Red blood cell distribution width as a novel prognostic marker after myocardial revascularization or cardiac valve surgery

The red blood cell distribution width (RDW) measures the variability in the size of circulating erythrocytes. Previous studies suggested a powerful correlation between RDW obtained from a standard complete blood count and cardiovascular diseases in both primary and secondary cardiovascular prevention. The current study aimed to evaluate the prognostic role of RDW in patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation after myocardial revascularization and/or cardiac valve surgery. The study included 1.031 patients with available RDW levels, prospectively followed for a mean of 4.5 +/- 3.5 years. The mean age was 68 +/- 12 years, the mean RDW was 14.7 +/- 1.8%; 492 patients (48%) underwent cardiac rehabilitation after myocardial revascularization, 371 (36%) after cardiac valve surgery, 102 (10%) after valve-plus-coronary artery by-pass graft surgery, 66 (6%) for other indications. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox hazard analysis were used to associate RDW with mortality. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated worse survival curves free from overall (log-rank p<0.0001) and cardiovascular (log-rank p<0.0001) mortality in the highest RDW tertile. Cox analysis showed RDW levels correlated significantly with the probability of overall (HR 1.26; 95% CI 1.19-1.32; p<0.001) and cardiovascular (HR 1.31; 95% CI 1.23-1.40; p<0.001) mortality. After multiple adjustments for cardiovascular risk factors, hemoglobin, hematocrit, C-reactive protein, microalbuminuria, atrial fibrillation, glomerular filtration rate,left ventricular ejection fraction and number of exercise training sessions attended, the increased risk of overall (HR 1.10; 95% CI 1.01-1.27; p=0.039) and cardiovascular (HR 1.13; 95% CI 1.01-1.34; p=0.036)mortality with increasing RDW values remained significant. The RDW represents an independent predictor of overall and cardiovascular mortality in secondary cardiovascular prevention patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation

The usefulness of dipyridamole stress echocardiography in high-risk patients before abdominal aneurism surgery

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background  Coronary artery disease (CAD) and aortic aneurysm (AA) share commons risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, and smoking. Cardiac assessment before aortic abdominal aneurysm (AAA) surgery is indicated for patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD). The usefulness of assessment of moderate/high-risk patients is still debated.  Purpose the purpose of our study is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of dipyridamole stress echocardiography (DSE) for the detection of CAD in patients undergoing AAA surgery with high cardiovascular risk.  Methods From 2017th to 2019th 120 patients underwent surgery for aortic aneurysm (71 endovascular technique and 49 with open laparotomy).  Of these, 74 asymptomatic patients with high cardiovascular risk underwent a pre-surgical contrast-enhanced dipyridamole stress echo (0,84 mg/kg over 6 minutes – protocol with LVO with sulfur hexafluoride), to exclude the presence of inducible myocardial ischemia, Mean follow-up was 6-24 months.  Results   Mean age was 77 years +/- 6.6, with male gender prevalent (83%).  No complication during DSE occurred; mean SCORE risk was 9.8% +/- 2.3%, with 63% patients with very high risk.  Only 1 patient showed inducible ischemia during stress echocardiography, with evidence of significant LAD stenosis; no myocardial infarction was reported at follow-up, while 1 ischemic stroke and 1 unplanned revascularization occurred.  11% of patients died, of which 50% for Sars-Cov-2 disease and 12% due to post-surgery dissection while no cardiac deaths were found. Conclusions dipyridamole stress echo is safe in patients with surgical-class abdominal aortic aneurism; in patients with high cardiovascular risk but no symptoms reversible ischemia is rare. DSE should not be routinely performed before high-risk surgery but only in patients with cardiac symptoms. Abstract Figure. Patients Diagram </jats:sec

Speckle-tracking during dipyridamole stress echocardiography in the detection of myocardial ischemia in patients with suspected coronary artery disease

Abstract Background The aim of this study was to investigate the incremental value of global longitudinal strain (GLS), postsystolic strain index (PSI) and prestretch (PSE) by automated function imaging with respect to wall motion (WM) and coronary flow reserve (CFR) for the diagnosis of significant coronary artery disease (CAD) during dipyridamole stress echocardiography. Methods We retrospectibely enrolled 227 patients with known or suspected CAD, approaching our echo lab to perform a DSE; all patient underwent coronary angiography within 1 month for clinical reasons. Obstructive CAD was defined as the evidence of &amp;gt;70% stenosis during coronary angiogram. Obstructive CAD was detected in 143 (63%) patients, while 84 (37%) had no significant CAD. Global longitudinal strain, PSI and PSE were measured at rest and peak of the stress (after 6 minutes of 0,84mg/kg of dipyridamole infusion). Results Patient with CAD showed a significantly lower GLS at rest (−16.9±4.2 vs −18.6±3.4; p&amp;lt;0.01) and peak (14.9±3.8 vs −21.50±3.3; p&amp;lt;0.01) Figure A; the behavior of GLS was opposite, in patient with CAD showed an increase while in patient without CAD a significant decrease after dipyridamole infusion. There was also a significant difference between groups for Delta PSI (PSIpeak − PSIrest) and Delta PSE (PSEpeak − PSErest), respectively 126±145 vs −40±97, (p&amp;lt;0.01) and 108±163 vs −41±106 (p&amp;lt;0.01) Figure C. ROC analyses produced a statistically valid model: Average GLS at peak (p 0.001; AUC=0.906, cut-off value −18%, sensitivity 83% and specificity 82%); on the basis of these results, we compared WM and myocardial deformation analysis and GLS was superior to CFR LAD, Delta EF, Delta ESV and Delta WMI (Figure B). Conclusions GLS, PSE and PSI show an opposite response to dipyridamole, in patients with CAD in patient without CAD and show much higher sensitivity and specificity compared to the conventional parameters like WMI, EF and CFR in detecting CAD Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None </jats:sec

