[Recommendations for individual comorbidity risk assessment in adult patients with psoriasis]. / Handlungsempfehlungen zur individuellen Risikoermittlung von Komorbidität bei erwachsenen Patienten mit Psoriasis.

It has long been known that chronic inflammatory systemic diseases, such as psoriasis, pose a high risk of developing comorbidities. In everyday clinical practice, it is therefore of particular importance to identify patients who have an individually increased risk profile. In patients with psoriasis, the comorbidity patterns "metabolic syndrome", "cardiovascular comorbidity" and "mental illness" were identified as particularly relevant in epidemiological studies depending on the duration and severity of the disease. In the everyday care of patients with psoriasis in dermatological practice, the use of an interdisciplinary checklist for risk analysis and the initiation of professional follow-up care has proven valuable. On the basis of an existing checklist, the contents were critically evaluated by an interdisciplinary group of experts and a guideline-oriented update was prepared. In the opinion of the authors, the new analysis sheet represents a practicable, factually focused and updated tool for comorbidity risk assessment in patients with moderate and severe psoriasis.

Predictors of survival in patients with acute coronary syndrome undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention of unprotected left main coronary artery stenosis.

OBJECTIVE: Aim of this study was to investigate predictors of survival in unstable patients with high SYNTAX-1-score. BACKGROUND: In significant unprotected left main coronary artery (ULMCA) stenosis, treatment options include percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). While CABG is recommended for stable patients with ULMCA stenosis and a SYNTAX-1-score > 32, PCI may be preferable in unstable or high operative risk patients. METHODS: Retrospective single-center all-comers registry study. RESULTS: A total of 142 patients underwent ULMCA-PCI (~72.9 years, 23.2% females, 54.2% survival in 2-year follow-up), 84 of whom had a SYNTAX-1 > 32 (37.4 ± 12.8). Patients in the high-SYNTAX-1-group (score > 32) were more often in an acute condition compared to low-SYNTAX-2-group (score ≤ 32) including acute myocardial infarction (76.2% vs. 57.4%, p = .024), cardiogenic shock (48.2% vs. 14.8%, p = .001), or need for mechanical support (36.1% vs. 11.1%, p = .001). Survival was predicted by the acute condition including cardiogenic shock (OR 0.06 and 0.05) and myocardial infarction (OR 0.03 and 0.34) in both groups. Performance of the SYNTAX-1-score was limited in our patient collective in both groups (c-index 0.65 vs. 0.63) while SYNTAX-2-PCI-score performed better (c-index 0.67 vs. 0.67). EuroScore II had the best discriminative ability (c-index 0.87 vs. 0.78). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of patients undergoing ULMCA-PCI presented in acute conditions with high SYNTAX-1-score, and is therefore underrepresented in clinical trials. Prognosis was best predicted by the acute condition and the EuroScore II. These data suggest that therapy in unstable patients should be guided by clinical condition over the anatomical SYNTAX-1-score.

Estimating the additional costs per life saved due to transcatheter aortic valve replacement: a secondary data analysis of electronic health records in Germany.

Aortic stenosis (AS) is the most common valvular heart disease, with a dismal prognosis when untreated. Recommended therapy is surgical (SAVR) or transcatheter (TAVR) aortic valve replacement. Based on a retrospective cohort of isolated SAVR and TAVR procedures performed in Germany in 2015 (N = 17,826), we examine the impact of treatment selection on in-hospital mortality and total in-hospital costs for a variety of at-risk populations. Since patients were not randomized to the two treatment options, the two endpoints in-hospital mortality and reimbursement are analyzed using logistic and linear regression models with 20 predefined patient characteristics as potential confounders. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated as a ratio of the risk-adjusted reimbursement and mortality differences with 95% confidence intervals obtained by Fieller's theorem. Our study shows that TF-TAVR is more costly that SAVR and that cost differences between the procedures vary little between patient groups. Results regarding in-hospital mortality are mixed. SAVR is the predominant procedure among younger patients. For patients older than 85 years or at intermediate and higher pre-operative risk TF-TAVR seems to be the treatment of choice. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) are most favorable for patients older than 85 years (ICER €154,839, 95% CI €89,163-€302,862), followed by patients at higher pre-operative risk (ICER €413,745, 95% CI €258,027-€952,273). A hypothetical shift from SAVR towards TF-TAVR among patients at intermediate pre-operative risk is associated with a less favorable ICER (€1,486,118, 95% CI €764,732-€23,692,323), as the risk-adjusted mortality benefit is relatively small (- 0.97% point), while the additional reimbursement is still eminent (+€14,464). From a German healthcare system payer's perspective, the additional costs per life saved due to TAVR are most favorable for patients older than 85 and/or at higher pre-operative risk.

The impact of post-procedural complications on reimbursement, length of stay and mechanical ventilation among patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation in Germany.

