Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2019-12"
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Time of Admission to Intensive Care Unit, Strained Capacity, and Mortality: a Retrospective Cohort StudyPublication . Sousa Cardoso, F; Germano, N; Bento, L; Fortuna, PPurpose: We sought to study the association between afterhours ICU admission and ICU mortality considering measures of strained ICU capacity. Materials and methods: Retrospective analysis of 4141 admissions to 2 ICUs in Lisbon, Portugal (06/2016-06/2018). Primary exposure was ICU admission on 20:00 h-07:59 h. Primary outcome was ICU mortality. Measures of strained ICU capacity were: bed occupancy rate ≥ 90% and cluster of ICU admissions 2 h before or following index admission. Results: There were 1581 (38.2%) afterhours ICU admissions. Median APACHE II score (19 vs. 20) was similar between patients admitted afterhours and others (P = .27). Patients admitted afterhours had higher crude ICU mortality (15.4% vs. 21.9%; P < .001), but similar adjusted ICU mortality (aOR [95%CI] = 1.15 [0.97-1.38]; P = .12). While bed occupancy rate ≥ 90% was more frequent in patients admitted afterhours (23.1% vs. 29.1%) or deceased in ICU (23.6% vs. 33.7%), cluster of ICU admissions was more frequent in patients admitted during daytime hours (75.2% vs. 58.9%) or that survived the ICU stay (70.1% vs. 63.9%; P ≤ .001 for all). These measures of strained ICU capacity were not associated with adjusted ICU mortality (P ≥ .10 for both). Conclusions: Afterhours ICU admission and measures of strained ICU capacity were associated with crude but not adjusted ICU mortality.
- Genetic Modulators of Fetal Hemoglobin Expression and Ischemic Stroke Occurrence in African Descendant Children With Sickle Cell AnemiaPublication . Nicolau, M; Vargas, S; Silva, M; Coelho, A; Ferreira, E; Mendonça, J; Vieira, L; Kjöllerström, P; Maia, R; Silva, R; Dias, A; Ferreira, T; Morais, A; Soares, IM; Lavinha, J; Faustino, PSickle cell anemia (SCA) is an autosomal recessive monogenic disease with significant clinical variability. Cerebrovascular disease, particularly ischemic stroke, is one of the most severe complications of SCA in children. This study aimed to investigate the influence of genetic variants on the levels of fetal hemoglobin (Hb F) and biochemical parameters related with chronic hemolysis, as well as on ischemic stroke risk, in ninety-one unrelated SCA patients, children of sub-Saharan progenitors. Our results show that a higher Hb F level has an inverse relationship with the occurrence of stroke, since the group of patients who suffered stroke presents a significantly lower mean Hb F level (5.34 ± 4.57% versus 9.36 ± 6.48%; p = 0.024). Furthermore, the co-inheritance of alpha-thalassemia improves the chronic hemolytic pattern, evidenced by a decreased reticulocyte count (8.61 ± 3.58% versus 12.85 ± 4.71%; p < 0.001). In addition, our findings have confirmed the importance of HBG2 and BCL11A loci in the regulation of Hb F expression in sub-Saharan African SCA patients, as rs7482144_A, rs11886868_C, and rs4671393_A alleles are significantly associated with a considerable increase in Hb F levels (p = 0.019, p = 0.026, and p = 0.028, respectively). Concerning KLF1, twelve different variants were identified, two of them novel. Seventy-three patients (80.2%) presented at least one variant in this gene. However, no correlation was observed between the presence of these variants and Hb F level, severity of hemolysis, or stroke occurrence, which is consistent with their in silico-predicted minor functional consequences. Thus, we conclude that the prevalence of functional KLF1 variants in a sub-Saharan African background does not seem to be relevant to SCA clinical modulation.
