Circulation. Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes最新文献

Background: Contrast-associated acute kidney injury (CA-AKI) after percutaneous coronary intervention is associated with increased mortality. We assessed the effectiveness of an electronic health records safe contrast limit tool in predicting CA-AKI risk and reducing contrast use and CA-AKI.

Methods: We created an alert displaying the safe contrast limit to cardiac catheterization laboratory staff prior to percutaneous coronary intervention. The alert used risk factors automatically extracted from the electronic health records. We included procedures from June 1, 2020 to October 1, 2021; the intervention went live February 10, 2021. Using difference-in-differences analysis, we evaluated changes in contrast volume and CA-AKI rates after contrast limit tool implementation compared to control hospitals. Cardiologists were surveyed prior to and 9 months after alert implementation on beliefs, practice patterns, and safe contrast estimates for example patients.

Results: At the one intervention site, there were 508 percutaneous coronary interventions before and 531 after tool deployment. At 15 control sites, there were 3550 and 3979 percutaneous coronary interventions, respectively. The contrast limit predicted CA-AKI with an accuracy of 64.1%, negative predictive value of 93.3%, and positive predictive value of 18.7%. After implementation, in high/modifiable risk patients (defined as having a calculated contrast limit <500ml) there was a small but significant -4.60 mL/month (95% CI, -8.24 to -1.00) change in average contrast use but no change in CA-AKI rates (odds ratio, 0.96 [95% CI, 0.84-1.10]). Low-risk patients had no change in contrast use (-0.50 mL/month [95% CI, -7.49 to 6.49]) or CA-AKI (odds ratio, 1.24 [95% CI, 0.79-1.93]). In assessing CA-AKI risk, clinicians heavily weighted age and diabetes but often did not consider anemia, cardiogenic shock, and heart failure.

Conclusions: Clinicians often used a simplified assessment of CA-AKI risk that did not include important risk factors, leading to risk estimations inconsistent with established models. Despite clinician skepticism, an electronic health records-based contrast limit tool more accurately predicted CA-AKI risk and was associated with a small decrease in contrast use during percutaneous coronary intervention but no change in CA-AKI rates.

Background: After the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services modified reimbursement rates for outpatient peripheral vascular intervention in 2008 with the intent of improving access to care, providers began to increasingly perform peripheral vascular interventions in privately owned office-based clinics. Little is known about the characteristics of patients treated in this setting and their long-term outcomes as compared with those treated in hospital-based centers.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, Medicare beneficiaries ≥66 years undergoing outpatient femoropopliteal peripheral vascular interventions in office-based clinics and hospital-based centers from 2015 to 2017 were identified. Sociodemographics, comorbidities, and institutional characteristics were compared across sites. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the adjusted associations between practice site location and outcomes. The primary outcome was the composite of major amputation or death analyzed through the end of follow-up.

Results: Among 134 869 patients, 29.9% were treated in office-based clinics and 70.1% in hospital-based centers. Patients treated in office-based clinics were more often Black (16.9% versus 11.9%), dually enrolled in Medicaid (26.3% versus 19.6%), and residents of lower-resourced regions (32.6% versus 25.6%). Over a median follow-up time of 800 days (interquartile range, 531-1119 days), patients treated in office-based clinics had reduced risks of major amputation or death compared with outpatients treated in hospital-based centers (hazard ratio, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.89-0.95]). They also had lower adjusted all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 0.93 [95% CI, 0.90-0.96]), major lower extremity amputation (hazard ratio, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.79-0.89]), and all-cause hospitalization (hazard ratio, 0.86 [95% CI, 0.84-0.88]). These findings persisted after stratification by critical limb ischemia, race, dual enrollment, and regional socioeconomic status, as well as among operators treating patients in both clinical settings.

Conclusions: In this large nationwide analysis of Medicare beneficiaries, office-based clinics treated a more socioeconomically disadvantaged population compared with hospital-based centers. Long-term outcomes were comparable between locations. As such, these clinics appear to be selecting lower-risk patients for outpatient peripheral vascular interventions, although there remains the possibility of unmeasured confounding.

Background: Understanding how statins, ezetimibe, and PCSK9i (proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 serine protease inhibitors) are prescribed after a myocardial infarction (MI) or elective coronary revascularization may improve lipid-lowering therapy (LLT) intensification and reduce recurrent atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events. We described the use and intensification of LLT among US veterans who had a MI or elective coronary revascularization between July 24, 2015, and December 9, 2019, within 12 months of hospital discharge.

Methods: LLT intensification was defined as increasing statin dose, or initiating a statin, ezetimibe, or a PCSK9i, overall and among those with an LDL-C (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) ≥70 or 100 mg/dL. Poisson regression was used to determine patient characteristics associated with a greater likelihood of LLT intensification following hospitalization for MI or elective coronary revascularization.

