Cardiac MRI for detecting left atrial/left atrial appendage thrombus in patients with atrial fibrillation : Meta-analysis and systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the accuracy of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in detecting left atrial/left atrial appendage (LA/LAA) thrombus and to analyze the difference between the diagnostic accuracy of various imaging sequences. METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched for studies from 2000 to 2017 that compared CMR with transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in detecting LA/LAA thrombus. The CMR images were analyzed in four categories: (1) cine-CMR; (2) first-pass contrast-enhanced 3D CMR angiography (CE-MRA); (3) delayed-enhancement CMR (DE-CMR); and (4) CMR, regardless of the magnetic resonance sequences used. Descriptive and quantitative information was extracted and Meta-DiSc 1.4 was used to perform the analysis. RESULTS: The analysis included 582 patients from seven publications. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and summary receiver operating characteristic of cine-CMR were 91.00%, 93.00%, 50.43, 10.04, 0.24, and 93.93%, respectively; for CE-MRA, the values were 77.00%, 97.00%, 179.21, 51.77, 0.30, and 97.63%, respectively; for DE-CMR, 100.00%, 99.00%, 849.70, 77.62, 0.09, and 99.38%, respectively; and for CMR, 80.00%, 99.00%, 187.54, 24.21, 0.17, and 97.71%, respectively. CONCLUSION: In patients with atrial fibrillation, CMR has been proven to be a favorable diagnostic technique for the detection and assessment of LA/LAA thrombus. Among the imaging sequences evaluated, DE-CMR had the highest sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy.

Safety profile and patient satisfaction of the routine use of propofol in gastrointestinal endoscopy.

BACKGROUD: Routine use of sedation in upper gastrointestinal endoscopy is uncommon in Nepal. There is no study on use of propofol sedation in routine endoscopy examination in Nepal. This study was conducted in order to assess the patient satisfaction and safety profile in patient undergoing routine upper GI endoscopic examination on outpatients. OBJECTIVE: To study safety profile and patient satisfaction of use of propofol in patients undergoing upper GI endoscopy. METHOD: A prospective, observational study was conducted in the endoscopy unit of Dhulikhel hospital, Kathmandu University Hospital from July 2011 to 2012 July. Patients who were referred to upper GI endoscopy were offered to sedation under propofol. Informed consent was taken after explaining side effects, advantages and risk-benefit to the clients. The propofol was administered by the endoscopy nurse under guidance and supervision of the endoscopy performing physician. Data were collected and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 with 0.05 level of significance. RESULT: Total of 203 patients included in the study. Among 203 patients, 21.2% were males and 78.8% were females; 83.7% were of less than of 60 years age and 16.3% above 60 years of age. The mean total dose of propofol required was 136.08 ± 48.82 mg. Total of 29.1 % of cases required O2 administration during the procedure time due to transient drop in O2 saturation. Total of 4.4% of cases required fluid administration due to transient fall in blood pressure. Total of 68.0% of cases were completely sedated; 28.6% had minor restless and 3.4% showed agitation during induction period of propofol sedation. Total of 99.5% of patients reported pleasant experience while 0.5% reported unpleasant. Among 203 respondents, 98.5% responded they would prefer to do the procedure under propofol sedation in the future; 1.5% responded they did not want sedations in the future. CONCLUSION: Upper GI endoscopy can safely be performed under propofol sedation administered by registered trained nurse under the supervision of endoscopist.