Journal and News Scan

Patient Care and General Interest

Ireland’s Cabinet is expected to consider opt-out organ donation legislation this spring.

A veterinarian in Colorado, USA, discusses the potential for learning about novel interventional cardiology devices by studying their use in veterinary medicine.

The US Congenital Heart Futures Reauthorization Act, which increases the federal funding available for studying congenital heart disease, was signed into law at the end of 2018.

Drugs and Devices

Pembrolizumab, an anti-PD-1 therapy from Merck, received three new approvals for use in advanced non-small cell lung cancer from the Japan Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency.

Boston Scientific has acquired the company Millipede, adding the investigational IRIS Transcatheter Annuloplasty Ring System for mitral regurgitation to its line of products.

Research, Trials, and Funding

Researchers from California, USA, found that cardiac surgery and cardiac catheterization are associated with similar levels of cognitive decline.

Researchers from Switzerland reported encouraging midterm outcomes from the TriValve Registry of transcatheter interventions for tricuspid regurgitation.

An inhalable formulation of messenger RNA was developed by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA, who postulate that it could contribute to new therapies for diseases like cystic fibrosis.

Diwan and colleagues retrospectively compared daytime to nighttime extubation for patients after cardiac surgery, considering outcomes for patients who were extubated early and patients who had longer intubation times. While there was no time-dependent difference in mortality for patients undergoing extubation within the first 24 hours after arrival in the intensive care unit, patients who were intubated for longer times showed a greater mortality risk with nighttime extubation than with daytime extubation (odds ratio 2.46, 95% confidence interval 1.45 - 4.16, p = 0.001).

Patients who were nonadherent to participating in cancer screening tests experienced increased mortality from noncancer causes. It is hypothesized that such patients are also noncompliant with general medical care recommendations, and that such noncompliance represents a behavioral phenotype.

Malignant pleural effusions (MPE) affect up to 15% of all patients with cancer, and in the last few years several well-designed randomized clinical trials have been published. In this position paper, members from both the European Respiratory Society and the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery summarize the available evidence, focusing on six topics: (1) symptomatic MPE, (2) MPE with trapped lung, (3) loculated MPE, (4) factors predicting prognosis, (5) timing of oncological therapy and definitive fluid management, and (6) histological diagnosis versus cytology.