Results: Among 81 372 index events (mean age, 69.0 years, 2.3% female, mean LDL-C 89.6 mg/dL, 33.8% with LDL-C <70 mg/dL), 39.7% were not taking any LLT, and 22.0%, 37.2%, and 0.6% were taking a low-moderate intensity statin, a high-intensity statin, and ezetimibe, respectively, before MI/coronary revascularization during the study period. Within 14 days, 3 months, and 12 months posthospitalization, 33.3%, 41.9%, and 47.3%, respectively, of veterans received LLT intensification. LLT intensification was most common among veterans taking no LLT (82.5%, n=26 637) before MI/coronary revascularization. Higher baseline LDL-C, having a lipid test, and attending a cardiology visit were each associated with a greater likelihood of LLT intensification, while age ≥75 versus <65 years was associated with a lower likelihood of LLT intensification within 12 months posthospitalization.

Conclusions: Less than half of veterans received LLT intensification in the year after MI or coronary revascularization suggesting a missed opportunity to reduce atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk.

Background: Women have a higher risk of mortality than men after cardiac surgery independent of other risk factors. The reason for this may not be limited to patient-specific variables. Failure to rescue (FTR) patients from death after a postoperative complication is a nationally endorsed quality care metric. We aimed to identify whether sex disparities exist in the quality of care after cardiac surgery using FTR rates.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of 30 973 men (70.4%) and 13 033 women (29.6%) aged over 18 years undergoing coronary artery bypass graft or valve surgery in New York (2016-2019) and California (2016-2018) who experienced at least one serious postoperative complication. The primary outcome was the FTR. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of death after complication. Propensity matching was used to adjust for baseline differences between sexes and yielded 12 657 pairs.

Results: Female patients that experienced complications were older (mean age 67.8 versus 66.7, P<0.001), more frail (median frailty score 0.1 versus 0.07, P<0.001), and had more comorbidities (median Charlson score 2.5 versus 2.3, P<0.001) than male patients. The overall FTR rate was 5.7% (2524), men were less likely to die after a complication than women (4.8% versus 8%, P<0.001). Independent predictors of FTR included female sex (relative risk [RR]: 1.46 [CI, 1.30-1.62]), area-level poverty rate >20% (RR, 1.21 [CI, 1.01-1.59]), higher frailty (RR, 2.83 [CI, 1.35-5.93]), undergoing concomitant coronary artery bypass graft and valve surgeries (RR, 1.69 [CI, 1.49-1.9]), and higher number of postoperative complications (RR, 16.28 [CI, 14-18.89]). In the propensity-matched cohorts, the FTR rate remained significantly lower among men than women (6.0% versus 8.0%, P<0.001).

Conclusions: Women are less likely to be rescued from death following postoperative complications, independent of socioeconomic and clinical characteristics. Further research is warranted to investigate the clinical practices contributing to this disparity in quality of care following cardiac surgery.

Background: Recent evidence suggests that sexual minority (eg, gay/lesbian, bisexual) adults might be at increased risk of hypertension compared with heterosexual adults. However, disparities by sexual identity in antihypertensive medication use among adults with hypertension have not been comprehensively examined.

Methods: We analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (2015-2019), to examine sexual identity differences in the prevalence of hypertension and antihypertensive medication use among adults. We ran sex-stratified logistic regression models to estimate the odds ratios of diagnosis of hypertension and antihypertensive medication use among sexual minority (ie, gay/lesbian, bisexual, and other) and heterosexual adults (reference group).

Results: The sample included 420 340 participants with a mean age of 49.7 (±17.0) years, of which 66.7% were Non-Hispanic White. Compared with heterosexual participants of the same sex, bisexual women (adjusted odds ratio, 1.19 [95% CI, 1.03-1.37]) and gay men (adjusted odds ratio, 1.18 [95% CI, 1.03-1.35]) were more likely to report having been diagnosed with hypertension. Among women with diagnosed hypertension, bisexual women had lower odds of current antihypertensive medication use (adjusted odds ratio, 0.71 [95% CI, 0.56-0.90]). Among men with diagnosed hypertension, gay men were more likely than heterosexual men to report current antihypertensive medication use (adjusted odds ratio, 1.39 [95% CI, 1.10-1.78]). Compared with heterosexual participants of the same sex, there were no differences in hypertension or antihypertensive medication use among lesbian women, bisexual men, and participants who reported their sexual identity as other.

Conclusions: Clinical and public health interventions are needed to reduce the risk of hypertension among bisexual women and gay men. Bisexual women were at higher risk of untreated hypertension, which may be attributed to lower health care utilization due to fear of discrimination from health care providers and socioeconomic disadvantage. Future research is needed to better understand factors that may contribute to untreated hypertension among bisexual women with hypertension.

Background: While clinical guidelines recommend direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOAC) over warfarin to treat isolated nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, guidelines are silent regarding nonvalvular atrial fibrillation treatment among individuals with cancer, reflecting the paucity of evidence in this setting. We quantified relative risk of ischemic stroke or systemic embolism and major bleeding (primary outcomes), and all-cause and cardiovascular death (secondary outcomes) among older individuals with cancer and nonvalvular atrial fibrillation comparing DOACs and warfarin.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cancer registry and linked US Medicare data from 2010 through 2016, and included individuals diagnosed with cancer and nonvalvular atrial fibrillation who newly initiated DOAC or warfarin. We used inverse probability of treatment weighting to control confounding. We used competing risk regression for primary outcomes and cardiovascular death, and Cox proportional hazard regression for all-cause death.

