Molecular diagnosis of toxoplasmosis at the onset of symptomatic primary infection: A straightforward alternative to serological examinations.

Myopericarditis is a rare but well-documented clinical presentation of primary Toxoplasma gondii infection in immunocompetent patients. Here, early detection of Toxoplasma DNA in the peripheral blood by PCR allowed the diagnosis of acute toxoplasmosis while serological tests were negative. Additional serological evaluations 2 weeks later confirmed the diagnosis and showed that cardiac manifestations occurred before seroconversion. This highlights the importance of a second serological control in the case of a suspected active infection. Overall, we show here that PCR testing for Toxoplasma is a sensitive and straightforward alternative to serological examinations.

Safety of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Without P2Y12 Inhibitor Pretreatment From a Cohort of Unselected Patients.

OBJECTIVES: Recent studies have challenged systematic pretreatment with a P2Y12 inhibitor before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in elective and non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) patients. The aim of this study was to assess outcomes after performing PCI immediately after coronary angiography with an exclusive "on-the-table" P2Y12 inhibitor loading dose, by evaluating ischemic and bleeding complications in unselected patients. METHODS: Consecutive patients admitted for elective PCI or NSTEMI were included in this two-center, prospective, observational study, and received a P2Y12 inhibitor after coronary angiography when PCI was decided. The primary composite endpoint was first occurrence of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke, urgent revascularization, or use of bail-out glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors at 30 days after PCI. Stent thrombosis and bleeding criteria (Bleeding Academic Research Consortium [BARC]) were evaluated. RESULTS: Among 299 included patients, a total of 188 were admitted for elective PCI and 111 for NSTEMI. The incidence of the primary endpoint was 8.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.7-12.4). No definite stent thrombosis occurred. Three independent predictive factors were associated with the primary endpoint: NSTEMI setting (odds ratio [OR], 5.61; 95% CI, 1.75-17.98), thrombotic coronary lesion (OR, 4.26; 95% CI, 1.45-12.54), and longer procedure duration (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.03-1.09). Clinically relevant bleedings (BARC 2, 3, or 5) occurred in 5.4% of patients. CONCLUSIONS: In an unselected population admitted for elective PCI or NSTEMI in real-world clinical practice, administration of a P2Y12 inhibitor only after coronary angiography is associated with a low rate of ischemic and bleeding events at 30 days.

Prognostic Impact of Calcium Score after Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Performed With New Generation Prosthesis.

Calcium score (CS) is a well-known prognostic factor after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) performed with first generation prosthesis but few data are available concerning new generation valves. The aim of this study was to evaluate if CS remains a prognostic factor after Sapien 3 and Evolut R valves implantation. Agatston CS was evaluated on multislice computed tomography before TAVI in 346 patients implanted with Sapien XT (n = 61), CoreValve (n = 57) devices, (group 1, n = 118), and with new generation Sapien 3 (n = 147), Evolut R (n = 81) prosthesis, (group 2, n = 228). Major adverse cardiovascular events and aortic regurgitation (AR) were evaluated at 1 month. The 2 groups were similar at baseline except for logistic Euroscore (20.1% in group 1 vs 15.0 % in group 2; p = 0.001), chronic renal failure (44.1% vs 37.2% respectively, p = 0.007) and preprocedural CS (4,092 ± 2,176 vs 3,682 ± 2,109 respectively, p = 0.022). In group 1, 28 patients (23.7%) had adverse clinical events vs 21 (9.2%) in group 2 (p <0.01). In multivariate analysis, a higher CS was predictive of adverse events in group 1 (5,785 ± 3,285 vs 3,565 ± 1,331 p <0.0001) but not in group 2 (p = 0.28). A higher CS was associated with AR in group 1 (6,234 ± 2711 vs 3,429 ± 1,505; p <0.001) and in patients implanted with an Evolut R device from group 2 (4,085 ± 3,645 vs 2,551 ± 1,356; p = 0.01). In conclusion, CS appears as an important prognostic factor of major events after TAVI with first generation valves but not with new generation devices. CS remains associated with AR only with new generation self-expandable Evolut R devices.

Feasibility and Safety of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Performed Without Intensive Care Unit Admission.

Admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) is a standard of care after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI); however, the improvement of the procedure and the need to minimize the unnecessary use of medical resources call into question this strategy. We evaluated prospectively 177 consecutive patients who underwent TAVI. Low-risk patients, admitted to conventional cardiology units, had stable clinical state, transfemoral access, no right bundle branch block, permanent pacing with a self-expandable valve, and no complication occurring during the procedure. High-risk patients included all the others transferred to ICU. In-hospital events were the primary end point (Valve Academic Research Consortium 2 criteria). The mean age of patients was 83.5 ± 6.5 years, and the mean logistic EuroSCORE was 14.6 ± 9.7%. The balloon-expandable SAPIEN 3 valve was mainly used (n = 148; 83.6%), mostly with transfemoral access (n = 167; 94.4%). Among the 61 patients (34.5%) included in the low-risk group, only 1 (1.6%) had a minor complication (negative predictive value 98.4%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.91 to 0.99). Conversely, 31 patients (26.7%) from the high-risk group had clinical events (positive predictive value 26.7%, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.35), mainly conductive disorders requiring pacemaker (n = 26; 14.7%). In multivariate analysis, right bundle branch block (odds ratio [OR] 14.1, 95% CI 3.5 to 56.3), use of the self-expandable valve without a pacemaker (OR 5.5, 95% CI 2 to 16.3), vitamin K antagonist treatment (OR 3.8, 95% CI 1.1 to 12.6), and female gender (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.003 to 6.9) were preprocedural predictive factors of adverse events. In conclusion, our results suggested that TAVI can be performed safely without ICU admission in selected patients. This strategy may optimize efficiency and cost-effectiveness of procedures.

Copeptin and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin to exclude severe coronary stenosis in patients with chest pain and coronary artery disease.

PURPOSE: The purpose was to evaluate the incremental value of copeptin associated with high-sensitivity cardiac T troponin (hs-cTnT) to exclude severe coronary stenosis in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and acute chest pain. METHODS: This monocentric prospective study included 96 consecutive patients with documented CAD and admitted to the intensive care unit for chest pain lasting for less than 10 hours. Acute coronary syndrome was excluded with electrocardiography and baseline hs-cTnT values <14 ng/L with dynamic changes ≤50% 3 hours later (Roche Diagnostics, COBAS 8000). Copeptin (Thermofisher, Kryptor Compact) was considered as positive when >10 pmol/L. Primary end point was severe coronary stenosis at coronary angiography or myocardial ischemia on perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography imaging. RESULTS: Mean age of patients was 60 ± 13.8 years, and the mean time between chest pain onset and blood samples of copeptin was 4.2 ± 2.7 hours. According to clinical decision, coronary angiography was performed in 71 patients (73.9%) and severe stenosis diagnosed in 14 of them (14.6%). No ischemia was detected on single-photon emission computed tomography imaging (n = 25). Among the 69 patients with a negative kinetic of hs-cTnT and a negative baseline copeptin, 5 (7.4%) had a severe stenosis (negative predictive value, 0.93; 95% confidence interval, 0.87-0.99), 4 of them related to in-stent restenosis (negative predictive value for exclusion of native coronary stenosis, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.93-1). CONCLUSIONS: For patients with preexisting CAD and acute chest pain, and once acute coronary syndrome is excluded, copeptin provides a useful additional triage strategy to exclude severe coronary stenosis, particularly those not related to in-stent restenosis.