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Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) harbors the risk of periprocedural complications that require emergent cardiac surgery, or "surgical bailout." Surgical bailout intends to be lifesaving but is associated with high mortality. This has given rise to discussion on the necessity of surgical backup during TAVR. Therefore, recent studies in contemporary TAVR patients are warranted. This study aimed to assess the incidence, trends, and clinical outcomes of surgical bailout in patients undergoing transfemoral TAVR. The CENTER2 (Cerebrovascular Events in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation With Balloon-Expandable Valves Versus Self-Expandable Valves 2) study contains patient-level data from 10 clinical studies with patients undergoing TAVR between 2007 and 2022. A total of 24,010 patients undergoing transfemoral TAVR were included. The mean age was 81.5 ± 6.7 years, and 56% were female. The median Society of Thoracic Surgeons Predicted Risk of Mortality declined over time (2007-2014: 7.1% [Q1-Q3: 4.3%-14.8%] vs 2015-2022: 3.9% [Q1-Q3: 2.6%-6.0%]; P < 0.001). Surgical bailout was reported in 125 (0.52%) patients, and its incidence decreased over time, from 0.84% in 2007 to 2010 to 0.25% in 2019 to 2022 (P trend < 0.001). Surgical bailout was more frequently observed in women compared with men (0.61% vs 0.41%; P = 0.03). Ventricular perforation was the most prevalent reason for surgical bailout (28.0%). Patients who underwent surgical bailout reported higher mortality rates during the 1-year follow-up compared with patients without surgical bailout (68.3% vs 15.3%; HR: 8.60; 95% CI: 6.74-10.97; P < 0.001). Interestingly, patients surviving the first 90 days reported a similar mortality risk (HR: 2.19; 95% CI: 0.91-5.27; P = 0.08). The incidence of surgical bailout is very low in the contemporary TAVR population. Mortality rates remain high among patients requiring surgical bailout during transfemoral TAVR, but this risk diminishes in patients surviving the postprocedural period. (Cerebrovascular Events in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation With Balloon-Expandable Valves Versus Self-Expandable Valves 2 [CENTER2]; NCT03588247) [Display omitted] [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bleeding is one of the most frequent complications in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Importantly, major bleeding is associated with poor clinical outcomes after TAVR. However, large studies on bleeding complications in the contemporary TAVR population are limited. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence, temporal trends, clinical outcomes, and predictors of bleeding in patients undergoing transfemoral TAVR. The CENTER2 study is a pooled patient-level database from 10 clinical studies including patients who underwent TAVR between 2007 and 2022. A total of 23,562 patients underwent transfemoral TAVR. The mean age was 81.5 ± 6.7 years, and 56% were women. Major bleeding within the first 30 days was observed in 1,545 patients (6.6%). Minor bleeding was reported in 1,143 patients (4.7%). Rates of major bleeding decreased from 11.5% in 2007-2010 to 5.5% in 2019-2022 (P trend < 0.001). Dual antiplatelet therapy was associated with higher major bleeding rates compared with single antiplatelet therapy (12.2% vs 9.1%; OR: 1.40; 95% CI: 1.13-1.72; P = 0.002). Patients with major bleeding had increased mortality risk during the first 30 days (14.1% vs 4.3%; OR: 3.66; 95% CI: 3.11-4.31; P < 0.001) and during 1-year follow-up (27.8% vs 14.5%; HR: 1.50; 95% CI: 1.41-1.59; P < 0.001). Minor bleeding did not affect 1-year mortality risk (16.7% vs 14.5%; HR: 1.11; 95% CI: 0.93-1.32; P = 0.27). Predictors of major bleeding were female sex and peripheral vascular disease. Bleeding complications remain frequent and important in patients undergoing transfemoral TAVR. Increased mortality risk in major bleeding persists after the initial 30 days. (Cerebrovascular Events in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation With Balloon-Expandable Valves Versus Self-Expandable Valves [CENTER]; NCT03588247) [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors aimed to investigate life expectancy after adult cardiac surgery. Nationwide study including University and non-University hospitals. Consecutive adult patients who underwent heart valve and coronary artery surgery from a nationwide administrative registry. Surgical procedures on the heart valves and coronary arteries. The authors estimated the 10-year relative survival of adult patients who underwent surgery for heart valve diseases and coronary artery disease taken from a nationwide administrative registry. Overall, data on 415,472 patients were available for this study. Among them, 394,445 (94.9%) survived 90 days after surgery, and their 10-year survival was 58.0% (95% CI 57.8-58.3); the expected survival was 70.1%, and the relative survival was 0.83 (95% CI 0.82-0.83). Patients who underwent surgical repair of the mitral valve and aortic valve had relative survival of 0.96 and 0.92, respectively. Isolated coronary artery bypass grafting had a relative survival of 0.88. Surgical replacement of the heart valves had a relative survival below 0.80. Poor results with relative survival <0.70 were observed after complex cardiac surgery. Relative survival was <0.60 in patients who underwent double- or triple-valve surgery combined with coronary artery surgery. The authors observed markedly lower relative survival among women (0.77, 95% CI 0.77-0.78) compared with men (0.86, 95% CI 0.85-0.86) at 10 years. Such a difference was observed after almost all different procedures. The present findings provided a picture of the real expectation in terms of the late survival of patients after having undergone adult cardiac surgery. This information should be communicated to patients and their relatives before surgery, and it may be relevant in the decision-making process and in planning tertiary prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: SARS-CoV-2 causes acute respiratory disease, interstitial and alveolar pneumonia, and involves numerous organs and systems such as the kidney, heart, digestive tract, blood, and nervous system. We aimed to evaluate the incidence of renal manifestations in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a monocentric, cross-sectional, observational study, conducted on 114 patients with SARSCoV-2. Clinical and laboratory parameters [renal function, serum electrolytes, inflammatory state, blood gas analysis, Interleukin 6 (IL-6) and urinalysis] were evaluated. The same values were checked out after two months (T1), however after negativization. RESULTS: We enrolled 114 patients (59 males) with a mean age of 63.8 ± 13.9 years. We found hematuria in 48 patients (55.8%), proteinuria in 33 patients (38.4%), leukocyturia in 61 patients (70.9%), acute kidney injury (AKI) in 28 patients (24.6%), AKI in chronic kidney disease (CKD) in 24 patients (21.1%). Moreover, we found a significant increase of inflammatory indexes as C Reactive Protein (CRP), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), alpha 1 and alpha 2 globulins with a subsequent reduction at T1 (p = 0.016, p < 0.001, p = 0.005, p = 0.007; respectively). Hemoglobin and erythrocyte values significantly decreased (p < 0.001, p = 0.003, respectively), and we found lymphopenia (p < 0.001). Also, we found elevated levels of the D-Dimer (p < 0.001) and a significant increase in the International Normalized Ratio (INR) (p = 0.038). We also showed a significant improvement after negativization in oxygen partial pressure (p = 0.001) and oxygen saturation (p < 0.001) and a significant increase in pH (p = 0.018) and bicarbonate concentration (p = 0.042). Moreover, we found a significant increase in IL-6 (p = 0.004). Also, we reported mild hyponatremia and hypokalemia with subsequent significant recovery (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, respectively) and mild hypochloremia with a recovery to the limits of statistical significance (p = 0.053). At the entrance, we found an increase in serum glucose with a significant reduction during recovery (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of AKI and/or CKD and/or abnormal urinalysis in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 on admission seems to be high and appears as a negative prognostic factor. Urinalysis appears to be very useful in unveiling the potential kidney impairment of COVID-19 patients; therefore, urinalysis could be used to reflect and predict the disease severity. We also recommend a careful evaluation of metabolic alterations, inflammatory states, and electrolytic disorders in COVID-19 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This observational cohort study was designed by the PRIORITY (PRedictIng long-term Outcomes afteR Isolated coronary arTery bypass surgery) steering committee to evaluate the 10-year follow-up outcome of bilateral internal thoracic arteries (BITA) versus single internal thoracic artery. The PRIORITY project was designed to evaluate long-term outcome of 2 large prospective multicenter cohort studies of coronary artery bypass grafting. Clinical data on isolated coronary artery bypass grafting were merged with administrative data to collect follow-up information. The primary endpoint was the composite outcome of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events at 10-year follow-up. Secondary endpoints were individual components of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events at 10 years and surgical site complications or infections. A propensity score–based inverse probability treatment weighting (IPTW) was used to overcome the selection bias related to the observational nature of the study. The study population consisted of 10,988 patients who underwent isolated coronary artery bypass grafting. BITA was used in 23.5%. The use of