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Background: Patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are at increased risk of developing cardiac arrhythmias and have a high prevalence of cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) use. Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is a potential complication of device leads and can be severe enough to prompt surgical intervention. Methods: We identified 21 consecutive patients who underwent tricuspid valve (TV) surgery for device lead-induced TR late following septal myectomy (SM) for obstructive HCM. The primary endpoint was long-term all-cause mortality. Results: The median patient age was 63 years (range, 55-71 years), 19 patients (91%) had New York Heart Association class III or IV limitation, and all patients were receiving diuretics for right heart failure. The median interval between device implantation and TV surgery was 4 years (range, 1.5-8.5 years). Eight patients (38%) underwent pacemaker implantation due to complete heart block following SM. Preoperatively, TR was severe in 81% of the patients. The primary mechanism of lead-induced TR was leaflet impingement without adherence (n = 15; 75%). Nine patients (43%) underwent TV replacement, and 12 patients (57%) underwent repair. Only 1 patient died early postoperatively. Patients with lead-induced TR had markedly reduced long-term survival compared to the overall population of patients undergoing SM; 5-year survival was 58%, compared to 96% for the contemporary SM group. Conclusions: Late lead-induced TR is a potential complication of CIEDs in patients with HCM who have undergone SM. Although TV repair and replacement can be done with acceptable early mortality, late patient survival is poor.

Objective: To report the microbiological profile of the pathogens implicated in blood stream infections (BSI) in hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and to examine the risk factors associated with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) causing BSI. Patients and Methods: Between March 2020 and September 2021, 1647 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 at the American University of Beirut. From 85 patients, 299 positive blood cultures were reported to the Infection Control and Prevention Program. The BSI was defined as 1 positive blood culture for bacterial or fungal pathogens. The following organisms were considered MDROs: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus spp, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales spp., carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, MDR Acinetobacter baumannii only susceptible to colistin or tigecycline, and Candida auris. Results: We identified 99 true positive BSI events. Gram-negative bacteria accounted for 38.4 %, followed by Gram-positive bacteria (37.4%), and fungi (24.2%). The most isolated species were Candida spp. (23%), 3 of which were C. auris, followed by Enterobacterales spp. (13%), Enterococcus spp. (12%), S. aureus (9%), P. aeruginosa (9%), and A. baumannii (3%). The MDROs represented 26% of the events. The overall mortality rate was 78%. The time to acquisition of BSI in patients with MDROs was significantly longer compared with that of non-MDROs (20.2 days vs 11.2 days). And there was a significantly shorter time from acquisition of BSI to mortality between MDROs and non-MDROs (1.5 vs 8.3 days). Conclusion: Rigorous infection prevention and control measures and antimicrobial stewardship are important to prevent antimicrobial resistance progression, especially in low-resource settings.

Background: Despite multiple reports of increased incidence of bacterial respiratory tract infections following COVID-19 globally, the microbiology is not yet fully elucidated. In this study, we describe the microbiology of bacterial infections and the prevalence of multidrug resistant organisms (MDROs) in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), and hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) which includes both non-ventilated hospital acquired pneumonia (NVHAP) and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). To our knowledge, this is the first study that compares the microbiology of VAP and NVHAP in COVID-19 patients. Methods: This is a longitudinal retrospective cohort study conducted at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC), a tertiary-care centre in Lebanon. Adult patients with confirmed COVID-19 and concurrent bacterial respiratory infections with an identifiable causative organism who were hospitalized between March 2020 and September 2021 were included. Bacterial isolates identified in hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) were divided into 3 groups based on the time of acquisition of pneumonia after admission: hospital day 3–14, 15–28 and 29–42. Results: Out of 1674 patients admitted with COVID-19, 159 (9.5%) developed one or more respiratory infections with an identifiable causative organism. Overall, Gram-negative bacteria were predominant (84%) and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was the most common pathogen, particularly in HAP. Among 231 obtained isolates, 59 (26%) were MDROs, seen in higher proportion in HAP, especially among patients with prolonged hospital stay (> 4 weeks). Non-fermenter Gram-negative bacilli (NFGNB) (OR = 3.52, p-value