Routine pretreatment with abciximab versus standard periprocedural therapy in mechanically ventilated cardiogenic shock patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention: Subanalysis of the PRAGUE-7 study.

BACKGROUND: The clinical outcome of patients with myocardial infarction (MI) complicated by cardiogenic shock (CS) who require mechanical ventilation (MV) is poor. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the impact of abciximab pretreatment in this high-risk population of MI patients. METHODS: The present study was a retrospective subanalysis of the multicentre randomized Routine Upfront Abciximab Versus Standard Peri-Procedural Therapy in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Cardiogenic Shock (PRAGUE-7) study, which included 80 MI patients in CS undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Patients were randomly assigned into group A (routine pretreatment with an abciximab bolus followed by a 1 h abciximab infusion) and group B (standard therapy). The subanalysis included 37 patients requiring MV. Seventeen patients were in group A and 20 were in group B. The primary end point (death/stroke/reinfarction/new severe renal failure) at 30 days, procedural success (thrombosis in myocardial infarction [TIMI] flow) and frequency of bleeding were assessed. The χ(2) and Student's t tests were used for statistical analysis; P<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. RESULTS: The primary end point occurred in nine (53%) patients in group A and 12 (60%) patients in group B (P=0.66). TIMI flow after primary PCI was higher in group A (2.75 versus 2.31; P<0.05). Major bleeding occurred in 12% of patients in group A versus 10% of patients in group B (P=0.86). Minor or minimal bleeding was more common in group A (29%) compared with group B (5%; P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study suggest that routine pretreatment with abciximab before primary PCI in mechanically ventilated patients with MI complicated by cardiogenic shock was associated with better angiographic results but also with a higher incidence of bleeding.

The effects of short-term norepinephrine up-titration on hemodynamics in cardiogenic shock.

A higher mean arterial pressure (MAP) achieved by norepinephrine up-titration may improve organ blood flow in critically ill, whereas norepinephrine-induced afterload rise might worsen myocardial function. Our aim was to assess the effects of norepinephrine dose titration on global hemodynamics in cardiogenic shock. We prospectively evaluated 12 mechanically ventilated euvolemic patients (aged 67 +/- 12 years) in cardiogenic shock (10 patients acute myocardial infarction, 1 patient dilated cardiomyopathy, 1 patient decompensated aortic stenosis). Hemodynamic monitoring included arterial and Swan-Ganz catheters. The first data were obtained at MAP of 65 mm Hg, then the norepinephrine dose was increased over 40 min to achieve MAP of 85 mm Hg. Finally, the norepinephrine-dose was tapered over 40 min to achieve MAP of 65 mm Hg. Norepinephrine up-titration increased MAP to the predefined values in all patients with concomitant mild increase in filling pressures and heart rate. Systemic vascular resistance increased, whereas cardiac output remained unchanged. During norepinephrine down-titration, all hemodynamic parameters returned to baseline values. We observed no changes in lactate levels and mixed venous oxygen saturation. Our data suggest that short-term norepinephrine dose up-titration in cardiogenic shock patients treated or pretreated with inotropes was tolerated well by the diseased heart.

[Is the lingula suitable for evaluation of pulmonary biopsy? Results of pulmonary biopsies in patients during a 5-year period]. / Je lingula vhodná k hodnocení plicní biopsie? Výsledky plicních biopsií v petiletém souboru pacientu.

Pulmonary biopsy is commonly performed for the diagnosis of interstitial pulmonary disease. The lingula has technical advantages on account of which it is frequently used. The quality of this tissue is however discutable. The authors submit a retrospective five-year group of 80 patients operated at the Surgical Clinic of the Faculty Hospital Plzen 53 times videothoracoscopically (66.2%) and 27 times by limited thoracotomy (33.8%). Both methods are in the authors opinion sufficiently effective to obtain bioptic material. The guide for localization of the biopsy is computed tomography. Only once from a total of 38 samples (2.6%) collected from the lingula an unequivocal diagnosis was not established. The authors assume therefore that pulmonary biopsy collected from the lingula is still justified.