Thrombotic complications of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) are a concerning aspect of the disease, due to the high incidence in critically ill patients and poor clinical outcomes. COVID-19 predisposes patients to a hypercoagulable state, however, the pathophysiology behind the thrombotic complications seen in this disease is not well understood. Several mechanisms have been proposed and the pathogenesis likely involves a host immune response contributing to vascular endothelial cell injury, inflammation, activation of the coagulation cascade via tissue factor expression, and shutdown of fibrinolysis. Treatments targeting these pathways may need to be considered to improve clinical outcomes and decrease overall mortality due to thrombotic complications. In this review, we will discuss the proposed pathophysiologic mechanisms for thrombotic complications in COVID-19, as well as treatment strategies for these complications based on the current literature available.
ObjectiveRecent studies have suggested that fibromyalgia is inaccurately diagnosed in the community, and that ~75% of persons reporting a physician diagnosis of fibromyalgia would not satisfy published criteria. To investigate possible diagnostic misclassification, we compared expert physician diagnosis with published criteria.MethodsIn a university rheumatology clinic, 497 patients completed the Multidimensional Health Assessment Questionnaire (MD‐HAQ) and the 2010 American College of Rheumatology preliminary diagnostic criteria modified for self‐administration during their ordinary medical visits. Patients were evaluated and diagnosed by university rheumatology staff.ResultsOf the 497 patients, 121 (24.3%) satisfied the fibromyalgia criteria, while 104 (20.9%) received a clinician International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnosis of fibromyalgia. The agreement between clinicians and criteria was 79.2%. However, agreement beyond chance was only fair (κ = 0.41). Physicians failed to identify 60 criteria‐positive patients (49.6%) and incorrectly identified 43 criteria‐negative patients (11.4%). In a subset of 88 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the kappa value was 0.32, indicating slight to fair agreement. Universally, higher polysymptomatic distress scores and criteria‐based diagnosis were associated with more abnormal MD‐HAQ clinical scores. Women and patients with more symptoms but fewer pain areas were more likely to receive a clinician's diagnosis than to satisfy fibromyalgia criteria.ConclusionThere is considerable disagreement between ICD clinical diagnosis and criteria‐based diagnosis of fibromyalgia, calling into question ICD‐based studies. Fibromyalgia criteria were easy to use, but problems regarding clinician bias, meaning of a fibromyalgia diagnosis, and the validity of physician diagnosis were substantial.
One uncommon type of ischemic stroke is occlusion of the artery of Percheron (AOP) leading to infarction of the paramedian thalami and mesencephalon. There are several variants of thalamic blood supply, and identifying the potential presence and infarction of an AOP is important in diagnosis and treatment of ischemic strokes affecting the thalami and mesencephalon, especially because of the unusual and variable presentation of these forms of ischemic strokes. This short review includes and discusses the case of a 58-year-old woman with an AOP infarct and indicates the importance of recognizing an AOP infarct early despite its clinical variations in order to treat the stroke in a timely fashion. This short review also includes a discussion of imaging modalities in such cases and clinical differential diagnoses to consider with management strategies.
Following surgical excision and adjuvant chemoradiotherapy, the patient has remained disease-free for 18 months. The literature is reviewed and the possible association of the chronic subdurals to the later development of the leiomyosarcoma explored.
Background Redo mitral valve surgery is required in up to one‐third of patients and is associated with significant mortality and morbidity. Valve‐in‐valve transcatheter mitral valve replacement (ViV TMVR) is less invasive and could be considered in those at prohibitive surgical risk. Studies on comparative outcomes of ViV TMVR and redo surgical mitral valve replacement (SMVR) remain limited. Our study aimed to investigate the real‐world outcomes of the above procedures using the National Inpatient Sample database. Methods and Results We analyzed National Inpatient Sample data using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification ( ICD‐10‐CM ) from September 2015 to December 2018. A total of 495 and 2250 patients underwent redo ViV TMVR and SMVR, respectively. The patients who underwent ViV TMVR were older (77 versus 68 years, P <0.01). Adjusted mortality was higher in the redo SMVR group compared with the ViV TMVR group (7.6% versus <2.8%, P <0.01). Perioperative complications were higher among patients undergoing redo SMVR including blood transfusions (38% versus 7.6%, P <0.01) and acute kidney injury (36.7% versus 13.9%, P <0.01). Cost of care was higher (USD$57 172 versus USD$52 579, P <0.01), length of stay was longer (10 versus 3 days, P <0.01), and discharge to home was lower (20.3% versus 64.6%, P <0.01) in the SMVR group compared with the ViV TMVR group. Conclusions ViV TMVR is associated with lower mortality, periprocedural morbidity, and resource use compared with patients undergoing redo SMVR. ViV TMVR may be a viable option for some patients with mitral prosthesis dysfunction. Studies evaluating long‐term outcomes and durability of ViV TMVR are needed. A patient‐centered approach by the heart team, local institutional expertise, and careful preprocedure planning can help decision‐making about the choice of intervention for the individual patient.
