ObjectivesAn increasing number of octogenarians are referred to undergo mitral valve surgery for degenerative disease, and percutaneous approaches are being increasingly used in this subgroup of patients. We sought to determine the survival and its predictors after Mitral Valve Surgery in Octogenarians (MiSO) in a multicenter UK study of high-volume specialized centers.MethodsPooled data from 3 centers were collected retrospectively. To identify the predictors of short-term composite outcome of 30 days mortality, acute kidney injury, and cerebrovascular accident, a multivariable logistic regression model was developed. Multiple Cox regression analysis was performed for late mortality. Kaplan–Meier curves were generated for long-term survival in various subsets of patients. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was done to determine the predictive power of the logistic European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation.ResultsA total of 247 patients were included in the study. The median follow-up was 2.9 years (minimum 0, maximum 14 years). A total of 150 patients (60.7%) underwent mitral valve repair, and 97 patients (39.3%) underwent mitral valve replacement. Apart from redo cardiac surgery (mitral valve repair 6 [4%] vs mitral valve replacement 11 [11.3%], P = .04) and preoperative atrial fibrillation (mitral valve repair 79 [52.6%] vs mitral valve replacement 34 [35.1%], P < .01), there was no significant difference in terms of any other preoperative characteristics between the 2 groups. Patient operative risk, as estimated by logistic European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation, was lower in the mitral valve repair group (10.2 ± 11.8 vs 13.7 ± 15.2 in mitral valve replacement; P = .07). No difference was found between groups for duration of cardiopulmonary bypass and aortic crossclamp times. The 30-day mortality for the whole cohort was 13.8% (mitral valve repair 4.7% vs mitral valve replacement 18.6%; P < .01). No differences were found in terms of postoperative cerebrovascular accident (2% vs 3.1%; P = .9), acute kidney injury requiring dialysis (6.7% vs 13.4%; P = .12), and superficial or deep sternal wound infection (10% vs 16.5%, P = .17; 2% vs 3.1%, P = .67, respectively). The final multiple regression model for short-term composite outcome included previous cardiac surgery (odds ratio [OR], 4.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.37-17.46; P = .02), intra-aortic balloon pump use (OR, 4.77; 95% CI, 1.67-15.79; P < .01), and mitral valve replacement (OR, 7.7; 95% CI, 4.04-14.9; P < .01). Overall survival for the entire cohort at 1, 5, and 10 years was 82.4%, 63.7%, and 45.5% (mitral valve repair vs mitral valve replacement: 89.9% vs 70.7% at 1 year, 69.6% vs 54% at 5 years, and 51.8% vs 35.5% at 10 years; P = .0005). Cox proportional hazard model results showed mitral valve replacement (hazard ratio, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.22-2.89; P < .01) and intra-aortic balloon pump use (hazard ratio, 2.54; 95% CI, 1.26-5.13; P < .01) to be independent predictor factors affecting long-term survival. Logisti...

Objective-The aim of this study was to explore the molecular mechanisms involved in late preconditioning-induced cell protection in endothelial cells. Methods and Results-Preconditioning (PC) was induced by exposing bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs) to 3 cycles of 15 minutes of hypoxia followed by 15 minutes of reoxygenation. A 12-hour period of hypoxia induced cell death in 60% of BAECs (48Ϯ5% apoptosis, 12Ϯ4% necrosis). Early and late PC decreased hypoxia-induced apoptotic (25Ϯ5% and 28Ϯ4%, respectively) and necrotic (6Ϯ3%, and 8Ϯ2%, respectively) cell death. Consistently, hypoxia-induced caspase-3 cleavage was reduced by PC. Pretreatment with H89 (protein kinase A [PKA] inhibitor), LY294002 (phosphatidyl-inositol-3-kinase [PI3K] inhibitor), and N-acetyl-cysteine (antioxidant) abrogated late PC-induced cell protection, whereas inhibition of protein kinase C by Go6983, and of nitric oxide synthesis by L-NAME,1400W and bovine eNOS siRNA did not. In addition, in early and late PC, PKA physically interacted with the phosphorylated form of Akt, suggesting that PKA is required for Akt phosphorylation. Expression of PKA and Akt dominant negative mutants inhibited ischemic late PC-induced protection, indicating that these kinases play a key role in late PC-mediated cell protection. Conclusions-Late ischemic PC protects BAECs against hypoxia through PKA-and PI3K-dependent activation of

