Association between early postoperative hypoalbuminaemia and outcome after orthotopic heart transplantation.

OBJECTIVES: In patients undergoing heart transplantation (HTX), preoperative liver impairment and consecutive hypoalbuminaemia are associated with increased mortality. The role of early postoperative hypoalbuminaemia after HTX is unclear. This study investigated the association between early postoperative hypoalbuminaemia and 1-year mortality as well as 'days alive and out of hospital' (DAOH) after HTX. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included patients who underwent HTX at the University Hospital Duesseldorf, Germany, between 2010 and 2022. The main exposure was serum albumin concentration at intensive care unit (ICU) arrival. The primary endpoints were mortality and DAOH within 1 year after surgery. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed and logistic and quantile regression models with adjustment for 13 a priori defined clinical risk factors were conducted. RESULTS: Out of 241 patients screened, 229 were included in the analysis (mean age 55 ± 11 years, 73% male). ROC analysis showed moderate discrimination for 1-year mortality by postoperative serum albumin after HTX [AUC = 0.74; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.66-0.83]. The cutoff for serum albumin at ICU arrival was 3.0 g/dl. According to multivariate logistic and quantile regression, there were independent associations between hypoalbuminaemia and mortality/DAOH [odds ratio of 4.76 (95% CI: 1.94-11.67) and regression coefficient of -46.97 (95% CI: -83.81 to -10.13)]. CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative hypoalbuminaemia <3.0 g/dl is associated with 1-year mortality and reduced DAOH after HTX and therefore might be used for early postoperative risk re-assessment in clinical practice.

Evaluation of risk factors for cytomegalovirus DNAemia after end of regular prophylaxis after heart transplantation.

BACKGROUND: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections after heart transplantation (HTx) can cause cardiac allograft vasculopathy. Consequently, monitoring and prophylaxis for cytomegalovirus deoxyribonucleic acid (CMV-DNAemia) within the first weeks after HTx is recommended. METHODS: All patients who underwent HTx between September 2010 and 2021 surviving the first 90 days (n = 196) were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were divided on the prevalence of CMV-DNAemia during the first postoperative year after the end of the prophylaxis. A total of n = 35 (20.1%) developed CMV-DNAemia (CMV group) and were compared to patients without CMV-DNAemia (controls, n = 139). The remaining patients (n = 22) were excluded due to incomplete data. RESULTS: Positive donors and negative recipients (D+/R-) and negative donors and positive recipients (D-/R+) serology was significantly increased and D-/R- decreased in the CMV group (p < .01). Furthermore, the mean age was 57.7 ± 8.7 years but only 53.6 ± 10.0 years for controls (p = .03). Additionally, the intensive care unit (p = .02) and total hospital stay (p = .03) after HTx were approximately 50% longer. Interestingly, the incidence of CMV-DNAemia during prophylaxis was only numerically increased in the CMV group (5.7%, respectively, 0.7%, p = .10), the same effect was also observed for postoperative infections. Multivariate analyses confirmed that D+/R- and D-/R+ CMV immunoglobulin G match were independent risk factors for postprophylaxis CMV-DNAemia. CONCLUSION: Our data should raise awareness of CMV-DNAemia after the termination of regular prophylaxis, as this affects one in five HTx patients. Especially old recipients as well as D+/R- and D-/R+ serology share an elevated risk of late CMV-DNAemia. For these patients, prolongation, or repetition of CMV prophylaxis, including antiviral drugs and CMV immunoglobulins, may be considered.

Changes in Therapy and Outcome of Patients Requiring Veno-Venous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related acute respiratory distress syndrome requiring veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (vv-ECMO) is related with poor outcome, especially in Germany. We aimed to analyze whether changes in vv-ECMO therapy during the pandemic were observed and lead to changes in the outcome of vv-ECMO patients. METHODS: All patients undergoing vv-ECMO support for COVID-19 between 2020 and 2021 in a single center (n = 75) were retrospectively analyzed. Weaning from vv-ECMO and in-hospital mortality were defined as primary and peri-interventional adverse events as secondary endpoints of the study. RESULTS: During the study period, four infective waves were observed in Germany. Patients were assigned correspondingly to four study groups: ECMO implantation between March 2020 and September 2020: first wave (n = 11); October 2020 to February 2021: second wave (n = 23); March 2021 to July 2021: third wave (n = 25); and August 2021 to December 2021: fourth wave (n = 20). Preferred cannulation technique changed within the second wave from femoro-femoral to femoro-jugular access (p < 0.01) and awake ECMO was implemented. Mean ECMO run time increased by more than 300% from 10.9 ± 9.6 (first wave) to 44.9 ± 47.0 days (fourth wave). Weaning of patients was achieved in less than 20% in the first wave but increased to approximately 40% since the second one. Furthermore, we observed a continuous numerically decrease of in-hospital mortality from 81.8 to 57.9% (p = 0.61). CONCLUSION: Preference for femoro-jugular cannulation and awake ECMO combined with preexisting expertise and patient selection are considered to be associated with increased duration of ECMO support and numerically improved ECMO weaning and in-hospital mortality.