BITA is related to lower incidence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events at 10 years (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.88, 95% CI 0.79-0.98, P <.001). BITA correlated with better 10-year survival (IPTW adjusted HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.78-1.00, P =.05), re-revascularization (IPTW adjusted HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.74-0.92, P <.001), and myocardial infarction (IPTW adjusted HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.77-0.95, P =.005) but to increased incidence of surgical site complications or infections (HR 2.12, 95% CI 1.39-3.24, P <.001). In propensity-matched patients, use of BITA was associated with improved 10-year survival, freedom from repeat revascularization, and myocardial infarction but also higher incidence of surgical site complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epidemiology of liver cirrhosis is evolving and the etiology, complications, and comorbidities of cirrhosis are continuously changing, presenting new challenges. We reported data from an observational, monocentric study including 1,617 patients with liver cirrhosis admitted to our liver unit from January 2014 to December 2023. The mean age of patients was 66.8 years, with a male predominance except for autoimmune etiology. During the observation period, the number of hospitalized patients with active HCV infection decreased from 47.9% in 2014 to 9.2% in 2023, while patients with HCV cirrhosis in sustained virologic response (SVR) increased from 15.6% in 2014 to 26.2% in 2023. Hospitalizations for HBV-related cirrhosis remained stable (5.5% in 2014 and 8.5% in 2023. Patients for alcohol-related cirrhosis increased from 16.6% in 2014 to 23.9% 2023 and patients with metabolic cirrhosis increased from 10.6% in 2014 to 36.8% in 2023. The rate of patients with autoimmune cirrhosis (3.0% in 2014 and 4.2% in 2023) and cryptogenic cirrhosis (6.0% in 2014 to 7.9% in 2023) remained stable over the years. Patients with alcohol-related cirrhosis (mean age 59.5 years), HBV cirrhosis (62.1 years) and autoimmune etiologies (62.2 years) were younger than patients with HCV cirrhosis (69.3 years), metabolic cirrhosis (68.3 years) and cryptogenic cirrhosis (67.6 years). The most frequent complication for hospitalization was HCC in active (47.8%) and SVR (58.2%) HCV cirrhosis, and in HBV cirrhosis (47.3%), with the ascites was more frequent in alcohol-related (45.8%) and metabolic (34.1%) cirrhosis Patients with metabolic cirrhosis had the most extrahepatic comorbidities (66.3% diabetic, 18.0% chronic kidney disease, and 20.7% heart disease). Liver cirrhosis epidemiology is changing, with decreasing HCV infections but increasing alcohol-related and metabolic cases. Complications and comorbidities require tailored management strategies. Effective public health interventions and adaptive healthcare approaches are crucial to address these evolving challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and ocular disease share several cardiovascular risk factors as well as pathogenetic mechanisms having Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System (RAAS) as main actor. Moreover, kidney and eyes have common genetic and embryonic origin. In this literature review, we present main evidence supporting this association for early identifying diseases affecting both systems and evaluating potential multi-target therapeutic strategies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a literature review of the current peer-reviewed English-language randomized controlled studies (RCTs), reference lists of nephrology or ophthalmology textbooks, review articles and relevant studies with ocular or eye and kidney or renal diseases as keywords until March 2020. Prospective and retrospective studies as well as meta-analyses and latest systematic reviews were included. RESULTS: We evaluated a total of 683 records, finally selecting 119 articles related to ocular and renal diseases. Records were divided into two areas: chronic and acute kidney disease and ocular or eye diseases. Some of the examined studies were discarded for population biases/intervention or deemed unfit. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, we conclude that there is evidence of a clear association between kidney and eye diseases, being this cross-link mainly based on RAAS dysregulation. Our review suggests that it may be useful to screen CKD patients for associated ocular diseases, such as cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. A comprehensive study of CKD and proteinuric patients should include careful eye examination. Renal impairment in young patients should prompt a search for ocular disease, such as TUNA syndrome or oculo-renal syndrome, in particular if family history of concurrent ocular and renal disease is present. Anti-RAAS agents are mostly recommended in patients with renal and ocular impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]