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Journal and News Scan
June 19, 2015
Submitted by: CTSNet Staff
Through a subxiphoid approach, the pericardium is incised and a rigid (usually a video-mediastinoscope) or a flexible endoscope (flexible bronchoscope or flexible choledoscope) is inserted into the pericardial cavity. The inner surface of the parietal pericardium and the epicardium can be explored and biopsies can be taken under visual control. In addition, a subxiphoid pericardial window can be developed, and sclerosing agents instilled for pericardiodesis, if a malignant aetiology is confirmed.
June 19, 2015
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
The FDA approved Edwards' Sapien third generation transcatheter aortic valve, designed to limit paravalvular leakage by incorporating a skirt at the base of the valve. The approval was based on results of the PARTNER II S3 study, which demonstrated improved rates of paravalvular leakage at 30 days (<4%) compared to 10% to 20% rates for other valves.
June 18, 2015
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
Using UNOS data, the authors evaluated long-term survival and primary graft failure (PGF) comparing cohorts with less than and more than 6 hours of graft ischemia. 31% of patients had prolonged ischemia. There was no association between prolonged ischemia and PGF or survival at 1 and 5 years.
June 17, 2015
Submitted by: J. Rafael Sadaba
In this paper the authors report on the 2-year results of the randomized US pivotal trial for surgical and self-expanding percutaneous aortic prosthetic valves. The survival benefit observed at 1 year in the transcatheter group were sustained at two years. This was also the case for the significant reduction in major adverse clinical and cerebrovascular events. These results lead the authors to suggest that self-expanding transcatheter valve therapy should be considered the standard of care and preferred over surgery in the study population.
June 17, 2015
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
Using propensity score matching techniques, outcomes and costs for robotic cardiac surgery were compared to open cardiac surgery using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Robotic surgery was more expensive ($39,030 vs $36,340) but was associated with a shorter length of stay (5 vs 6 days), lower mortality (1.0% vs 1.9%), and lower overall complication rates (27.2% vs 30.3%).
June 16, 2015
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
The good news continues regarding chocolate consumption! A study involving nearly 21,000 individuals with a median follow-up of nearly 12 years correlated cardiovascular disease with quintiles of chocolate consumption. The lowest quintile was associated with a 50% higher risk of coronary heart disease and a similar increase in stroke incidence.
June 16, 2015
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
Data from a variety of US sources were used to estimate the contribution of smoking to mortality for 12 common malignancies (colorectal, esophagus, kidney, larynx, liver, lung, leukemia, head/neck, pancreas, stomach, bladder, cervix. The contribution of smoking to mortality ranged from 10% (colorectal) to 77% (larynx). The overall contribution was 49%.
June 16, 2015
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
The British Thoracic Society developed guidelines for evaluation and management of solitary pulmonary nodules based on a literature review and expert opinion. New features include the use of a malignancy risk algorithm, use of a higher threshold for follow-up (5mm), and a reduction in the follow-up interval to 1 year for solid nodules. Management of part solid nodules is assigned a separate algorithm.
June 14, 2015
Submitted by: Philip McElnay
Trials evaluating the use of surgery in stage IIIB NSCLC are lacking. This study goes some way to address that and demonstrates that surgery as part of multi-modality therapy may result in a survival benefit.
June 14, 2015
Submitted by: Arie Blitz
This Swedish study was a retrospective review over a 20-year time period that compared survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest between those receiving bystander CPR prior to EMS arrival and those not receiving such. CPR before the arrival of EMS was associated with an increased 30-d survival rate (odds ratio 2.15; 95% CI 1.88-2.45).