Results: Among 7675 individuals included in the cohort, 4244 (55.3%) received DOACs and 3431 (44.7%) warfarin. In the inverse probability of treatment weighting analysis, there was no statistically significant difference among DOAC and warfarin users in the risk of ischemic stroke or systemic embolism (1.24 versus 1.19 events per 100 person-years, adjusted hazard ratio 1.41 [95% CI, 0.92-2.14]), major bleeding (3.08 versus 4.49 events per 100 person-years, adjusted hazard ratio 0.90 [95% CI, 0.70-1.17]), and cardiovascular death (1.88 versus 3.14 per 100 person-years, adjusted hazard ratio 0.82 [95% CI, 0.59-0.1.13]). DOAC users had significantly lower risk of all-cause death (7.09 versus 13.3 per 100 person-years, adjusted hazard ratio 0.81 [95% CI, 0.69-0.94]) compared to warfarin users.

Conclusions: Older adults with cancer and atrial fibrillation exposed to DOACs had similar risks of stroke and systemic embolism and major bleeding as those exposed to warfarin. Relative to warfarin, DOAC use was associated with a similar risk of cardiovascular death and a lower risk of all-cause death.

Background: Multiple studies have reported a high burden of hypertension in sub-Saharan Africa, but none have examined early stage hypertension. We examined contemporary prevalence of diagnosed, treated, and controlled stage I (130-139/80-89 mm Hg) and II (≥140/90 mm Hg) hypertension in the general population of sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods: We analyzed World Health Organization STEPwise Approach to Noncommunicable Disease Risk Factor Surveillance surveys from 17 sub-Saharan Africa countries including 85 371 respondents representing 85 million individuals from 2010 to 2017. We extracted demographic variables, blood pressure, self-reported hypertension diagnosis/awareness, and treatment status to estimate prevalence of stage I and II hypertension and treatment by country. We examined diagnosis and treatment trends by national sociodemographic index, a marker of development.

Results: Stage I hypertension prevalence (regardless of diagnosis/treatment) was >25% in 13 of 17 countries, highest in Sudan (35.3% [95% CI, 33.7%-37.0%]), and lowest in Eritrea (20.2% [18.8%-21.6%]). Combined stages I and II hypertension prevalence was >50% in 13 countries; <20% were diagnosed in every country. Treatment among those diagnosed ranged from 26% to 63%, and control (<140/90 mm Hg) from 4% to 17%. In 8 of 9 countries reporting on behavioral interventions (eg, salt reduction, weight loss, exercise, and smoking cessation), <60% of diagnosed individuals received counseling. Rates of diagnosis, but not treatment, were positively associated with sociodemographic index (P=0.008), although there was substantial variation between countries even at similar levels of development.

Conclusions: Hypertension is common in sub-Saharan Africa but rates of diagnosis, treatment, and control markedly low. There is a large population with early stage hypertension that may benefit from behavioral counseling to prevent progression. Our analyses suggest that success in population hypertension care may be achieved independently of socioeconomic development, highlighting a need for policymakers to identify best practices in those countries that outperform similar or more developed countries.

Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on participation in and availability of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is unknown.

Methods: Among eligible Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries, we evaluated, by month, the number of CR sessions attended per 100 000 beneficiaries, individuals eligible to initiate CR, and centers offering in-person CR between January 2019 and December 2021. We compared these outcomes between 2 periods: December 1, 2019 through February 28, 2020 (period 1, before declaration of the pandemic-related national emergency) and October 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021 (period 2, the latest period for which data are currently available).

Results: In period 1, Medicare beneficiaries participated in (mean±SD) 895±84 CR sessions per 100 000 beneficiaries each month. After the national emergency was declared, CR participation sharply declined to 56 CR sessions per 100 000 beneficiaries in April 2020. CR participation recovered gradually through December 2021 but remained lower than prepandemic levels (period 2: 698±29 CR sessions per month per 100 000 beneficiaries, P=0.02). Declines in CR participation were most marked among dual Medicare and Medicaid enrollees and patients residing in rural areas or socially vulnerable communities. There was no statistically significant change in CR eligibility between the 2 periods. Compared with 2618±5 CR centers in period 1, there were 2464±7 in period 2 (P<0.01). Compared with CR centers that survived the pandemic, 220 CR centers that closed were more likely to be affiliated with public hospitals, located in rural areas, and serve the most socially vulnerable communities.

Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a persistent decline in CR participation and the closure of CR centers, which disproportionately affected rural and low-income patients and the most socially vulnerable communities. Innovation in CR financing and delivery is urgently needed to equitably enhance CR participation among Medicare beneficiaries.