Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND:The volume of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at ambulatory surgical centers (ASC) is expected to increase. METHODS:We surveyed US interventional cardiologists with a 58-question, anonymous online survey to evaluate their knowledge of and perspectives on ASC PCI. RESULTS:A total of 114 interventional cardiologists (9 fellows) responded. Participants were most commonly between 45 and 54 years old (33%). Most participants identified as male (95%), white (58%), non-Hispanic (95%), and with an academic affiliation (61%); 13 participants (11%) were PCI operators at an ASC. Most participants (59%) were in support of ASC PCI, 63% were very confident in their ability to decide if a patient is well-suited for ASC PCI, and 43% were not familiar with national and state-level laws/regulations of ASC PCI. Perceived benefits of ASC PCI included positive patient experience (69%), greater efficiency (79%), and lower costs for patients (50%) and institutions (53%). Participants reported a high level of concern about private equity involvement in ASC PCI (58%), occurrence of adverse events away from the hospital (47%), lower quality of care (39%), inappropriate patient selection (40%), inadequate regulatory standards (35%), and institutional pressures (47%). Supporters of ASC PCI reported a better self-assessed knowledge of it and perceived more benefits with fewer concerns. CONCLUSIONS:Most survey participants expressed support for ASC PCI, citing benefits such as improved patient experience, greater efficiency, and reduced costs. However, participants expressed concern for private equity involvement and the risk of adverse events occurring away from the hospital setting.

BACKGROUND:Increased vessel tortuosity may hinder the success of transradial procedures. Longer thin-walled, hydrophilic sheaths ≥ 75 cm can be placed into the ascending aorta and have the potential to avoid femoral access crossover. METHODS:We studied consecutive cases of patients undergoing left heart catheterization (LHC) where a 75 cm long thin-walled, hydrophilic sheath was used from 1/1/22 to 9/30/24. Patient and procedural characteristics were collected. Procedural data included indication, contrast load, radiation dose, procedural time, procedural complications, and the need to convert to femoral access. RESULTS:Our study sample included 71 patients (mean age 69, 45% male). Comorbidities included hypertension (82%), hyperlipidemia (76%), and congestive heart failure (30%). Previous coronary artery disease was present in 31% of patients, and 20% of patients had undergone previous percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Indications for LHC included symptoms of stable ischemic heart disease (21%), abnormal non-invasive ischemic testing (52%), acute coronary syndrome (18%), and pre-operative evaluation for surgery (8%). The reason to switch to the long thin-walled, hydrophilic sheath was inability to engage the coronaries due to subclavian/brachiocephalic artery tortuosity (86%) or radial artery spasm (14%). After switching to the long thin-walled, hydrophilic sheath, 62/71 (87%) cases successfully engaged the coronaries without converting to femoral access. The mean procedure time was 36 min for diagnostic LHC cases (n = 46) and 72 min for PCI cases (n = 25). No procedural complications occurred. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:This case series suggests that use of the long thin-walled, hydrophilic radial sheaths can avoid femoral access crossover in selected cases.

BACKGROUND:A contemporary, comprehensive risk score for the prediction of in-hospital fatal and nonfatal adverse events after percutaneous coronary intervention has been recently developed, albeit its external validation in patients with acute coronary syndrome is lacking. The objective of this study is to validate the Mayo Clinic integer risk score in a large cohort of patients with acute coronary syndrome undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention from the MATRIX (Minimizing Adverse Haemorrhagic Events by Transradial Access Site and Systemic Implementation of Angiox) trial. METHODS:The risk score is composed of a common set of 23 clinical and procedural variables (model A) and 18 preprocedural variables (model B). The primary objective was to appraise the receiver-operator characteristics of both models for in-hospital mortality, bleeding, contrast-associated acute kidney injury, and stroke. The impact of risk score categories on 1-year outcomes was also investigated. RESULTS:Among the 6724 patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention in the MATRIX trial, the receiver-operator characteristics-area under the curves for in-hospital mortality, bleeding, contrast-associated acute kidney injury, and stroke were 0.88 (95% CI, 0.85-0.91), 0.66 (95% CI, 0.63-0.69), 0.70 (95% CI, 0.67-0.72), and 0.65 (95% CI, 0.52-0.78) for model A and 0.88 (95% CI, 0.84-0.92), 0.63 (95% CI, 0.60-0.66), 0.66 (95% CI, 0.63-0.69), and 0.65 (95% CI, 0.52-0.78) for model B, respectively. Mortality (model A), bleeding, and stroke risks were well calibrated, whereas mortality (model B) and contrast-associated acute kidney injury risk were underestimated. There was a gradual risk increase for 1-year mortality and bleeding as a function of the risk score tertile using both models. CONCLUSIONS:The risk score identifies patients with acute coronary syndrome at incremental risk of in-hospital mortality, bleeding, contrast-associated acute kidney injury, and stroke, representing a valuable tool for mitigation of modifiable risk factors. REGISTRATION/BACKGROUND:URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique Identifier: NCT01433627.

