Editorial diversity correlates with journal impact factor and author diversity in cardiothoracic surgery.

INTRODUCTION: While there are no widely accepted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) metrics for journals, geographic and sex diversity across a journal's editorial board may provide a surrogate measure of its commitment to DEI. We explored the association between journal quality and DEI metrics for cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) journals and investigated whether editorial diversity correlates with diversity across published articles. METHODS: We collected the following data for 30 CTS journals: country of publication (categorized by income level), journal quality metrics (citation-based metrics, e.g., impact factor (IF) or H-index), and sex and geographic representation across editorial boards and published articles. Bivariate correlations between numeric variables were assessed using Spearman's correlation. RESULTS: Female representation across editorial boards was 12.1%. Most editorial board members belonged to the United States (35.2%), with only 7.4% from the lower-middle-income countries and 0% from low-income countries. IF showed a strong positive correlation with female editorial representation (r = 0.70) but an inverse correlation with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) editorial representation (r = -0.45). Female editorial representation demonstrated a significant positive correlation with female first authorship (r = 0.45), whereas LMIC editorial representation correlated strongly with LMIC corresponding authorship (r = 0.85). CONCLUSION: Women and researchers from LMICs are in the minority across editorial boards of CTS journals. However, a strong correlation between journal H-index and female editorial representation indicates that top-ranked journals are spearheading efforts to improve equitable sex-based and gender representations. Similar efforts are required to ensure more global geographic representation across editorial boards and top-ranked CTS journals are the best placed to lead by example.

Trends in thyrotoxicosis-related mortality in the United States from 1999 to 2020.

PURPOSE: Thyrotoxicosis is defined as a condition caused by excessive thyroid hormone concentrations, with the main cause being inappropriately increased thyroid hormone production. Existing literature indicates a correlation between thyrotoxicosis and mortality. Thus, this descriptive analysis was conducted to assess the demographic and regional trends of thyrotoxicosis-related mortality in the United States. METHODS: Death certificates from the Center of Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC-WONDER) from 1999 to 2020 were retrieved for thyrotoxicosis-related mortality in the United States. The crude and age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) per 1,000,000 population and annual percentage change (APCs) were calculated. RESULTS: There were 33,253 thyrotoxicosis-related deaths from 1999 to 2020. Initially, the AAMR increased from 1999 to 2003 (APC: 3.09; 95% CI 0.83 to 8.16), followed by a steep decline from 2003 to 2008 (APC: -4.28; 95% CI -7.46 to -2.47), followed by a marginal decline from 2008 to 2018 (APC: -0.71; 95% CI -1.70 to 0.95), and concluded by a significant increase from 2018 to 2020 (APC: 11.72; 95% CI 5.06 to 15.32). Non-Hispanic (NH) Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and NH White populations demonstrated a significant rise in thyrotoxicosis-related mortality during 2018 to 2020. In contrast, the NH Asian or Pacific Islander population did not denote any significant variations within the included study timeframe. States including West Virginia, the District of Columbia, Vermont, California, and Montana were in the top 10th percentile of thyrotoxicosis-related mortality. CONCLUSION: After an extended period of decline, the recent increments in thyrotoxicosis-related mortality rates are concerning. Further consideration is urged with respect to thyroid screening, especially among females, in order to reduce the overall thyrotoxicosis-related mortality.

Trends in Rheumatic Heart Disease-Related Mortality in the United States from 1999 to 2020.

There is a lack of mortality data on rheumatic heart disease (RHD) in the United States (US). In light of this, a retrospective analysis was conducted to investigate the temporal, sex-based, racial, and regional trends in RHD-related mortality in the US, ranging from 1999 to 2020. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC-WONDER) dataset was analyzed, where crude and age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMR) were identified, along with annual percentage changes (APCs) determined by Joinpoint regression. Through the period of 1999 to 2020, there were 141,137 RHD-related deaths reported, with a marginal decline from 4.05/100,000 in 1999 to 3.12/100,000 in 2020. However, the recent rise in AAMR from 2017 to 2020 has created a source of concern (APC: 6.62 [95% CI, 3.19-8.72]). Similar trends were observed in the Black or African American race from 2017 to 2020 (APC: 10.58 [95% CI, 6.29-17.80]). Moreover, the highest percentage change from 2018 to 2020 was observed in residents of large metropolitan areas (APC: 7.6 [95% CI, 2.8-10.5]). A prominent disparity was observed among states, with values ranging from 1.74/100,000 in Louisiana to 5.27/100,000 in Vermont. States within the top 90th percentile of RHD-related deaths included Alaska, Minnesota, Washington, Wyoming, and Vermont. In conclusion, it is imperative to delve deeper into the evidently rising trends of RHD-related mortality and outline the possible sources of social determinants within US healthcare in order to provide equal and quality medical care throughout the nation.

Effectiveness of Emergency versus Nonemergent Coronary Angiography After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest without ST-Segment Elevation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

The optimal timing of coronary angiography (CAG) in patients after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) without ST-segment elevation remains controversial. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis of randomized control trials to investigate the effectiveness of emergency CAG versus delayed CAG in OHCA patients with a non-ST-segment elevated rhythm. PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Cochrane CENTRAL, and JBI databases were searched from inception to September 7, 2022. Our primary end point was survival with a good neurological outcome, whereas the secondary outcomes included short-term survival, mid-term survival, recurrent arrhythmias, myocardial infarction after hospitalization, major bleeding, acute kidney injury, and left ventricular ejection fraction. Nine randomized control trials involving 2,569 patients were included in this analysis. Our meta-analysis showed no significant difference in the improvement of neurological outcome (RR 0.96, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] [0.87, 1.06]), short-term survival (risk ratio [RR] 0.98, 95% CI [0.89, 1.08]), mid-term survival (RR 0.98, 95% CI [0.87, 1.10]), recurrent arrhythmias (RR 1.02, 95% CI [0.50, 2.06]), myocardial infarction (RR 0.66, 95% CI [0.13, 3.30]), major bleeding (RR 0.96, 95% CI [0.55, 1.69]), acute kidney injury (RR 1.20, 95% CI [0.32, 4.49]) and left ventricular ejection fraction (RR 0.89, 95% CI [0.69, 1.15]) in patients who underwent emergency CAG compared with delayed CAG patients. In conclusion, our analysis revealed that emergency CAG had no prognostic superiority over delayed CAG in patients with OHCA without ST-segment elevation.