Faculty Bibliography

Patients with chronic congestive heart failure belong to a population with reduced quality of life, poor functional class, and increased risk of mortality and morbidity. In these patients, assessment of invasive hemodynamics both serves therapeutic purposes and is useful for stratification roles. The right heart catheterization has become a cornerstone diagnostic tool for patients in refractory heart failure or cardiogenic shock, as well as for the assessment of candidacy for heart replacement therapies, and the management of patients following mechanical circulatory assist device implantation and heart transplantation.

An association has been reported between factor VIII and arterial thrombosis such as ischemic stroke and myocardial infarction. We report a 36-year-old man who had a myocardial infarction despite lacking traditional cardiac risk factors. He developed end-stage heart failure and renal insufficiency necessitating a HeartMate II left ventricular assist device (LVAD). While on the transplant list, he experienced two episodes of LVAD thrombosis 6 months apart, prompting device exchange and escalation of anticoagulation therapy. He eventually underwent a successful heart-kidney transplant before suffering an extensive left lower extremity deep vein thrombosis 6 weeks later. A thrombophilia workup revealed elevated factor VIII activity of 319% (normal range, 50%-150%). He was placed on indefinite anticoagulation with apixaban with no further thrombotic episode in 18 months of follow-up to date.

Right heart failure is a major cause of morbidity and mortality following left ventricular assist device implantation. Over the past few decades, the definition proposed by the Interagency Registry of Mechanical Circulatory Support and Society of Thoracic Surgeons has continually evolved to better identify this complex pathology. We propose that the latest definition proposed by the Mechanical Circulatory Support Academic Research Consortium in 2020 will increase our recognition and understanding of this complex disease phenomenon.

BACKGROUD/BACKGROUND:Acute heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a common but poorly studied cause of hospital admissions among nonagenarians. This study aimed to evaluate predictors of thirty-day readmission, in-hospital mortality, length of stay, and hospital charges in nonagenarians hospitalized with acute HFpEF. METHODS:-value < 0.2 were included in the multivariate regression model. RESULTS:= 0.020) were amongst predictors of in-hospital mortality. CONCLUSIONS:In nonagenarians hospitalized with acute HFpEF, thirty-day readmission is common and costly. Chronic comorbidities predict poor outcomes. Further strategies need to be developed to improve the quality of care and prevent the poor outcome in nonagenarians.

The production and distribution of the HeartWare ventricular assist device has come to an abrupt end, but with this end comes the opportunity to reflect upon lessons learned from its lifespan. Running counter to the standard of evidence-based practice, the era of the HeartWare ventricular assist device was marred with fragmented data in relation to its primary counterpart, the HeartMate III. This created an incomplete understanding of devices, limited individualized patient care, and effectively positioned providers to make inferences regarding device superiority. We briefly review pertinent literature on this topic among the most commonly implanted durable devices from the era, detail the inherent limitations of this data, and argue the necessity of randomized clinical trials among novel devices towards the optimization of patient care.

Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), the prodrug of mycophenolic acid, is a highly effective immunosuppressive agent in heart transplant therapy. While the FDA approved dose is 1500 mg twice daily, dosing is often reduced due to dose-dependent adverse effects. However, empiric MMF dose reductions may lead to sub-therapeutic dosing and impair clinical outcomes. Our single center protocolized a risk-stratified approach based on age and weight to dose 500 mg twice daily or 1000 mg twice daily to patients after heart transplantation. This retrospective single-center study analyzed 140 consecutive heart transplant patients who were initiated on our risk-stratified MMF protocol post-transplant. The analysis revealed that the composite rate of biopsy-proven rejection, graft loss, or mortality at 1-year post-transplantation was similar between the two groups. Incidence of neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, infection, cardiac allograft vasculopathy, or acute kidney injury by 1-year also showed similar results between the two groups. Risk-stratification of MMF dosing appears to be a safe and effective strategy after heart transplantation.

OBJECTIVE:To determine whether the apparent excess incidence of pneumothorax and pneumomediastinum in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is explained adequately by iatrogenic causes vs reflecting sequelae of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. PATIENTS AND METHODS/METHODS:We retrospectively reviewed patients within our health care system from March 15, 2020, through May 31, 2020, who had a diagnosis of pneumothorax or pneumomediastinum during hospitalization for confirmed COVID-19 infection with attention to timing of pneumothorax and pneumomediastinum; presence, laterality, and placement, or attempts at central lines; and presence of mechanical ventilation before the event. RESULTS:We report clinical data and outcomes from 9 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 who developed pneumothorax and/or pneumomediastinum among more than 1200 hospitalized patients admitted within our hospital system early in the pandemic. Many events were inexplicable by iatrogenic needle injury, including 1 spontaneous case without central line access or mechanical ventilation. One occurred before central line placement, 2 in patients with only a peripherally inserted central line, and 1 contralateral to a classic central line. Three of these 9 patients died of complications of COVID-19 during their hospital stay. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:With COVID-19 affecting the peripheral lung pneumocytes, patients are vulnerable to develop pneumothorax or pneumomediastinum irrespective of their central line access site. We hypothesize that COVID-19 hyperinflammation, coupled with the viral tropism that includes avid involvement of peripheral lung pneumocytes, induces a predisposition to peripheral bronchoalveolar communication and consequent viral hyperinflammatory-triggered pneumothorax and pneumomediastinum.

BACKGROUND:Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) patients often have other comorbidities, including obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes, comprising the metabolic syndrome. The impacts of hemodynamic monitoring via CardioMEMS on these co-morbidities remain unknown. METHODS:-tests and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used, as appropriate, to test differences between time points. RESULTS:= 0.001). 62% of patients were diabetic with no significant improvements in HbA1C values at the 6-month follow-up. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:The utilization of CardioMEMS to optimize PADP results in an improvement in the comorbidities associated with the metabolic syndrome. Further studies are warranted to validate these findings and delineate clinical significance.