Predictive role of P-wave axis abnormalities in secondary cardiovascular prevention

Background Abnormal P-wave axis has been correlated with an increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in a general population. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic role of abnormal P-wave axis in patients undergoing myocardial revascularisation or cardiac valve surgery. Methods We considered data of 810 patients with available P-wave axis measure from a prospective monocentric registry of patients undergoing cardiovascular rehabilitation. A total of 436 patients (54%) underwent myocardial revascularisation, 253 (31%) valve surgery, 71 (9%) combined valve and coronary artery bypass graft surgery and 50 (6%) cardiac surgery for other cardiovascular disease. Mean follow-up was 4727 months. Results Over the whole group, P-wave axis was 43.8 degrees +/- 27.5 degrees and an abnormal P-wave axis was found in 94 patients (12%). The risk of overall (hazard ratio (HR) 2.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.6-4.0, P<0.001) and cardiovascular mortality (HR 2.9, 95% CI 1.5-5.8, P=0.002) was significantly higher in patients with abnormal P-wave axis even after adjustment for age, other electrocardiographic variables (PR, QRS, QTc intervals), left ventricular ejection fraction and left atrial volume index. After dividing the population according to the type of disease, patients with abnormal P-wave axis and ischaemic heart disease had 3.9-fold higher risk of cardiovascular mortality (HR 3.9, 95% CI 1.3-12.1, P=0.017), while a 2.2-fold higher risk of cardiovascular mortality (HR 3.6, 95% CI 1.3-10.1, P=0.015) was found in those with cardiac valve disease. Conclusion An abnormal P-wave axis represents an independent predictor of both overall and cardiovascular mortality in patients undergoing myocardial revascularisation or cardiac valve surgery

Mitral anular plane excursion predicts coronary stenosis during stress echocardiography with dipyridamole

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Dipyridamole stress echocardiography (DSE) is an important tool for detecting reversible ischemia in patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD); nonetheless, the results of the test are related to wall motion abnormalities, moderately operator-dependent, and left anterior descending (LAD) artery reserve, resulting in a moderate sensibility and specificity.  Purpose Aim Of our study was to evaluate whether an easy-to-use parameter like mitral annular plane systolic excursion (MAPSE) could be useful to identify CAD during DSE.  Methods We prospectively enrolled 512 patients that underwent DSE for suspected CAD; rest and peak MAPSE was acquired; 148 patients were referred to perform coronary angiography, with evidence of severe coronary stenosis in 91 patients.   The mean age was 66.7 ±11 years, male gender was prevalent (64%).  MAPSE at the peak was significantly different between patients with CAD and patient without (13,4mm vs 16,81 mm , p &amp;lt; 0.001); in fact, patients with CAD showed a blunted or no increase of MAPSE after dipyridamole infusion, with a significative difference in Delta Mapse (Mapse peak-Mapse rest) between groups ( -0.5mm vs 2.8mm) By using a Receiver Operating Curve, the Area under the curve was 0,764 (0.682-0.846), with the best cut-off value of +0.5mm (Sensibility 77%, Specificity 62% - Figure 1), comparabale with traditional methods like LAD reserve, FE reduction or Wall Motion Score Index.  Discussion to our knowledge, this is the first study that compared the behavior of MAPSE during dipyridamole infusion in patients with and without coronary artery disease. MAPSE is a well-known surrogate of longitudinal systolic function and has increased sensitivity over traditional methods of systolic performance such as LV-EF: in this context, dipyridamole induced reversible ischemia could affect prematurely MAPSE then EF or wall motion abnormalities. In our study, in patients with evidence of reversible ischemia during DSE, a blunted or no increase of MAPSE was able to predict CAD. Incorporating this easy-to-use parameter could improve the specificity of DSE and strengthen the suspect of reversible ischemia when clear wall motion abnormalities are not found. Abstract Figure. Mean value of Mapse and ROC curve </jats:sec