BackgroundTo the best of our knowledge, there is no nationwide data available on the development of minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICS) in China. The purpose of this study was to report the results of MICS in 6 experienced centers in China.Material/MethodsFrom September 2014 to July 2016, 1241 patients with cardiac conditions who underwent MICS procedures were randomly enrolled in 6 centers in China, and those patients were randomly selected for inclusion in this study. The MICS procedures were defined as any cardiac surgery performed through a less invasive incision, rather than a complete median sternotomy, mainly including mini-incision surgery (400, 32.2%), video-assisted approach (265, 21.3%), completely thoracoscopic approach without robotic assistance (504, 40.6%), and robotic procedure (55, 4.4%).ResultsThe 5 most common in-hospital complications were respiratory failure (28, 2.3%), reoperation for all reasons (19, 1.5%), renal failure (11, 0.9%), heart failure (9, 0.7%), and stroke (6, 0.5%). The multivariate logistic regression analysis results showed that cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) time (P=0.033), aortic cross-clamp time (P=0.003), cannulation approach (P=0.010), and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (P=0.003) at baseline were all significant risk factors of any in-hospital complication of MICS procedures.ConclusionsFrom our experience, minimally invasive cardiac approaches are safe and reproducible, with acceptable CPB and aortic cross-clamp time duration and low mortality.

Background Aortic arch surgery and obesity are both related to the risk of acute kidney injury. Our hypothesis was that the risk of postoperative acute kidney injury increases as body mass index increases in patients undergoing urgent aortic total arch replacement surgery for acute DeBakey Type I aortic dissection. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study in Beijing Anzhen Hospital from December 2015 to April 2017. All patients receiving urgent aortic total arch replacement surgery with a frozen elephant trunk implant for acute DeBakey Type I aortic dissection were included. Body mass index was calculated based on height and weight. Acute kidney injury was diagnosed based on the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes standards. Results We included 115 consecutive patients in this study. A total of 53.0% (n = 61) of patients had acute kidney injury. The mean age was 47.8 ± 10.7 years, and 25.2% were women. Mean body mass index was 26.2 ± 3.9 kg/m2. The results of a univariate analysis showed that BMI, eGFR, CPB time, operative time, intraoperative blood loss, intraoperative amount of PRBCs, and respiratory failure were significantly correlated with AKI. In-hospital mortality was obviously increased in the acute kidney injury group (13.1% vs 1.9%; P = 0.025). Multivariate logistic regression showed that body mass index was associated with postoperative acute kidney injury after adjusting for other confounding factors (odds ratio = 1.16; 95% confidence interval: 1.02–1.33; P = 0.0288). The risk of postoperative AKI in the BMI ≥ 24 kg/m2 group was increased by 2.35 times (OR = 3.35, 95% CI: 1.15–9.74; p = 0.0263). Conclusions Body mass index was an independent predictor of acute kidney injury after urgent aortic total arch replacement surgery with a frozen elephant trunk implant.

Background and Aims: Patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) are among the most challenging patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG). Several surgical risk scores are commonly used to predict the risk in patients undergoing CABG. However, these risk scores do not specifically target HFrEF patients. We aim to develop and validate a new nomogram score to predict the risk of in-hospital mortality among HFrEF patients after CABG.Methods: The study retrospectively enrolled 489 patients who had HFrEF and underwent CABG. The outcome was postoperative in-hospital death. About 70% (n = 342) of the patients were randomly constituted a training cohort and the rest (n = 147) made a validation cohort. A multivariable logistic regression model was derived from the training cohort and presented as a nomogram to predict postoperative mortality in patients with HFrEF. The model performance was assessed in terms of discrimination and calibration. Besides, we compared the model with EuroSCORE-2 in terms of discrimination and calibration.Results: Postoperative death occurred in 26 (7.6%) out of 342 patients in the training cohort, and in 10 (6.8%) out of 147 patients in the validation cohort. Eight preoperative factors were associated with postoperative death, including age, critical state, recent myocardial infarction, stroke, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤35%, LV dilatation, increased serum creatinine, and combined surgery. The nomogram achieved good discrimination with C-indexes of 0.889 (95%CI, 0.839–0.938) and 0.899 (95%CI, 0.835–0.963) in predicting the risk of mortality after CABG in the training and validation cohorts, respectively, and showed well-fitted calibration curves in the patients whose predicted mortality probabilities were below 40%. Compared with EuroSCORE-2, the nomogram had significantly higher C-indexes in the training cohort (0.889 vs. 0.762, p = 0.005) as well as the validation cohort (0.899 vs. 0.816, p = 0.039). Besides, the nomogram had better calibration and reclassification than EuroSCORE-2 both in the training and validation cohort. The EuroSCORE-2 underestimated postoperative mortality risk, especially in high-risk patients.Conclusions: The nomogram provides an optimal preoperative estimation of mortality risk after CABG in patients with HFrEF and has the potential to facilitate identifying HFrEF patients at high risk of in-hospital mortality.