OBJECTIVESTo investigate the in-hospital health outcome and 10-year survival in patients undergoing redo coronary surgery with (redo-CABG) or without (redo-OPCAB) cardiopulmonary bypass.METHODSA total of 349 redo coronary surgery patients were identified from our registry. Of these, 143 redo-OPCAB patients (40.97%) were compared with 206 redo-CABG patients. To minimize the bias, we also conducted propensity score matching. In Matched Analysis A, 111 redo-OPCAB patients with any type of primary cardiac operation were compared with 111 redo-CABG cases. In Matched Analysis B, 84 redo-OPCAB patients with isolated coronary surgery as their primary operation were compared with 84 redo-CABG patients. We assessed for all 3 analyses a composite of in-hospital mortality, acute kidney injury, stroke and severe low cardiac output requiring intra-aortic balloon pump. In addition, we assessed 1-, 5-, and 10-year survival.RESULTSIn the unmatched analysis, redo-CABG was associated with higher usage of intra-aortic balloon pump (10 vs 3%, P = 0.01) and composite compared with redo-OPCAB (25 vs 16%, P = 0.06) and similar 10-year survival (67.2 vs 68.5%, log-rank test: P = 0.78). Matched Analysis A showed similar rates of composite (15 vs 21%, P = 0.25) and 10-year survival (65.1 vs 60.8%, log-rank test: P = 0.5). Matched Analysis B showed reduction of the composite (19 vs 8%, P = 0.04), less in-hospital mortality (5 vs 0%, P = 0.13), 4.5 times less need for intra-aortic balloon pump (2 vs 11%, P = 0.02) favouring redo-OPCAB and a similar 10-year survival (71.6 vs 71.7%, log-rank test: P = 0.61).CONCLUSIONSRedo-OPCAB surgery is feasible, safe and effective with improved in-hospital outcome and similar 10-year survival compared to redo-CABG.

Coronary artery bypass grafting remains the standard treatment for patients with extensive coronary artery disease. Coronary surgery without use of cardiopulmonary bypass avoids the deleterious systemic inflammatory effects of the extracorporeal circuit. However there is an ongoing debate surrounding the clinical outcomes after on-pump versus off-pump coronary artery bypass (ONCAB versus OPCAB) surgery. The current review is based on evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and metaanalyses of randomized studies. It focuses on operative mortality, mid-and long-term survival, graft patency, completeness of revascularisation, neurologic and neurophysiologic outcomes, perioperative complications and outcomes in the high risk groups. Early and late survival rates for both OPCAB and ONCAB grafting are similar. Some studies suggest early poorer vein graft patency with off-pump when compared with onpump, comparable midterm arterial conduit patency with no difference in long term venous and arterial graft patency. A recent, pooled analysis of randomised trials shows a reduction in stroke rates with use offpump techniques. Furthermore, OPCAB grafting seems to reduce postoperative renal dysfunction, bleeding, transfusion requirement and respiratory complications while perioperative myocardial infarction rates are similar to ONCAB grafting. The high risk patient groups seem to benefit from off-pump coronary surgery. Developed about 40 decades ago (5-7), OPCAB reached a plateau in Europe, accounting for nearly 15-20% of all coronary operations, while in Asia 60-100% of patients are offered coronary artery bypass grafting (2). A retrospective analysis of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database in USA revealed a decline in off-pump operations, currently being used in fewer than one out of five patients (8). The current review focuses on the main outcomes of on-pump coronary artery bypass (ONCAB) grafting versus OPCAB from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (i.e., level I evidence). The main criticism of RCTs in this area, is the under powering because of recruitment of low risk patients but also because of the low mortality and morbidity of coronary artery bypass grafting that would require very large sample populations to detect a difference (4). Therefore, we will also be reviewing pooled data from recent, updated meta-analyses of randomized trials only. We selected in our review large sample size RCTs or large meta-analyses of RCTs to discuss the hard end-point outcomes but smaller trials were also included to discuss other outcomes. Operative mortalityThe majority of the large RCTs to date failed to show a difference in early mortality between off-pump and on-pump surgery (1,3,9-13). One small sample size RCT by Fattouch et al. showed a reduced mortality in patients with ST elevation undergoing urgent/emergent off-pump coronary surgery compared to on-pump surgery (14). Deppe et al. in meta-analysis of RCTs on almost 16,900 patients found no difference in 30-day mortality. Kow...