BACKGROUND: The impact of various post-procedural complications after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) on resource use and their consequences in the German reimbursement system has still not been properly quantified. METHODS: In a retrospective observational study, we use data from the German DRG statistic on patient characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of all isolated TAVI procedures in 2013 (N = 9147). The impact of post-procedural complications on reimbursement, length of stay and mechanical ventilation was analyzed using both unadjusted and risk-adjusted linear and logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: A total of 235 (2.57%) strokes, 583 (6.37%) bleeding events, 474 (5.18%) cases of acute kidney injury and 1428 (15.61%) pacemaker implantations were documented. The predicted reimbursement of an uncomplicated TAVI procedure was €33,272, and bleeding events were associated with highest additional reimbursement (€12,839, p < 0.001), extra length of stay (14.58 days, p < 0.001), and increased likelihood of mechanical ventilation for more than 48 h (OR 17.91, p < 0.001). A more moderate complication-related impact on resource use and reimbursement was found for acute kidney injury (additional reimbursement: €5963, p < 0.001; extra length of stay: 7.92 days, p < 0.001; ventilation >48 h: OR 6.93, p < 0.001) as well as for stroke (additional reimbursement: €4125, p < 0.001; extra length of stay: 4.68 days, p < 0.001; ventilation >48 h: OR 5.73, p < 0.001). Pacemaker implantations, in contrast, were associated with comparably small increases in reimbursement (€662, p = 0.006) and length of stay (3.54 days, p = 0.006) and no impaired likelihood of mechanical ventilation more than 48 h (OR 1.22, p = 0.156). Interestingly, these complication-related consequences remain mostly unchanged after baseline risk-adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Post procedural complications such as bleeding events, acute kidney injuries and strokes are associated with increased resource use and substantial amounts of additional reimbursement in Germany, which has important implications for decision making outside of the usual clinical sphere.

In-hospital resource utilization in surgical and transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about preoperative predictors of resource utilization in the treatment of high-risk patients with severe symptomatic aortic valve stenosis. We report results from the prospective, medical-economic "TAVI Calculation of Costs Trial". METHODS: In-hospital resource utilization was evaluated in 110 elderly patients (age ≥ 75 years) treated either with transfemoral (TF) or transapical (TA) transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI, N = 83), or surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR, N = 27). Overall, 22 patient-specific baseline parameters were tested for within-group prediction of resource use. RESULTS: Baseline characteristics differed between groups and reflected the non-randomized, real-world allocation of treatment options. Overall procedural times were shortest for TAVI, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay (LoS) was lowest for AVR. Length of total hospitalization since procedure (THsP) was lowest for TF-TAVI; 13.4 ± 11.4 days as compared to 15.7 ± 10.5 and 21.2 ± 15.4 days for AVR and TA-TAVI, respectively. For TAVI and AVR, EuroScore I remained the main predictor for prolonged THsP (p <0.01). Within the TAVI group, multivariate regression analyses showed that TA-TAVI was associated with a substantial increase in THsP (55 to 61 %, p <0.01). Additionally, preoperative aortic valve area (AVA) was identified as an independent predictor of prolonged THsP in TAVI patients, irrespective of risk scores (p <0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate significant heterogeneity in patients baseline characteristics dependent on treatment and corresponding differences in resource utilization. Prolonged ThsP is not only predicted by risk scores but also by baseline AVA, which might be useful in stratifying TAVI patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trial Register Nr. DRKS00000797.

Analysis of the additional costs of clinical complications in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement in the German Health Care System.

BACKGROUND: This study aims at analyzing complication-induced additional costs of patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). METHODS: In a prospective observational study, a total of 163 consecutive patients received either transfemoral (TF-, n=97) or transapical (TA-) TAVR (n=66) between February 2009 and December 2012. Clinical endpoints were categorized according to VARC-2 definitions and in-hospital costs were determined from the hospital perspective. Finally, the additional costs of complications were estimated using multiple linear regression models. RESULTS: TF-TAVR patients experienced significantly more minor access site bleeding, major non-access site bleeding, minor vascular complications, stage 2 acute kidney injury (AKI) and permanent pacemaker implantation. Total in-hospital costs did not differ between groups and were on average €40,348 (SD 15,851) per patient. The average incremental cost component of a single complication was €3438 (p<0.01) and the estimated cost of a TF-TAVR without complications was €34,351. The complications associated with the highest additional costs were life-threatening non-access site bleeding (€47,494; p<0.05), stage 3 AKI (€20,468; p<0.01), implantation of a second valve (€16,767; p<0.01) and other severe cardiac dysrhythmia (€10,611 p<0.05). Overall, the presence of complication-related in-hospital mortality increased costs. CONCLUSIONS: Bleeding complications, severe kidney failure, and implantation of a second valve were the most important cost drivers in our TAVR patients. Strategies and advances in device design aimed at reducing these complications have the potential to generate significant in-hospital cost reductions for the German Health Care System.