October 2020 News Roundup

Cath Lab Dispatch is TCTMD’s monthly roundup of recent news tidbits from journals and medical meetings
around the globe.

Check out our latest coverage from TCT Connect 2020 here.

Coronary angiography performed in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has a high likelihood of being unsuccessful if return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) cannot be achieved prior to the procedure, a single-center study published in Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions suggests. Older age, metabolic derangement on admission, initial nonshockable rhythm, and failure to achieve ROSC before admission were predictors of in-hospital mortality.

A large database study finds that amyloidosis may be significantly underdiagnosed among patients undergoing TAVR. In the study in Structural Heart, researchers say more awareness is needed of the dual pathology of aortic stenosis and cardiac amyloidosis in aging patients.

A brief report in the American Journal of Critical Care describes the creation of a curriculum aimed at non-critical care nursing staff being deployed to critical care units to assist in the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a bench-test comparison of nine coronary artery stents, strut thickness and the presence of platinum were both associated with higher degrees of radiopacity, according to a study in Cardiovascular Engineering and Technology.

Among patients requiring surgical explantation of a TAVR valve, most needed it within 1 year of the index procedure, with bioprosthetic failure as the primary indication. The analysis of more than 132,000 patients published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology also found that 30-day mortality was high but did not vary by the time to surgical explant, TAVR era, or presence of endocarditis.

Stethoscopes may be a vector for viruses like SARS-CoV-2. A case report published in the European Heart Journal describes a cardiology resident who tested positive for the virus 1 day after being asked to round on COVID-19 patients. “The resident believes that COVID-19 viral particles which were transmitted to the stethoscope became aerosolized and inhaled as she brought the stethoscope close to her mouth while tucking it back into her gown,” the researchers write.

A new analysis from the PROMISE trial suggests that epicardial adipose tissue—metabolically active tissue that surrounds the coronary arteries—may be a predictor of cardiovascular event risk in patients with stable angina.

In a 20-study meta-analysis of bioprosthetic valve thrombosis after TAVR, risk of death was not significantly increased by clinical valve thrombosis or subclinical leaflet thrombosis. However, patients who developed clinical valve thrombosis had an elevated risk of stroke, according to a paper published in the American Journal of Cardiology.

A research letter in Heart & Lung speculates that the anti-inflammatory properties of lidocaine, which has been around for more than 70 years, may help mitigate the pathogenic cytokine storm associated with COVID-19.

Use of MRI and general anesthesia were among the hospital factors associated with prolonged admission-to-groin-puncture time among stroke patients in the European BEYOND-SWIFT trial, while administration of intravenous tPA was not. Writing in Stroke, the researchers say “more focus is needed on decision-making and workflow factors related to patients’ characteristics and prolonged [admission-to-groin-puncture] intervals.”