Objectives: This study aims to compare the outcomes of patients admitted primarily for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) with and without a secondary diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: Data were abstracted from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) 2016 and 2017 Database. The NIS was searched for hospitalizations of adult patients with ACS as principal diagnoses, with and without RA as a secondary diagnosis. The primary outcome was inpatient mortality. Secondary outcomes were hospitalization characteristics and cardiovascular therapies. Multivariate logistic and linear regression analysis were used accordingly to adjust for confounders. Results: There were over 71 million discharges included in the combined 2016 and 2017 NIS database. Out of 1.3 million patients with ACS, 22,615 (1.7%) had RA. RA group was older (70.4 vs 66.8 years, P<0.001) as compared to the non-RA group, and had more females (63.7% vs 37.7%, P<0.0001). Patients with RA had a 16% reduced risk of in-hospital mortality: odds ratio (OR) 0.84, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.72-0.99), P=0.034; less odds of undergoing intraaortic balloon pump (IABP): OR 0.78, 95% CI (0.64-0.95), P=0.015; and 0.18 days shorter hospital length of stay (LOS): 95% CI (0.32-0.05), P=0.009. However, odds of undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention with drug-eluting stent (PCI DES) at OR 1.14, 95% CI (1.07-1.23), P<0.0001 was significantly higher in the RA group compared to ACS without RA. Conclusions: Patients admitted for ACS with co-existing RA had lower adjusted inpatient mortality, less odds of undergoing IABP, shorter adjusted LOS, and greater adjusted odds of undergoing PCI DES compared to those without RA.
ObjectiveThe study was designed to develop fibromyalgia assessment screening tool (FAST) indices based only on multidimensional health assessment questionnaire (MDHAQ) scores as clues to fibromyalgia (FM), analyzed for possible agreement with the 2011 FM criteria.MethodsAll patients with all diagnoses complete an MDHAQ at each visit in routine care. The MDHAQ includes scores for physical function, pain, global assessment, fatigue, self‐report painful joint count, and a 60‐symptom checklist. MDHAQ items similar or identical to the 2011 FM criteria symptom severity scale (SSS) and widespread pain index (WPI) components of a polysymptomatic distress scale (PSD) were compiled into continuous MDHAQ‐FM‐SSS, MDHAQ‐FM‐WPI, and MDHAQ‐FM‐PSD indices. Ten candidate MDHAQ scores were analyzed against the 2011 FM criteria using descriptive statistics, Spearman correlations, kappa statistics, and receiver operating characteristic curves for the area under the curve (AUC). MDHAQ candidate variables with the highest AUC were compiled into cumulative MDHAQ‐FAST indices of three (FAST3) or four (FAST4) scores.ResultsThe highest AUCs among MDHAQ scores were seen for symptom checklist, painful joint count, fatigue, and pain, which are included in FAST4; FAST3‐F excludes pain, and FAST3‐P excludes fatigue. AUCs for FAST3‐P, FAST3‐F, and FAST4, as well as continuous MDHAQ‐FM scores, all were greater than 0.92, indicating excellent criterion validity. Kappa statistics versus the 2011 criteria were 0.63‐0.68, higher than 0.41‐0.47 versus physician ICD‐10 diagnoses.ConclusionPragmatic FAST3, FAST4, and MDHAQ‐FM indices are similar to FM criteria to screen for FM in routine care. It is more feasible to collect the same MDHAQ, which is informative in all rheumatic diseases studied, from each patient than to ask different patients with different diagnoses to complete different questionnaires.
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