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Journal and News Scan
November 3, 2017
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
Patient Care
Ambulances specially tailored to respond to cardiac emergencies will go into service in Goa, India, at the beginning of 2018.
The cardiac team at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, has launched a research project focused on improving treatment of idiopathic dilating cardiomyopathy.
Getting into the Halloween spirit and showing off their gourd-slicing skills, surgeons competitively carved pumpkins in Phoenix, Arizona.
Drugs and Devices
Doctors at the General Hospital of Mexico in Mexico City have safely reused sterilized donated pacemakers for 33 patients who could not afford a new device.
The US Food and Drug Administration will now recognize good manufacturing practice inspections done by eight European Union drug regulators, the most recent move to strengthen regulatory collaboration between the US and EU.
Trastuzumab did not worsen cardiac function when added to chemotherapy for HER2-positive breast cancer.
Research, Trials, and Funding
Pediatric cardiac surgery patients receiving intermittent postsurgical dosing of morphine and midazolam show similar pain relief and shorter length of stay when compared to patients receiving continuous analgesics.
Neuromuscular blockade might not always be necessary during cardiac surgery, and researchers at the University of Chicago are seeking to determine if avoiding it reduces postsurgical pulmonary complications.
Ventricular assist devices might provide better survival than extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for children awaiting heart transplantation.
A randomized trial published in The Lancet finds that 230 patients with stable angina had similar symptom relief whether they received a percutaneous coronary intervention or a placebo procedure.
November 3, 2017
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
Kamperidis and colleagues report that left ventricular (LV) functional recovery after mitral valve (MV) repair for severe secondary mitral regurgitation is associated with improved patient outcomes. Their retrospective analysis of 130 patient records found increased LV forward ejection fraction and LV forward stroke volume after MV annuloplasty, despite no observed change in LV ejection fraction. The authors found that LV forward stroke volume after repair independently associated with overall survival and survival without major adverse cardiac-related events by multivariable analysis.
October 31, 2017
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
In this single institution study, the prognostic role of soluble mesothelin-related peptides (SMRP) was evaluated in patients with pleural mesothelioma. Preoperative levels of SMRP were related to tumor volume and disease-free survival. Percent change in postoperative SMRP was predictive of tumor recurrence.
October 31, 2017
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
In this single institution study, the authors screened biorepository materials obtained from patients undergoing resection for early stage cancer. They wished to identify serum markers related to early recurrence. A 7-component panel was developed that had a negative predictive value of 83% and an accuracy of 78%. The accuracy was 70%.
October 30, 2017
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
Deng and colleagues analyzed the pattern of lymph node metastasis in a retrospective study including approximately 1200 patients with esophageal cancer. Patients with adenocarcinoma had a larger mean number of positive lymph nodes and a higher rate of lymph node metastasis than those with squamous cell carcinoma.
October 30, 2017
Submitted by: Aristotle Protopapas
A detailed review of the pericardial sinuses on the occasion of discovery of a unilateral pericardial fold caudal to Marshall's ligament. The significance of the structure is discussed as an operating surgical note to ipsilateral pericardial traction/ elevation in beating heart surgery. It will be also relevant to procurement of intrathoracic organs for transplantation and cardiac surgery for structural disease and dysrhythmias.
October 27, 2017
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
Patient Care
Emergency responders in Argentina use the WhatsApp messaging app to send ECG data to the hospital ahead of a patient’s arrival, and save about 50 minutes by skipping the emergency room on the way to the catheterization lab.
Next year, 150 rheumatic heart disease patients in Cape Town, South Africa, will receive a locally designed, inexpensive transcatheter heart valve as part of a clinical trial.
A cardiac contractility modulation device was implanted to treat heart failure for the first time in the Caribbean at Health City Cayman Islands in Grand Cayman.
A collaboration for training in minimally invasive thoracic surgery is one of many initiatives in a partnership between Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and the University of Toronto in Canada, which has the goal of transforming health care in Ethiopia.
Drugs and Devices
The first patient has received the Intrepid™ transcatheter mitral valve from Medtronic as part of the APOLLO trial on transcatheter therapy for mitral valve regurgitation.
Artificial intelligence is at an interesting frontier, but how does an always-changing self-improving algorithm get regulatory approval?
Carmat announced that it has performed an artificial heart transplant in Kazakhstan, its first device implantation outside of France.
The US Food and Drug Administration has cleared the Confirm Rx™ Insertable Cardiac Monitor from Abbott, a device that monitors a patient’s heart rhythm and sends the information to their smartphone and their doctor.
Research, Trials, and Funding
A study published in the Lancet suggests that the heart might not be a morning person, at least in regards to surgery.
Researchers from Tel Aviv, Israel, found that both transcatheter and surgical aortic valve replacement were associated with better outcomes than conservative treatment for patients with normal flow-low gradient aortic stenosis.
October 27, 2017
Submitted by: Aristotle Protopapas
A measured succinct reflection on MagLev and older ventricular assist devices, on the occasion of a relevant 'expert opinion' paper on the topic.
October 26, 2017
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
The Swiss Society of Cardiology and the Swiss Society of Cardiac Surgery officially endorse the European guidelines on the modern heart team and intend to ensure that all cardiac institutions are informed about the application of the heart team approach to daily clinical practice. This position article defines the role and responsibility of the modern heart team, and it highlights both coronary artery disease and valve disease as areas where this concept must be adopted.
October 25, 2017
Submitted by: Claire Vernon
De By and colleagues evaluated microbiological testing and decontamination methods of heart valve allografts in cardiovascular tissue banks by means of an international quality round. Twenty cardiovascular tissue banks were sent human heart valve tissue samples that had been purposely contaminated with microorganisms known to the participants. In some tissue banks, contaminant identification and tissue decontamination were not effective. The authors conclude that this finding underscores the need for harmonization based on validated methods.