- Prognostic Power of Anaerobic Threshold Parameters in Patients with Transposition of the Great Arteries and Systemic Right VentriclePublication . Valentim Gonçalves, A; Mano, T; Agapito, A; Aguiar Rosa, S; Sousa, L; Rio, P; Oliveira, JA; Monteiro, A; Pereira-da-Silva, T; Ilhão Moreira, R; Soares, R; Pinto, MF; Cruz Ferreira, RINTRODUCTION: Both transposition of the great arteries (TGA) previously submitted to a Senning/Mustard procedure and congenitally corrected TGA (cc-TGA) have the systemic circulation supported by the morphological right ventricle, thereby rendering these patients to heart failure events risk. The aim of this study was to evaluate cardiopulmonary exercise test parameters for stratifying the risk of heart failure events in TGA patients. METHODS: Retrospective evaluation of adult TGA patients with systemic circulation supported by the morphological right ventricle submitted to cardiopulmonary exercise test in a tertiary centre. Patients were followed up for at least 1 year for the primary endpoint of cardiac death or heart failure hospitalisation. Several cardiopulmonary exercise test parameters were analysed as potential predictors of the combined endpoint and their predictive power were compared (area under the curve). RESULTS: Cardiopulmonary exercise test was performed in 44 TGA patients (8 cc-TGA), with a mean age of 35.1 ± 8.4 years. The primary endpoint was reached by 10 (22.7%) patients, with a mean follow-up of 36.7 ± 26.8 months. Heart rate at anaerobic threshold had the highest area under the curve value (0.864), followed by peak oxygen consumption (pVO2) (0.838). Heart rate at anaerobic threshold ≤95 bpm and pVO2 ≤20 ml/kg/min had a sensitivity of 87.5 and 80.0% and a specificity of 82.4 and 76.5%, respectively, for the primary outcome. CONCLUSION: Heart rate at anaerobic threshold ≤95 bpm had the highest predictive power of all cardiopulmonary exercise test parameters analysed for heart failure events in TGA patients with systemic circulation supported by the morphological right ventricle.
- Ascertainment of Silent Myocardial Infarction in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (from the GLOBAL LEADERS Trial)Publication . Chang, CC; Spitzer, E; Chichareon, P; Takahashi, K; Modolo, R; Kogame, N; Tomaniak, M; Komiyama, H; Yap, SC; Hoole, SP; Gori, T; Zaman, A; Frey, B; Cruz Ferreira, R; Bertrand, OF; Koh, TH; Sousa, A; Moschovitis, A; van Geuns, RJ; Steg, PG; Hamm, C; Jüni, P; Vranckx, P; Valgimigli, M; Windecker, S; Serruys, PW; Soliman, O; Onuma, YQ-wave myocardial infarction (QWMI) comprises 2 entities. First, a clinically evident MI, which can occur spontaneously or be related to a coronary procedure. Second, silent MI which is incidentally detected on serial electrocardiographic (ECG) assessment. The prevalence of silent MI after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the drug-eluting stent era has not been fully investigated. The GLOBAL LEADERS is an all-comers multicenter trial which randomized 15,991 patients who underwent PCI to 2 antiplatelet treatment strategies. The primary end point was a composite of all-cause death or nonfatal new QWMI at 2-years follow-up. ECGs were collected at discharge, 3-month and 2-year visits, and analyzed by an independent ECG core laboratory following the Minnesota code. All new QWMI were further reviewed by a blinded independent cardiologist to identify a potential clinical correlate by reviewing clinical information. Of 15,968 participants, ECG information was complete in 14,829 (92.9%) at 2 years. A new QWMI was confirmed in 186 (1.16%) patients. Transient new Q-waves were observed in 28.5% (53 of 186) of them during the follow-up. The majority of new QWMI (78%, 146 of 186) were classified as silent MI due to the absence of a clinical correlate. Silent MI accounted for 22.1% (146 of 660) of all MI events. The prevalence of silent MI did not differ significantly between treatment strategies (experimental vs reference: 0.88% vs 0.98%, p = 0.5027). In conclusion, we document the prevalence of silent MI in an all-comers population undergoing PCI in this large-scale randomized trial.