Journal of the American Heart Association
-
Comparative Study
Effect of cardiogenic shock hospital volume on mortality in patients with cardiogenic shock.
Cardiogenic shock (CS) is associated with significant morbidity, and mortality rates approach 40% to 60%. Treatment for CS requires an aggressive, sophisticated, complex, goal-oriented, therapeutic regimen focused on early revascularization and adjunctive supportive therapies, suggesting that hospitals with greater CS volume may provide better care. The association between CS hospital volume and inpatient mortality for CS is unclear. ⋯ We demonstrated an association between lower CS case volume and higher mortality. There is more frequent use of both standard supportive and revascularization techniques at the higher volume centers. Future directions may include examining whether early stabilization and transfer improve outcomes of patients with CS who are admitted to lower volume centers.
-
Variability in the duration of attempted in‐hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is high, but the factors influencing termination of CPR efforts are unknown. ⋯ Age and sex were associated with attempted CPR duration in patients who do not experience ROSC after in‐hospital cardiac arrest but not in those who experience ROSC. Understanding the mechanism of these interactions may help explain variability in outcomes for in‐hospital cardiac arrest.
-
Comparative Study
Socioeconomic inequalities in quality of care and outcomes among patients with acute coronary syndrome in the modern era of drug eluting stents.
The rapidly changing landscape of percutaneous coronary intervention provides a unique model for examining disparities over time. Previous studies have not examined socioeconomic inequalities in the current era of drug eluting stents (DES). ⋯ For the most well accepted procedural treatments for ACS, income inequalities have faded. However, such inequalities have persisted for DES use, a relatively expensive and until recently, controversial revascularization procedure. Differences in mortality are significantly associated with differences in time to primary PCI, suggesting an important target for understanding why these inequalities persist.
-
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been reported to increase the concentration of nitric oxide (NO) in the brain and can lead to loss of cerebrovascular tone; however, the sources, amounts, and consequences of excess NO on the cerebral vasculature are unknown. Our objective was to elucidate the mechanism of decreased cerebral artery tone after TBI. ⋯ The mechanism of profound cerebral artery vasodilation after TBI is a gain of function in vascular NO production by 60‐fold over controls, resulting from upregulation of the inducible isoform of NO synthase in the endothelium.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Early discharge after primary percutaneous coronary intervention: the added value of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide to the Zwolle Risk Score.
The Zwolle Risk Score (ZRS) identifies ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) eligible for early discharge. We aimed to investigate whether baseline N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is also able to identify these patients and could improve future risk strategies. ⋯ Baseline NT-proBNP identifies a large group of low-risk patients who may be eligible for early (48- to 72-hour) discharge, whereas optimal predictive accuracy is reached by the combination of both baseline NT-proBNP and ZRS.