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Background and Aims: Epicardial adipose tissue, exosomes, and miRNAs have important activities in atherosclerosis. The purpose of this study was to establish miRNA expression profiles of epicardial adipose tissue-derived exosomes in patients with coronary atherosclerosis. Methods: Biopsies of epicardial adipose tissue were obtained from patients with and without coronary artery disease (CAD, n = 12 and NCAD, n = 12) during elective open-heart surgeries. Tissue was incubated with DMEM-F12 for 24 hours. Exosomes were isolated, then nanoparticle tracking analysis, transmission electron microscopy, and immunoblotting were performed to confirm the existence of exosomes. Total RNA in exosomes was subjected to high-throughput sequencing to identify differentially expressed miRNAs. MicroRNA target gene prediction was performed, and target genes were analyzed by Gene Ontology (GO), the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and mirPath to identify function. Reverse transcription quantitative PCR was performed to confirm the differentially expressed miRNAs. Results: Fifty-three unique miRNAs were identified (adjusted p < 0.05, fold of change >2), among which 32 miRNAs were upregulated and 21 miRNAs were downregulated in coronary artery disease patients. Reverse transcription quantitative PCR validated the results for seven miRNAs including miR-141-3p, miR-183-5p, miR-200a-5p, miR-205-5p, miR-429, miR-382-5p and miR-485-3p, with the last two downregulated. GO and KEGG analysis by mirPath indicated that these differentially expressed miRNAs were enriched in cell survival, apoptosis, proliferation, and differentiation. Conclusions: Coronary artery disease patients showed differential epicardial adipose tissue exosomal miRNA expression compared with patients without coronary artery disease. The results provide clues for further studies of mechanisms of atherosclerosis.

Departmental sources Background:Surgical treatment methods for patients with complex coronary artery disease (CAD) who have undergone vascular reconstruction mainly include coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The purpose of the study aimed to compare a 1-year follow-up for the patient clinical outcomes and costs between PCI and CABG treatment. Material/Methods: There were 840 patients enrolled in this study from July 2015 to September 2016. Among the study participants, 420 patients underwent PCI treatment and 420 patients underwent off-pump CABG. Patients costs were assessed from the perspective of the China healthcare and medical insurance system. EuroQOL 5-dimension 3 levels (EQ-5D-3L) questionnaire was used to evaluate the general health status, and the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) was used to assess the disease-specific health status. Results:After a 1-year follow-up, the all-cause mortality (P=0.0337), the incidence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (P<0.001), and additional revascularization (P<0.001) in PCI group were significantly higher than those in CABG group. Both groups have significant sustained benefits in the SAQ subscale. The CABG group had a higher score on the frequency of angina than the PCI group. In addition, the quality-adjusted life year value of PCI and CABG resulted was 0.8. The average total cost for PCI was $14 643 versus CABG cost of $13 842 (P=0.0492). Conclusions:In the short-term, among the CAD patients with stable triple-vessel or left-main, costs and clinical outcomes are substantially higher for CABG than PCI. Long-term, economic, and health benefits analysis, is warranted.

Background and Aim of the Study: Many studies support that the no-touch (NT) procedure can improve the patency rate of vein grafts. However, it is not clear that the sequential vein graft early expansion in the NT technique during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). This study will explore this issue.Methods: This was a prospective single-center randomized controlled clinical trial. A total of 100 patients undergoing off-pump CABG with the sequential saphenous graft were randomly assigned to two groups: the NT and conventional (CON) groups. Perioperative and postoperative data were collected during the hospital stay. The mean diameter of sequential grafts was measured using cardiac computed tomography angiography 3 months after the operation.Results: There was a significant difference in the average diameter of sequential grafts between the two groups (NT: [2.98 ± 0.42], CON: [3.26 ± 0.51], p = .005). There was no difference in occlusion of sequential venous grafts between the two groups (NT: 4/48 [8.3%], CON: 5/49 [10.2%], p = 1.000). There were differences in surgery time between the two groups (NT: 220 [188,240], CON: 190 [175,230], p = .009). Conclusions:The sequential graft early expansion in the NT technique is not as pronounced as that in the conventional technique, which may have a long-term protective effect on the grafts.cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA), conventional saphenous vein graft harvesting, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), no-touch saphenous vein graft harvesting, off-pump CABG, sequential saphenous vein graftingThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Objectives To summarise the surgical outcomes in patients with cardiogenic shock supported by preoperative extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Methods Between May 2012 and August 2017, eight patients with cardiogenic shock, who were supported by ECMO, underwent emergency surgery; four of them had isolated coronary artery bypass grafting, three had coronary artery bypass grafting with mitral replacement, and one had mitral valve replacement with left ventricular posterior wall repair. Results All eight patients were successfully weaned off from ECMO after their surgeries. Postoperative ECMO time ranged from 6.8 to 228.0 h, with a median of 68.4 h. Two patients died postoperatively while another six survived. The follow up time for the six patients ranged from three to 66 months, whereby one of them died in the third month due to septicaemia. The remaining five patients survived with good cardiac function based on the NYHA classification. Conclusion ECMO is a vital bridge in the preparation of critically-ill patients for cardiac surgery. It is associated with acceptable outcomes among most of the patients.