Kochar, Ajar

Background: Patients with acute myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock (AMI-CS) often require vasoactive medications to maintain organ perfusion. However, there are limited data on the real-world use of vasoactive medications in this population. Methods: We used the Vizient® Clinical Data Base to identify patients aged ≥18 years who were admitted between 2015-2019 with AMI-CS and required mechanical ventilation. We report the proportion of patients receiving vasoactive medications by day as well as site-level variability for vasoactive medication strategies using the median odds ratio (MOR), which quantifies the odds that a patient receives a strategy at two randomly selected sites after adjusting for covariates. Results: We identified 10,758 patients from 160 centers admitted with AMI-CS. The median age was 65.8 years, 29.8% were female, 83.6% received vasoactive medications in the first 5 days, and 56.9% received temporary mechanical support. The most used vasoactive medication on day 1 was norepinephrine (48.2%), followed by epinephrine (31.5%), and dopamine (16.9%) ( Figure ). On day 1, 65.9% and 36.2% of patients receiving vasoactive medications were prescribed ≥2 or ≥3 different medications, respectively, including 111 different combinations. Among patients receiving inotropes (N=4,485), there was a nearly 3-fold difference in milrinone use across sites after accounting for differences in patient characteristics (MOR 2.89; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.39-3.38). For patients receiving either norepinephrine, dopamine, or epinephrine on day 1 (N=3,224), there was a nearly 2-fold difference in the use of norepinephrine as a first-line vasopressor across sites (MOR 1.84; 95% CI: 1.59-2.06). Conclusion: Norepinephrine is the most commonly used vasoactive medication in patients with AMI-CS. However, there is substantial site-level variability in vasoactive medication strategies, which require further study.

Abstract Aims Invasive haemodynamic assessment with a pulmonary artery catheter is often used to guide the management of patients with cardiogenic shock (CS) and may provide important prognostic information. We aimed to assess prognostic associations and relationships to end-organ dysfunction of presenting haemodynamic parameters in CS. Methods and results The Critical Care Cardiology Trials Network is an investigator-initiated multicenter registry of cardiac intensive care units (CICUs) in North America coordinated by the TIMI Study Group. Patients with CS (2018–2022) who underwent invasive haemodynamic assessment within 24 h of CICU admission were included. Associations of haemodynamic parameters with in-hospital mortality were assessed using logistic regression, and associations with presenting serum lactate were assessed using least squares means regression. Sensitivity analyses were performed excluding patients on temporary mechanical circulatory support and adjusted for vasoactive-inotropic score. Among the 3603 admissions with CS, 1473 had haemodynamic data collected within 24 h of CICU admission. The median cardiac index was 1.9 (25th–75th percentile, 1.6–2.4) L/min/m2 and mean arterial pressure (MAP) was 74 (66–86) mmHg. Parameters associated with mortality included low MAP, low systolic blood pressure, low systemic vascular resistance, elevated right atrial pressure (RAP), elevated RAP/pulmonary capillary wedge pressure ratio, and low pulmonary artery pulsatility index. These associations were generally consistent when controlling for the intensity of background pharmacologic and mechanical haemodynamic support. These parameters were also associated with higher presenting serum lactate. Conclusion In a contemporary CS population, presenting haemodynamic parameters reflecting decreased systemic arterial tone and right ventricular dysfunction are associated with adverse outcomes and systemic hypoperfusion.