Citations

Background and importance Emergency airway management in the emergency department (ED) is a high-risk procedure associated with patient outcomes. First-attempt success is a widely recognized quality metric, as multiple attempts are associated with an increased risk of peri-intubation complications. In Brazil, where emergency medicine is a recently established specialty, many ED are staffed by physicians without formal emergency medicine training. The association between emergency medicine training and intubation outcomes in this setting has not been well characterized. Objective To assess the association of physician specialty with first-attempt success and immediate peri-intubation complications in Brazilian EDs. Design Secondary analysis of a multicenter, prospective cohort study from the Brazilian Airway Registry Cooperation. Setting and participants This study included adult patients who underwent tracheal intubation in EDs between March 2022 and April 2024. Patients were excluded if the intubation occurred outside the ED, during cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or for elective procedures. Intubations performed by medical students were also excluded. Physicians were categorized by specialty as emergency medicine or nonemergency medicine. Outcome measures and analysis The primary outcome was first-attempt success; secondary outcomes included peri-intubation complications (severe hypoxemia, hemodynamic instability, and cardiac arrest). Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between physician specialty and outcomes. Main results Among 2582 patients, 1087 (42.1%) were intubated by emergency physicians and 1495 (57.9%) by other physicians (mainly internal medicine and surgery). Intubations by emergency physicians were associated with a higher rate of first-attempt success [80.4 vs. 70.9%, adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.63, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.34–1.97]. There was also a higher odds of intubations without major complications (aOR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.01–1.42). Conclusion In this study, there was a higher rate of first-attempt success in intubations performed by board-certified emergency physicians compared with other physicians working in Brazilian EDs.

Abstract Objectives Determine differences in quantitative stenosis severity measurements for ultra-high-resolution (UHR) photon-counting detector (PCD) coronary CT angiography (cCTA) relative to energy-integrating detector (EID) cCTA in a large patient cohort. Methods Adult participants seen between November 2022 and March 2023 underwent a clinical dual-source EID-CT cCTA and a research dual-source PCD-CT cCTA on the same day. Percent diameter stenosis (PDS) was measured, and stenosis severity was assigned based on the PDS of the most severe lesion per patient to determine a coronary artery disease reporting and data system (CAD-RADS) score. Agreement between EID-CT and PCD-CT for PDS and CAD-RADS was determined. Results A total of 112 participants were enrolled, yielding 82 subjects with at least 1 stenosis at PCD-CT (mean age, 68.0 ± 10.8 years; 69.5% [57/82] males). A total of 177 paired stenoses were quantified. The percent decrease in mean PDS from PCD-CT (24.3%) to EID-CT (29.4%) was 17.3% (median difference in PDS: −5.0%, 95% CI: −5.7% to −4.0%). The assigned CAD-RADS score changed in 31/82 subjects. In 11/31 subjects, the most severe stenosis was missed at EID-CT due to partial volume averaging of a small calcification, yet PCD clearly identified stenosis at those locations. In 20/31 subjects, the CAD-RADS score decreased at PCD-CT due to the decreased calcium blooming resulting from the improved spatial resolution. Conclusions UHR PCD cCTA decreases quantitative measures of stenosis severity when a stenosis is identified at EID, leading to decreases in CAD-RADS assignments. Advances in knowledge With its improved spatial resolution, PCD-CT identifies stenoses missed on EID-CT.

Background and Objectives Neurolytic celiac plexus block is often performed for analgesia from pancreatic cancer, but it is not known if the cancer alters the anatomy relevant to the successful performance of retrocrural celiac plexus block. Methods Abdominal computed tomographic scans were used to simulate retrocrural celiac plexus block in patients with and without pancreatic cancer. Results Simulated right-sided needle placement in the retrocrural space was more likely to fail in patients with pancreatic cancer than in patients without cancer. Such predicted failure often occurred when the cross-sectional area of the right retrocrural space was less than 1.0 cm2. Conclusions The predicted success of simulated retrocrural celiac plexus block differed between patients with and without pancreatic cancer. These findings have implications for the performance of celiac plexus block.

ABSTRACT Aims The impact of treatment for tricuspid regurgitation (TR) across different levels of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) remains uncertain. This study aimed to compare the outcomes of surgical and transcatheter tricuspid valve interventions (TTVI) to conservative (medical) management across LVEF categories. Methods and results Patients with severe isolated TR from the TRIGISTRY, a multicentre international registry, were categorized based on LVEF (preserved ejection fraction [pEF]: ≥50%, mildly reduced ejection fraction [mrEF]: 41–49%, and reduced ejection fraction [rEF]: ≤40%). We assessed the impact of treatment modality and procedural success (mild-to-moderate or lower residual TR) on 2-year survival within each LVEF category. Among 2384 patients, 1383 had pEF, 400 had mrEF, and 601 had rEF. Compared to conservative management, surgery (p < 0.0005) and TTVI (p < 0.0001) were associated with a survival benefit in patients with pEF. No significant survival advantage was observed in patients with mrEF (p = 0.28 for both), nor in those with rEF (p = 0.76 and p = 0.22, respectively). Similar results were obtained when surgical and transcatheter interventions were grouped (p < 0.0001, p = 0.17 and p = 0.29 in patients with pEF, mrEF and rEF, respectively). Patients with residual TR after TTVI exhibited a trend toward worse survival compared to those managed conservatively across all LVEF categories (p = 0.47, p = 0.33 and p = 0.008 in pEF, mrEF and rEF, respectively). Conclusions Transcatheter tricuspid valve intervention, whether surgical or transcatheter-based, was associated with improved survival in patients with pEF but not in those with mrEF or rEF. Residual TR remained a significant prognostic factor across the entire LVEF spectrum. These findings highlight the need for careful patient selection when considering TTVI in individuals with rEF.

