BackgroundAtrial fibrillation is associated with higher mortality. Identification of causes of death and contemporary risk factors for all‐cause mortality may guide interventions.Methods and ResultsIn the Rivaroxaban Once Daily Oral Direct Factor Xa Inhibition Compared with Vitamin K Antagonism for Prevention of Stroke and Embolism Trial in Atrial Fibrillation (ROCKET AF) study, patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation were randomized to rivaroxaban or dose‐adjusted warfarin. Cox proportional hazards regression with backward elimination identified factors at randomization that were independently associated with all‐cause mortality in the 14 171 participants in the intention‐to‐treat population. The median age was 73 years, and the mean CHADS 2 score was 3.5. Over 1.9 years of median follow‐up, 1214 (8.6%) patients died. Kaplan–Meier mortality rates were 4.2% at 1 year and 8.9% at 2 years. The majority of classified deaths (1081) were cardiovascular (72%), whereas only 6% were nonhemorrhagic stroke or systemic embolism. No significant difference in all‐cause mortality was observed between the rivaroxaban and warfarin arms (P=0.15). Heart failure (hazard ratio 1.51, 95% CI 1.33–1.70, P<0.0001) and age ≥75 years (hazard ratio 1.69, 95% CI 1.51–1.90, P<0.0001) were associated with higher all‐cause mortality. Multiple additional characteristics were independently associated with higher mortality, with decreasing creatinine clearance, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, male sex, peripheral vascular disease, and diabetes being among the most strongly associated (model C‐index 0.677).ConclusionsIn a large population of patients anticoagulated for nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, ≈7 in 10 deaths were cardiovascular, whereas <1 in 10 deaths were caused by nonhemorrhagic stroke or systemic embolism. Optimal prevention and treatment of heart failure, renal impairment, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes may improve survival.Clinical Trial Registration URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique identifier: NCT00403767.
The case of a patient who developed a femoral artery pseudoaneurysm (FAP) following cardiac catheterization is described. It is one of the most troublesome complications after various invasive cardiovascular procedures related to the femoral arterial access site. Iatrogenic pseudoaneurysms (IPA) form when an arterial puncture site fails to seal, allowing arterial blood to ooze into the surrounding tissues and form a pulsatile hematoma. The FAP occurs in 0.8% to 2.2% after interventional procedures. This problem has become more significant due to the exponential growth of interventional cardiology.Doppler flow mapping has been the mainstay of diagnosis. Diagnostic criteria include: swirling color flow in a mass separate from the affected artery, and a typical "to-and-fro" Doppler waveform in the pseudoaneurysm neck. Ultrasound-guided compression repair has replaced the need for surgical repair of FAP. It has been shown to be a safe and cost-effective method for achieving pseudoaneurysm thrombosis. However, it carries considerable drawbacks including long procedure times, discomfort to patients, high recurrence rate in patients receiving anticoagulant therapy and an overall 3.6% complication rate.Recently, percutaneous thrombin injection in the FAP has gained popularity despite complications associated with the initial use of high dose thrombin (average dose of 1,100 IU). The technique was refined when low-dose thrombin injections were studied and proved to have the same efficacy and consistently high success rates (average dose used 192 IU). However, there is a theoretical risk of developing type I IgE-mediated allergic reaction to bovine thrombin.The indications, advantages, disadvantages, and complications of the various treatment modalities are discussed in this report and review of the literature. Other treatments with collagen injection are also discussed in detail.
Background: There are good data to support using a single high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) below the limit of detection (LoD) of 5 ng/L to exclude acute myocardial infarction. Per the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA), hs-cTnT can only report to the limit of quantitation (LoQ) of 6 ng/L, a threshold for which there is limited data. Our goal was to determine whether a single hs-cTnT below the LoQ of 6 ng/L is a safe strategy to identify patients at low-risk for acute myocardial injury and infarction. Methods: The efficacy (proportion identified as low-risk based on baseline hs-cTnT<6 ng/L) of identifying low-risk patients was examined in a multicenter (n=22 sites) US cohort study of emergency department patients undergoing at least one hs-cTnT (CV Data Mart Biomarker cohort). We then determined the performance of a single hs-cTnT<6 ng/L (biomarker alone) to exclude acute myocardial injury (subsequent hs-cTnT >99 th percentile in those with an initial hs-cTnT<6 ng/L). The clinically intended rule-out strategy combining a nonischemic electrocardiogram with a baseline hs-cTnT<6 ng/L was subsequently tested in an adjudicated cohort in which the diagnostic performance for ruling-out acute myocardial infarction and safety (myocardial infarction or death at 30-days) were evaluated. Results: A total of 85,610 patients were evaluated in the CV Data Mart Biomarker cohort, amongst which 24,646 (29%) had a baseline hs-cTnT<6 ng/L. Women were more likely than men to have hs-cTnT<6 ng/L (38% vs. 20%, p<0.0001). Among 11,962 patients with baseline hs-cTnT<6 ng/L and serial measurements, only 1.2% developed acute myocardial injury, resulting in a negative predictive value of 98.8% (95% CI 98.6, 99.0) and sensitivity of 99.6% (95% CI 99.5, 99.6). In the adjudicated cohort, a nonischemic electrocardiogram with hs-cTnT<6 ng/L identified 33% of patients (610 of 1849) as low-risk and resulted in a negative predictive value and sensitivity of 100% and a 30-day rate of 0.2% for 30-day myocardial infarction or death. Conclusions: A single hs-cTnT below the LoQ of 6 ng/L is a safe and rapid method to identify a substantial number of patients at very low risk for acute myocardial injury and infarction.
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