Background Ischemia and malperfusion are strong predictors of poor postoperative outcomes in type A acute aortic dissection (TAAAD). Serum lactate is an accurate surrogate point‐of‐care marker of malperfusion. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation between lactate, in‐hospital outcomes, and 1‐year survival following TAAAD repair. Methods One hundred and thirty‐two patients underwent operative repair of TAAAD over a 4‐year period at our institution 128 patients had serum lactate measurements at three stages peri‐operatively‐preoperatively, at the end of cardiopulmonary bypass (post‐CPB) and 6 h postintensive care unit (ICU) admission. The primary outcomes were in‐hospital mortality and 1‐year survival. The secondary outcomes were the incidences of in‐hospital morbidities. Results Patients were divided into two groups: 88 (68.8%) with normal lactate and 40 (31.2%) with elevated lactate (>2.2 mmol/L). Lactate measured preoperatively (odds ratio 1.52, 95% confidence interval 1.17–2.07, p < .01), post‐CPB (1.34, 1.14–1.64, p < .01) and 6 h post‐ICU admission (1.29, 1.08–1.55, p < .01) was an independent predictor of in‐hospital mortality. Following adjustment for the Penn Classification, lactate continued to have a significant correlation with in‐hospital mortality at all three timepoints. There was a higher incidence of complications in the elevated lactate group and especially hemofiltration (20% vs. 9.1%, p = .08). 1‐year survival was similar in both groups (p = .23). Conclusions There is a direct correlation between elevated serum lactate and postoperative mortality after TAAAD repair, which is independent of the Penn Classification status on admission.

ObjectiveTo investigate the impact of postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) on early health outcome and on long-term survival in patients undergoing redo coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).MethodsWe performed a Cox analysis with 398 consecutive patients undergoing redo CABG over a median follow-up of 7 years (interquartile range, 4-12.2 years). Renal function was assessed using baseline and peak postoperative levels of serum creatinine. AKI was defined according to the risk, injury, failure, loss, and end-stage (RIFLE) criteria. Health outcome measures included the rate of in-hospital AKI and all-cause 30-day and long-term mortality, using data from the United Kingdom's Office of National Statistics. Propensity score matching, as well as logistic regression analyses, were used. The impact of postoperative AKI at different time points was related to survival.ResultsIn patients with redo CABG, the occurrence of postoperative AKI was associated with in-hospital mortality (odds ratio [OR], 3.74; 95% confidence interval [CI], −1.3 to 10.5; P < .01], high Euroscore (OR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.07-1.52; P < .01), use of IABP (OR, 6.9; 95% CI, 2.24-20.3; P < .01), and reduced long-term survival (hazard ratio [HR], 2.42; 95% CI, 1.63-3.6; P = .01). Overall survival at 5 and 10 years was lower in AKI patients with AKI compared with those without AKI (64% vs 85% at 5 years; 51% vs 68% at 10 years). On 1:1 propensity score matching analysis, postoperative AKI was independently associated with reduced long term survival (HR, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.15-6.7).ConclusionsIn patients undergoing redo CABG, the occurrence of postoperative AKI is associated with increased 30-day mortality and major complications and with reduced long-term survival.

Background:The results of surgical treatment of type A aortic dissection (AAD) in the elderly are controversial and aggravated by a higher operative mortality rate. The studies published in this subset of patients are mainly retrospective analyses or small samples from international registries. We sought to investigate this topic by conducting a contemporary meta-analysis of the most recent observational studies.Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted for any study published in the last five years on aortic dissection treated surgically in patients 70 years and older. A pooled risk-ratio meta-analysis has been conducted three main post-operative outcomes: short-term mortality, stroke and acute kidney injury.Results: A total of 11 retrospective observational studies have been included in the quantitative metaanalysis. Pooled meta-analysis showed an increased risk of short term mortality for the elderly population 2 =14%, P=0.31) after surgery were comparable to the younger cohort of patients. Conclusions:Although affected by an increased risk of short-term mortality in the elderly, surgical repair remains the treatment of choice for AAD. The main post-operative outcomes are comparable to younger patients and the mid-term survival rates are acceptable.

Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) patients have an increased incidence of developing aortic dilation. Despite its importance, the pathogenesis of aortopathy in BAV is still largely undetermined. Nowadays, intense focus falls both on BAV morphology and progression of valvular dysfunction and on the development of aortic dilation. However, less is known about the relationship between aortic valve morphology and aortic dilation. A better understanding of the molecular pathways involved in the homeostasis of the aortic wall, including the extracellular matrix, the plasticity of the vascular smooth cells, TGFβ signaling, and epigenetic dysregulation, is key to enlighten the mechanisms underpinning BAV-aortopathy development and progression. To date, there are two main theories on this subject, i.e., the genetic and the hemodynamic theory, with an ongoing debate over the pathogenesis of BAV-aortopathy. Furthermore, the lack of early detection biomarkers leads to challenges in the management of patients affected by BAV-aortopathy. Here, we critically review the current knowledge on the driving mechanisms of BAV-aortopathy together with the current clinical management and lack of available biomarkers allowing for early detection and better treatment optimization.