Aims Upon suspicion of infective endocarditis, the causative microorganism must be identified to optimize treatment. Blood cultures and culturing of removed valves are the mainstay of this diagnosis and should be complemented by growth-independent methods. We assessed the diagnostic benefit of examining removed endocarditis valves by broad-range bacterial PCR to detect causative bacteria in cases where culturing was not available, negative, or inconclusive because a skin commensal was detected, in patients from our clinical routine practice. Methods and results Patients from Heidelberg University Hospital with suspicion of endocarditis, followed by valve replacement and analysis by 16S rDNA PCR, between 2015 and 2018, were evaluated. 146 patients with definite infective endocarditis, confirmed by the valve macroscopics and/or histology, were included. Valve PCRs were compared to corresponding blood and valve culture results. Overall, valve PCR yielded an additional diagnostic benefit in 34 of 146 cases (23%) and was found to be more sensitive than valve culture. In 19 of 38 patients with both negative blood and valve cultures, valve PCR was the only method rendering a pathogen. In 23 patients with positive blood cultures detecting skin commensals, 4 patients showed discordant valve PCR results, detecting a more plausible pathogen, and in 11 of 23 cases, valve PCR confirmed commensals in blood culture as true pathogens. Only the remaining 8 patients had negative valve PCRs. Conclusion Valve PCR was found to be a valuable diagnostic tool in surgical endocarditis cases with negative blood cultures or positive blood cultures of unknown significance. Trial registration S-440/2017 on 28.08.2017 retrospectively registered. Graphic abstract Subdividing of all infective endocarditis patients in this study, showing that valve PCR yields valuable information for patients with skin commensals in blood cultures, which were either confirmed by the same detection in valve PCR or refuted by the detection of a different and typical pathogen in valve PCR. Additionally, benefit was determined in patients with negative or not available blood cultures and only positive detection in valve PCR. +: Positive; −: negative; n/a: not available results
Background: Patients admitted to the hospital after primarily successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) are at a very high risk for neurologic deficits and death. Targeted temperature management (TTM) for mild therapeutic hypothermia has been shown to improve survival compared to standard treatment.Acute cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction (MI), are a major cause for cardiac arrest (CA) in patients who undergo CPR. Recent findings have demonstrated the importance and impact of the leukocyte response following acute MI.Methods: In this retrospective, single center study we enrolled 169 patients with CA due to non-traumatic causes and primarily successful CPR. A total of 111 subjects (66%) underwent TTM aiming for a target temperature of 32-34 ℃.Results: Analysis of 30 day follow up showed a significantly improved survival of all patients who received TTM compared to patients without hypothermia (P=0.0001). Furthermore TTM was an independent variable of good neurological outcome after 6 months (P=0.0030). Therapeutic hypothermia was found to be beneficial independent of differences in age and sex between both groups. While a higher rate of pneumonia was observed with TTM, this diagnosis had no additional impact on survival or neurological outcome. The beneficial effect on mortality remained significant in patients with the diagnosis of an acute cardiac event (P=0.0145). Next, we evaluated the kinetics of leukocytes in this group over the course of 7 days after CA.At presentation, patients showed a mean level of 16.5±6.7 of leukocytes per microliter. While this level stayed stable in the group of patients without hypothermia, patients who received TTM showed a significant decline of leukocyte levels resulting in significantly lower numbers of leukocytes on days 3 and 5 after CPR. Interestingly, these differences in leukocyte counts remained beyond the time period of TTM while C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were suppressed only during ongoing cooling, but differences between the groups were diminished after TTM was terminated (from day 3 on, P>0.2). Finally, patients who received TTM and showed a leukocyte count of less than 12.7/μL on day 3 had an improved survival (P=0.0214) and neurological outcome (P=0.0049) compared to patients above that level.Conclusions: Our data underline the beneficial effects of TTM and demonstrate an impact of hypothermia on leukocyte counts after CA.
Aims In peripheral artery disease (PAD), endovascular treatment success of heavily calcified lesions is often compromised by a number of vascular complications, such as recoils, dissections and need for target vessel re-interventions. The increasing use of scoring balloon techniques has raised the hope for better periprocedural outcomes; however, the knowledge regarding the actual benefits of the scoring balloon technique in comparison to standard therapy is still limited. Thus, the aim of the current study was to determine the safety and effectiveness of scoring balloon angioplasty in a real-life patients' collective with PAD. Methods and Results A total of 425 patients with moderate to severely calcified femoropopliteal lesions received interventional treatment between 2011 and 2018 at the single center; 230 received a treatment with a scoring balloon (AngioSculpt™), and 195 received a plain procedure without AngioSculpt™. Key questions of this analysis were: (1) whether AngioSculpt™ can be used as a safe and effective stand-alone treatment in heavily calcified lesions in a 24-month follow-up, as well as (2) whether target lesion preparation with scoring balloon bears additional benefits to standard treatment (PTA ± stent implantation). In terms of freedom from target lesion revascularization there were no significant differences between AngioSculpt™ and standard procedure (82.3% vs. 78.1%, P > 0.05). Vessel preparation with balloon angioplasty had no additional effects on survival and amputation rates in comparison to standard treatment without AngioSculpt™ (P > 0.05). The deployment of a scoring balloon did not reduce the subsequent need for additional stent implantations (32.6%, and 32.3%, P > 0.05). Conclusion Lesion preparation with AngioSculpt™ scoring balloon represents a safe and effective tool in the treatment of complex femoropopliteal lesions. In this retrospective analysis, AngioSculpt™ scoring balloon angioplasty did not significantly improve vessel patency-both when used as an adjunctive in preparation for stenting and as stand-alone treatment. A prospective study is needed to further investigate the scoring balloon treatment options.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.