The reduction in bleeding and vascular complications in radial access compared with femoral access has been repeatedly demonstrated over the past decade of observational and randomized studies. This review summarizes the data and underscores the role of radial approach in reducing bleeding, vascular complications, and mortality in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. In addition, the review notes the potential for increased time to reperfusion and provides guidance on implementation of transradial primary percutaneous coronary interventions.

IMPORTANCE/UNASSIGNED:Previous data suggest that the time changes associated with daylight savings time (DST) may be associated with an increased incidence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). OBJECTIVE/UNASSIGNED:To determine whether the incidence of patients presenting with AMI is greater during the weeks during or after DST and compare the in-hospital clinical events between the week before DST and after DST. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS/UNASSIGNED:This cross-sectional study examined patients enrolled in the Chest Pain MI Registry from 2013 to 2022. The study included patients who presented 1 week before DST, during the week of DST, or 1 week after DST (spring or fall) and assessed incidence of AMI, in-hospital mortality, stroke, and clinical outcomes during those times and compared the DST weeks with the week before or after. Data were analyzed from March 2024 to May 2025. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURE/UNASSIGNED:The main outcome was in-hospital mortality rate. The incidence ratio (IR) of AMI cases was calculated using the observed number of patients with AMI in the DST week divided by the number of patients with AMI who arrived 1 week before or after DST. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:The final cohort included 168 870 patients (median [IQR] age, 65 [56-75] years, 57 023 females [33.8%]; 111 847 males [66.2%]) at 1124 hospitals during the study period. There were 28 678 patients (17.0%) with AMI treated during spring DST, 28 596 (16.9%) the week before, and 28 169 (16.7%) the week after. There were 27 942 patients (16.5%) with AMI treated during fall DST, 27 365 (16.2%) the week before, and 28 120 (16.7%) the week after. Patient characteristics were similar for the spring and fall DST analyses (spring and fall DST median [IQR] age across groups: 65 [56-74] years and 65 [56-75] years, respectively), and there were 28 725 females (33.6%) in the spring and 28 298 females (33.9%) in the fall. There was no significant difference in the incidence of AMI for the following time periods: spring DST week vs 1 week prior, spring DST week vs 1 week after, fall DST week vs 1 week prior, and fall DST week vs 1 week after. There were no significant differences in adjusted in-hospital outcomes for the 1 week before or after fall or spring DST. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE/UNASSIGNED:This study found no significant difference in the incidence rates of AMI in DST weeks compared with the week before or after. Additionally, there were no differences in in-hospital clinical outcomes.

BACKGROUND/UNASSIGNED:Studies suggest percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) guided by intracoronary imaging (ICI) results in larger balloon/stent diameters and longer stents. Whether this occurs in real-world PCI is poorly understood. METHODS/UNASSIGNED:De novo PCIs performed at 48 nonfederal Michigan hospitals between July 2019 and June 2022 were evaluated with regression modeling to evaluate associations between ICI-guided PCI and balloon/stent dimensions. The association between ICI-guided PCI and coronary dissection/perforation was assessed using adjusted odds ratios. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:=0.33 for trend, respectively). CONCLUSIONS/UNASSIGNED:In real-world practice, ICI-guided PCI was associated with larger stent/balloon diameters and longer stents. While ICI use was associated with dissections and perforations, there was no significant increase in the rate of these complications despite significant increases in ICI use and stent/balloon sizes during the study period. Further research is needed to evaluate the association between ICI use and procedural complications.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS/OBJECTIVE:Radial access site for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is recommended by clinical practice guidelines because of superior outcomes compared with femoral access site. Historically, the adoption of radial access site in the USA has lagged behind much of the rest of the world, but contemporary data on access site selection across the spectrum of clinical presentations and its association with outcomes are lacking. METHODS:A retrospective cohort study from the National Cardiovascular Data Registry's CathPCI Registry was conducted including PCIs performed between 1 January 2013 and 30 June 2022. The comparative safety of radial vs femoral access site for PCI was evaluated with instrumental variable analysis, a technique that can be used to support causal inference, exploiting operator variation in access site preferences as the instrumental variable. RESULTS:Overall, 6 658 479 PCI procedures were performed during the study period, of which 40.4% (n = 2 690 355) were performed via radial access site, increasing from 20.3% in 2013 to 57.5% in 2022. This increase was seen in all geographic regions and across the full spectrum of presentations, with the largest relative increase seen in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Overall, 2 420 805 PCIs met inclusion criteria for the comparative safety analysis. In instrumental variable analyses, radial access site was associated with lower in-hospital mortality [absolute risk difference (ARD) -.15%, 95% confidence interval (CI) -.20 to -.10], major access site bleeding (ARD -.64%, 95% CI -.68 to -.60), and other major vascular complications (ARD -.21%, 95% CI -.23 to -.18) but a higher risk of ischaemic stroke (ARD .05%, 95% CI .03-.08). There was no association with the falsification endpoint of gastrointestinal or genitourinary bleeding (ARD .00%, 95% CI -.03-.03). CONCLUSIONS:Over the past decade, use of radial access site for PCI has increased 2.8-fold in the USA and now represents the dominant form of access site across all procedural indications. Based on instrumental variable analyses, PCI with radial access site had lower rates of in-hospital mortality, major access site bleeding, and other major vascular complications compared with femoral access site but a slightly higher risk of ischaemic stroke in contemporary practice.

