Vergara‐Sanchez, Carlos

Background and Clinical Significance: Nonbacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) is a sterile fibrin-platelet valvular condition associated with malignancy and hypercoagulable states. It produces friable vegetations prone to systemic embolization, often presenting as multifocal ischemic stroke. While modestly linked to advanced adenocarcinomas, its association with melanoma is exceedingly rare; Case Presentation: We present a 43-year-old man with recently diagnosed metastatic melanoma who presented with fever, confusion and abdominal pain. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed multifocal bilateral acute infarcts. Additional imaging demonstrated splenic and bilateral renal infarcts. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) revealed an 8 mm × 7 mm multilobar lesion on the posterior mitral valve leaflet. Blood cultures remained persistently negative; autoimmune and infectious workup were unrevealing, and positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) showed no cardiac hypermetabolism. Despite empiric antibiotics for suspected infective endocarditis (IE), progressive embolic infarcts occurred. After exclusion of infection, NBTE was considered, and therapeutic enoxaparin was initiated, resulting in clinical stabilization without hemorrhagic conversion; Conclusions: Distinguishing NBTE from IE remains challenging due to overlapping and nonspecific imaging findings. TEE is the preferred diagnostic modality because of its high sensitivity for detecting small valvular vegetations. Adjunctive imaging modalities such as brain MRI and PET-CT may support the diagnosis by demonstrating embolic patterns or excluding metabolically active infectious vegetations. Management primarily relies on systemic anticoagulation, while percutaneous vegetation aspiration may represent a potential diagnostic and therapeutic strategy. Clinicians should maintain high suspicion of this condition in patients with advanced melanoma and other malignancies presenting with multifocal embolic phenomena and negative cultures to enable timely anticoagulation.

Abstract Aims Routine aspirin use for primary prevention yields modest cardiovascular benefit but increases bleeding risk in average-risk adults. Whether individuals with elevated lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] levels or high-risk LPA variants derive greater benefit remains uncertain. Methods and results Following Cochrane and PRISMA guidelines, we systematically searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Central for studies of adults without ASCVD, elevated Lp(a) (≥50 mg/dL), high-risk LPA genotypes, or elevated genetic risk scores, comparing aspirin vs. no aspirin use. Random-effects meta-analyses using restricted maximum-likelihood (REML) estimation with Hartung–Knapp–Sidik–Jonkman (HKSJ) adjustment were used to pool hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). In six studies, 6628 participants were included. Pooled random effects showed no significant reduction in major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) with aspirin (HR = 0.60; 95% CI 0.31–1.17; P = 0.1) or clinical bleeding events (HR = 1.24; 95% CI 0.83–1.87; P = 0.18). Subgroup analyses showed a nonsignificant reduction MACE among elevated Lp(a) (HR = 0.63; 95% CI 0.16 to 2.49; P = 0.284) and statistically significant reduction among LPA rs3798220 carriers (HR = 0.37; 95% CI 0.19 to 0.71; P = 0.003), though this finding was not consistent in the sensitivity analyses. Conclusion Among adults without ASCVD but with elevated Lp(a) or high-risk LPA genotypes, aspirin use did not confer a statistically significant cardiovascular benefit and was associated with numerically higher bleeding risk. The apparent reduction seen in rs3798220 carriers was inconsistent and likely reflects small-sample bias.

Backround: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common complication following veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO), leading to further complications from anticoagulation or stroke. The Artificial Intelligence AF Prediction Dashboard developed at Mayo Clinic generates two predictive outputs: (1) a continuous probability score and (2) a binary threshold-based signal to predict the likelihood of AF at an individual level after 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) is obtained. Using both continuous risk (%) and binary (yes/no) likelihood, we present a novel method to understand AF risk after VV-ECMO cannulation based on pre-ECMO 12-lead ECG. Methods: We reviewed a total of 147 patients on ECMO between 2018 and 2024, from which 85 VV-ECMO patients with complete data were included. AI Dashboard outputs were quantified as binary (1/0) or percent likelihood for AF. R was utilized for statistical analysis. Results: 85 patients met our inclusion criteria from which AF after cannulation occurred in 31 (36%). 17 patients had a history of AF prior to VV-ECMO initiation. The mean age of our cohort was 49 years with a mean BMI of 29.3. Baseline AI Dashboard continuous assessment identified 39 patients (46%) compared to the binary assessment identifying 31 patients (36%). Logistic regression in the binary assessment demonstrated an odds ratio of 1.08 (95% CI 1.04 – 1.12) with a p value of <0.001. The binary AF Prediction yielded a 58% sensitivity, 76% specificity, 58% PPV, and 76% NPV, with an accuracy of 67%. The continuous AF Probability score achieved 72% balanced accuracy with sensitivity 74%, specificity 70%, PPV 59% and NPV 83%, indicating fair overall performance and suggesting good utility for ruling out AF in low-risk patients. Although both outputs provided moderate predictive accuracy, the continuous score reported before ECMO cannulation demonstrated stronger overall performance with fewer false negatives and higher rule-out value. Conclusions: We demonstrate the novel use of an AI predictive model in the VV-ECMO population for the prediction of AF risk with both continuous and binary risk cutoffs from baseline ECG. This data highlights the need for further development in ECMO-specific AI models to help mitigate risk after the onset of atrial arrhythmias. As AI-driven tools become increasingly integrated into care, their performance must be continuously validated and recalibrated for specific populations to ensure their safe and effective use.

Septal Myectomy (SM) and Alcohol Septal Ablation (ASA) improve symptoms in patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy with outflow tract obstruction (oHCM). However, outcomes data in this population is predominantly from specialized centers. The National Inpatient Database was queried from 2011 to 2019 for relevant international classification of diseases (ICD)-9 and -10 diagnostic and procedural codes. We compared baseline characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of patients with oHCM who underwent SM vs ASA. A p-value < 0.001 was considered statistically significant. We identified 15,119 patients with oHCM who underwent septal reduction therapies, of whom 57.4% underwent SM, and 42.6% underwent ASA. Patients who underwent SM had higher all-cause mortality (OR: 1.8 (1.3–2.5)), post-procedure ischemic stroke (OR: 2.3 (1.7–3.2)), acute kidney injury (OR: 1.4 (1.2–1.7)), vascular complications (OR: 3.6 (2.3–5.3)), ventricular septal defect (OR: 4.4 (3.2–6.1)), cardiogenic shock (OR: 1.7 (1.3–2.3)), sepsis (OR: 3.2 (1.9–5.4)), and left bundle branch block (OR: 3.5 (3–4)), compared to ASA. Patients who underwent ASA had higher post-procedure complete heart block (OR: 1.3 (1.1–1.4)), right bundle branch block (OR: 6.3 (5–7.7)), ventricular tachycardia (OR: 2.2 (1.9–2.6)), supraventricular tachycardia (OR: 1.6 (1.4–2)), and more commonly required pacemaker insertion (OR: 1.4 (1.3–1.7)) (p < 0.001 for all) compared to SM. This nationwide analysis evidenced that patients undergoing SM had higher in-hospital mortality and periprocedural complications than ASA; however, those undergoing ASA had more post-procedure conduction abnormalities and pacemaker implantation. The implications of these findings warrant further investigation regarding patient selection strategies for these therapies.