Impact of circadian rhythm and daytime variation on outcome after heart transplantation.

INTRO: Recently, the impact of circadian rhythm and daytime variation on surgical outcomes has attracted interest. Although studies for coronary artery and aortic valve surgery report contrary results, effects on heart transplantation have not been studied. METHODS: Between 2010 and February 2022, 235 patients underwent HTx in our department. The recipients were reviewed and categorized according to the start of the HTx procedure - between 04:00 am and 11:59 am (morning, n = 79), 12:00 pm and 07:59 pm (afternoon, n = 68) or 08:00 pm and 03:59 am (night, n = 88). RESULTS: The incidence of high urgency status was slightly but not significantly increased (p = .08) in the morning (55.7%), compared to the afternoon (41.2%) or night (39.8%). The most important donor and recipient characteristics were comparable among the three groups. The incidence of severe primary graft dysfunction (PGD) requiring extracorporeal life support (morning: 36.7%, afternoon: 27.3%, night: 23.0%, p = .15) was also similarly distributed. In addition, there were no significant differences for kidney failure, infections, and acute graft rejection. However, the incidence of bleeding that required rethoracotomy showed an increased trend in the afternoon (morning: 29.1%, afternoon: 40.9%, night: 23.0%, p = .06). 30-day survival (morning: 88.6%, afternoon: 90.8%, night: 92.0%, p = .82) and 1-year survival (morning: 77.5%, afternoon: 76.0%, night: 84.4%, p = .41) were comparable between all groups. CONCLUSION: Circadian rhythm and daytime variation did not affect the outcome after HTx. Postoperative adverse events as well as survival were comparable throughout day- and night-time. As the timing of the HTx procedure is rarely possible and depends on the timing of organ recovery, these results are encouraging, as they allow for the continuation of the prevalent practice.

Predicting readmission to the cardiovascular intensive care unit using recurrent neural networks.

If a patient can be discharged from an intensive care unit (ICU) is usually decided by the treating physicians based on their clinical experience. However, nowadays limited capacities and growing socioeconomic burden of our health systems increase the pressure to discharge patients as early as possible, which may lead to higher readmission rates and potentially fatal consequences for the patients. Therefore, here we present a long short-term memory-based deep learning model (LSTM) trained on time series data from Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC-III) dataset to assist physicians in making decisions if patients can be safely discharged from cardiovascular ICUs. To underline the strengths of our LSTM we compare its performance with a logistic regression model, a random forest, extra trees, a feedforward neural network and with an already known, more complex LSTM as well as an LSTM combined with a convolutional neural network. The results of our evaluation show that our LSTM outperforms most of the above models in terms of area under receiver operating characteristic curve. Moreover, our LSTM shows the best performance with respect to the area under precision-recall curve. The deep learning solution presented in this article can help physicians decide on patient discharge from the ICU. This may not only help to increase the quality of patient care, but may also help to reduce costs and to optimize ICU resources. Further, the presented LSTM-based approach may help to improve existing and develop new medical machine learning prediction models.

Heart transplantation in the era of corona virus disease 2019: Impact of the pandemic on donors, recipients and outcome.

INTRODUCTION: Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has tremendously impacted health care all around the globe. We analyzed the impact of the pandemic on donors, recipients, and outcome of heart transplantation (HTx). METHODS: Between 2010 and early 2022, a total of n = 235 patients underwent HTx in our department. Patients were assigned to the study groups regarding the date of the performed HTx. Group 1 (09/2010 to 02/2020): n = 160, Group 2 (03/2020 to 02/2022): n = 75. RESULTS: Since the pandemic, the etiology of heart failure in the recipients has shifted from dilated (Group 1: 53.8%, Group 2: 32.0%) to ischemic cardiomyopathy (Group 1: 39.4%, Group 2: 50.7%, p < .01). The percentage of high urgency status of the recipients dropped from 50.0% to 36.0% (p = .05), and the use of left ventricular assist (LVAD) support from 56.9% to just 37.3% (p < .01). Meanwhile, the waiting time for the recipients also decreased by about 40% (p = .05). Since the pandemic, donors were 2- times more likely to have been previously resuscitated (Group 1: 21.3%, Group 2: 45.3% (p < .01), and drug abuse increased by more than 3-times (p < .01), indicating acceptance of more marginal donors. Surprisingly, the incidence of postoperative severe primary graft dysfunction requiring extracorporeal life support decreased from 33.1% to 19.4% (p = .04) since the pandemic. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic affected both donors and recipients of HTX but not the postoperative outcome. Donors nowadays are more likely to suffer from ischemic heart disease and are less likely to be on the high-urgency waitlist and on LVAD support. Simultaneously, an increasing number of marginal donors are accepted, leading to shorter waiting times.

[Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiac surgery]. / Auswirkungen der COVID-19-Pandemie auf die Herzchirurgie.

Since the beginning of 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had a massive impact on and also changed life worldwide and serious consequences have naturally been observed particularly in the healthcare sector. These affect patients as well as medical personnel of all professional groups, both in the outpatient and inpatient areas. As expected, cardiac surgery as a discipline that is more dependent than any other on available capacity in intensive care units, was severely affected by the impact of the pandemic. This article provides an overview of the consequences for clinical care, research and teaching as well as for continuing education in cardiac surgery.

[Venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for COVID-19]. / Venovenöse extrakorporale Membranoxygenierung bei COVID-19: Erkenntnisse eines Zentrums aus 96 konsekutiven Fällen.

Background: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic global health systems are confronted with a large number of unknown problems. Venovenous (vv) extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in cases of therapy refractive ARDS often represents a last resort treatment. To improve the health care it is necessary to identify possible influencing factors. Objective: This analysis presents the findings of an ECMO centre and aims to identify potential factors with an impact on vv-ECMO therapy in cases of COVID-19. Material and methods: Between 03/2020 and 01/2022 n = 96 patients were treated with vv-ECMO in cases of a COVID-19 infection in our center. A retrospective analysis of demographic and health-specific data took place. The patients with fatal treatment outcome (L-group, n = 62) were compared to the surviving patients (Ü-group, n = 34). Results: Overall n = 34 (35%) of the patients survived the hospital stay. The patients with a fatal treatment outcome had an average age of 56.7 ± 9.5 years compared to the average age of the surviving patients of 47.9 ± 12.9 years. There were n = 72 (75%) males and n = 24 (25%) females among the treated patients, n = 51 (82.3%) of the deceased patients were male and n = 11 (17.7%) were female. The prevalence of pre-existing illnesses like COPD, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases and chronic renal insufficiency had shown no significant difference between both groups. Also, in relation to the presence of arterial hypertension and obesity we could not prove a negative influence on the treatment outcome. A nicotine abuse in the patient history showed a negative tendency. The most common reasons for the death of patients were respiratory failure, neurological injury, multiorgan failure and sepsis. Conclusion: The use of vv-ECMO in cases of therapy resistant ARDS in COVID-19 still correlates with a high mortality and as such should only be considered as a last resort of intensive care treatment.According to our expectations we could notice better therapy results for younger patients as well as for women in our patient database. In addition, for most comorbidities we could not prove any negative influence on the therapy outcome. This knowledge could help to identify future high-risk patients.

[ECMO cannulation for COVID-19]. / ECMO-Kanülierung bei COVID-19: Venovenöse extrakorporale Membranoxygenierung bei COVID-19: Einfluss der Kanülierungsstrategie auf das Therapieergebnis.

Background: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can cause a severe and therapy-refractory acute respiratory distress syndrome. Temporary mechanical assistance by veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (v.v.-EMCO) is a well-established supportive therapy, but is still associated with a high mortality. Objective: This work aimed to identify potential effects of the ECMO cannulation strategy on the outcome in COVID-19 patients. Material and methods: All patients who were treated in a single center between March 2020 and November 2021 for COVID-19-related ARDS (n = 75) were prospectively entered into an institutional database. The patients were assigned into two groups with respect to the ECMO cannulation (femorofemoral: n = 20, femorojugular: n = 55) and the outcome was retrospectively analyzed. Results: We observed severe therapy-related adverse events in both groups in more than 70% of patients with sepsis being the most common (> 50% each). The outcome (successful ECMO weaning, in-hospital death, 6­month survival) was comparable in both groups. In-hospital mortality was about 70% each; however, the duration of event-free ECMO support seemed to be prolonged in the femorojugular group. Conclusion: Regardless of the support duration, v.v.-ECMO therapy for COVID-19 is associated with high mortality rates. The cannulation strategy did not impact on the outcome; however, femorojugular cannulation might prolong the event-free support duration and facilitate the mobilization of the patients during ECMO support.