IMPORTANCE/UNASSIGNED:Both myocardial infarction (MI) and anemia have deleterious effects on health-related quality of life (QOL). Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion may improve QOL after MI by relieving symptoms and/or increasing functional capacity. OBJECTIVE/UNASSIGNED:To evaluate whether a liberal transfusion strategy compared with a more restrictive transfusion strategy affects QOL in patients with MI and anemia. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS/UNASSIGNED:This analysis of QOL as a prespecified secondary outcome of the Myocardial Ischemia and Transfusion (MINT) trial, a randomized clinical trial comparing a liberal vs restrictive RBC transfusion strategy, included participants from 144 sites across 6 countries. Hospitalized adults with acute MI and anemia (hemoglobin [Hb] less than 10 g/dL). The MINT trial randomized 3504 patients, and this analysis included those who had QOL data collected and those who died before the 30-day follow-up period. Data were collected from April 2017 to April 2023, and data were analyzed from February 2024 to January 2025. INTERVENTIONS/UNASSIGNED:The MINT trial randomized patients to a restrictive (Hb of 7 to 8 g/dL) or a liberal (Hb of less than 10 g/dL) RBC transfusion strategy. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES/UNASSIGNED:QOL was measured using the EQ-5D-5L 30 days after randomization. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:Of 2844 included patients, 1551 (54.5%) were male, and the mean (SD) age was 71.9 (11.5) years. A total of 2525 (88.8%; 1254 [49.7%] in the restrictive group and 1271 [50.3%] in the liberal group) had QOL data, and 319 (11.2%) died before 30-day follow-up. Overall, there were no differences in mean or median scores for any EQ-5D-5L QOL outcome between assigned transfusion strategies at 30 days postrandomization. Although a higher percentage of patients in the liberal compared with the restrictive transfusion group reported no problems compared with any problem in usual activities (506 of 1268 [39.9%] vs 473 of 1247 [37.9%]), mobility (474 of 1270 [37.3%] vs 460 of 1254 [36.7%]), and self-care (858 of 1271 [67.5%] vs 803 of 1254 [64.0%]) domains, none of these differences were statistically significant. Adjusted mixed-effects linear regressions showed no association between assigned transfusion strategy and mean differences in any QOL outcome. Adjusted regressions in several prespecified subgroups showed an association between a liberal transfusion strategy and better QOL scores in domains related to functional capacity, but the effects were only statistically significant in patients with a history of heart failure (Health Today rating: β, 2.06 [95% CI, -0.23 to 4.35] vs -1.44 [95% CI, -3.81 to 0.92]; P = .04). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE/UNASSIGNED:This secondary analysis of the MINT trial found that in patients with MI and anemia, a liberal transfusion strategy compared with a restrictive transfusion strategy did not affect QOL outcomes 30 days after randomization. This suggests that higher Hb levels maintained with RBC transfusion may not offer significant benefits to QOL overall in patients with MI and anemia. Additional studies may be useful for further examining and validating transfusion's effect on QOL in patients with MI and heart failure. TRIAL REGISTRATION/UNASSIGNED:ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02981407.