Hypertension is the single most important modifiable risk factor for preventable disability and death worldwide and disproportionately affects socially disadvantaged populations. We face a paradox—blood pressure control is low and recent trends suggest it is even declining, despite the availability of inexpensive and effective therapies. A variety of barriers on the system, patient, and healthcare provider side hinder effective drug-based risk factor management. Clinical inertia represents a major barrier on the clinician side, as well as workload and limited education. Common barriers on the patient side include limited English proficiency, low health literacy, and nonadherence with misaligned incentives, limited resources, lack of structured clinical pathways, and reimbursement issues. New innovations in the field of RNA-targeted therapies and device-based interventions could prevent and potentially even cure diseases previously designated as chronic health conditions, such as hypertension. Such novel therapies could potentially overcome several major barriers to effective treatment, including nonadherence. Drug development of novel, long-acting treatments requires consideration of specific clinical trial design aspects, including safety collection, benefit: risk assessment, the development and assessment of novel, qualitative surrogate end points, such as time-in-therapeutic range, the use of representative trial settings as well as the definition of standard of care in placebo-controlled trials, which should be of reasonably high-quality allowing for credible evaluation of effectiveness. Here, we provide an overview on barriers to effective treatment and a framework for trials assessing novel treatments for cardiovascular disease risk factors, including early and broad implementation programs.

Abstract Changes in the clinical symptoms of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) are currently used to assess treatment responses. The Mount Sinai Acute GVHD International Consortium (MAGIC) consortium has recently revealed that the integration of serum biomarkers with clinical symptoms at the onset of treatment in a MAGIC composite score (MCS) more accurately predicts treatment response and 6-month nonrelapse mortality (NRM) than clinical symptoms alone. In this study, we evaluated whether the integration of serum biomarkers and clinical symptoms on day 28 (D28) would also better predict NRM than clinical response only (CRO). We analyzed data from 1135 patients receiving systemic treatment for acute GVHD and created a fourth MCS category for patients with complete resolution of symptoms and low-risk clinical biomarkers on D28. Using a classification and regression tree model with 6-month NRM as the end point, we identified status of MCS 0 or MCS 1 at D28 as responses, which we termed the MAGIC composite response (MCR). In the validation cohort (n = 309), MCR more accurately predicted 6-month NRM than CRO (area under the curve: 0.77 vs 0.69; P = .014) and demonstrated higher negative and positive predictive values. MCR correctly reclassified both clinical nonresponders and responders: 28 of 213 clinical responders (13%) became nonresponders with fivefold higher NRM (34.3% vs 6.8%, P < .001) and a larger group (29/96, 30%) of clinical nonresponders became responders with sixfold lower NRM (7.6% vs 50.7%, P < .001). These findings support the use of MCR as a superior surrogate end point for long-term GVHD control and survival in future clinical trials.

Study Design This study is part of the AO Spine Metastatic Tumor Research and Outcomes Network [MTRON], an international multicenter prospective observational registry including patients with spinal metastases. Objectives This study aims to elucidate the incidence of surgical complications, their risk factors and consequent effects on survival outcomes, hospital length of stay, and overall health-related quality of life (HRQOL) parameters in a large cohort of patients affected by spinal metastases who were surgically treated. Methods Available data from February 2017 to July 2023 were analyzed. The primary outcome of this study was the evaluation of the incidence of intraoperative and postoperative adverse events (AEs). The secondary outcomes included the assessment of risk factors for surgery-related AEs and the impact of AEs on survival, length of hospital stay and quality of life. Results Among the 1267 patients analyzed, 6.9% experienced intraoperative AEs and 19.3% experienced at least 1 postoperative AE. Several factors resulted to be associated to the occurrence of postoperative AEs: age, smoking habit, poor Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Performance status, previous radiation therapy at the index target, duration of surgery, number of instrumented levels, simultaneous anterior and posterior approach, presence of metastases at other sites, multiple spinal metastases. Postoperative AEs were associated with reduced survival rates, increased hospital length of stay and poorer HRQOL outcomes, particularly in domains such as neurological function and mental health. In general, surgery substantially improves HRQOL across multiple domains, with these benefits persisting over time despite the occurrence of AEs. However, patients with preoperative risk factors, including comorbidities, smoking, neurological impairment, and prior radiation therapy, experienced less improvement. Conclusions The negative impact of AEs on overall survival and HRQOL could be associated with the presence of some preoperative parameters of frailty that are detected as risk factors for AEs occurrence. This finding emphasizes the need for personalized preoperative assessments and optimized perioperative care strategies.