a major policy change that would reduce the amount of nicotine allowed in cigarettes.
The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency announced plans to review anticoagulant usage after a study published in the BMJ suggested increased risk for atrial fibrillation patients with chronic kidney disease.
Research, Trials, and Funding
Japanese researchers have received approval from Osaka University to test the ability of iPS cell-derived sheets of cardiac muscle to treat ischemic cardiomyopathy. The team must now gain approval from the Japanese Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry.
Researchers from the US and Canada find that COPD patients selected for lung transplant have better survival than one would expect based on their BODE score, potentially because the transplant qualification process reduces comorbid conditions that are unrelated to lung function in this group of patients.
Early studies on wearable devices for atrial fibrillation screening were presented at the recent meeting of the American College of Cardiology, but the findings don’t yet address whether the increased screening results in improved patient outcomes.
March 16, 2018
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
Mainwaring and colleagues retrospectively reviewed the outcomes for 51 patients with transposition of the great arteries (TGA) who were enrolled in a left ventricle (LV) retraining program in preparation for an arterial switch procedure. Retraining was successful in 52% of patients with D-TGA and 92% of patients with L-TGA. Of patients who had successful retraining and underwent an arterial switch operation, the procedure was successful for 77% of patients with D-TGA and 100% with L-TGA. To quantify the LV response to training, the authors calculated an “LV retraining ratio” based on the change in the LV/RV pressure ratio in response to the first pulmonary artery banding. This ratio correlated with the presence or absence of heart failure and accurately predicted the ultimate success of retraining in 95% of patients.
March 15, 2018
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
The EJCTS and ICVTS are publishing a series of Statistical Primers to help clinicians perform and interpret research. Although Kaplan-Meier analyses are standard in the cardiothoracic surgical literature, there are several pitfalls that should be kept in mind. In this primer, Thuijs and coauthors describe the fundamental concepts of analyzing survival data.
March 13, 2018
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
Reddy and colleagues evaluated oral, esophageal, and gastric microbial flora in 55 patients who underwent successful esophagectomy for adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, or benign disease. The authors did not observe significant patterns between microbiome diversity and tumor stage or histology. Patients who had anastomotic leak, however, showed a greater variance in the composition of preoperative oral flora versus intraoperative gastric flora than patients who did not (p = 0.015). The authors suggest that better understanding of the relationship between the microbiome and esophagectomy recovery could lead to new predictive or therapeutic approaches for esophageal anastomotic leak.
March 12, 2018
Submitted by: Aristotle Protopapas
An interesting two-year report from the MOMENTUM 3 randomized controlled trial comparison of HeartMate 3 and II, the analysis performed by Abbott. Although stroke and reoperation were clearly lower with the latest technology, reflected in the lower LDH measurements, there was bafflingly no improvement in survival.
March 9, 2018
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
Patient Care
Carter Capps, a pitcher for professional baseball team the San Diego Padres, has made himself a necklace out of the rib surgeons removed during his thoracic outlet surgery.
A Connecticut, USA, man gets some experimental and synergistic help from a bacteriophage and antibiotic to treat a persistent infection in his aortic graft.
Drugs and Devices
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the world’s smallest mechanical heart valve for pediatric patients, a 15 mm Masters Series Heart Valve from Abbott.
Durvalumab from AstraZeneca has been approved by the US FDA for patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer; this follows the publication of a randomized trial showing superiority of durvalumab over placebo following chemotherapy.
Research, Trials, and Funding
Researchers from Vancouver, Canada, presented their early experience with the Sapien M3, a transcatheter mitral valve replacement device that caught the attention of attendees at the recent Cardiovascular Research Technologies meeting.
The use of lung cancer treatment modalities varies by geographic region across the UK, according to research published in Thorax, and the researchers say this could be negatively affecting patient survival in regions with lower treatment rates.
In Indiana, USA, the first patient has been enrolled in the EVAS2 IDE Confirmatory Clinical Study of the Nellix EndoVascular Aneurysm Sealing System from Endologix.