Impact of Prior COVID-19 Infections on Cardiac Rehabilitation Completion Rates and Outcomes.

PURPOSE: This is a retrospective cohort study designed to evaluate the impact of having a prior COVID-19 infection on cardiac rehabilitation (CR) completion rates and outcomes. METHODS: Participants enrolled into the CR program from June 1, 2020, to March 30, 2022. They completed both physical and mental health assessments prior to enrollment and upon completion of the program. The cohort was divided into (-) COVID and (+) COVID based on whether they self-reported a prior COVID-19 infection. Outcome measures included General Anxiety Disorder-7, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Mental Composite Score (Short Form Health Survey-36), Physical Composite Score (Short Form Health Survey-36), and exercise capacity (reported in METs). Program completion rates and outcome measures were compared between (-) COVID and (+) COVID cohorts. RESULTS: A total of 806 participants were enrolled in the study. Program completion rates were 58.7% in the (-) COVID group and 67.2% in the (+) COVID group ( P = .072). African Americans ( P = .017), diabetics ( P = .017), and current smokers ( P = .003) were less likely to complete the program. Both (-) COVID and (+) COVID groups showed significant improvement in all outcome measures after completing the CR program. However, there was no difference in outcomes between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Having a prior COVID-19 infection did not negatively impact the mental and physical health benefits obtained by completing the CR program, regardless of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation risk category.

Maternal Outcomes in Women with Peripartum Cardiomyopathy versus Age and Race-Matched Peers in an Urban US Community.

Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is idiopathic systolic congestive heart failure around pregnancy. Comparisons with matched controls are lacking. We investigated maternal characteristics and outcomes up to 12 months in a cohort admitted to Montefiore Health System in Bronx, New York 1999−2015 (n = 53 cases and n = 92 age and race-matched controls, >80% Black or Hispanic/Latina). Compared to peers, women with PPCM had more chronic hypertension (24.5% vs. 8.8%, p = 0.001), prior gestational hypertension (20.8% vs. 5.4%, p = 0.001), prior preeclampsia (17.0% vs. 3.3%, p = 0.001), familial dilated cardiomyopathy (5.7% vs. 0.0%, p = 0.04), smoking (15.1% vs. 2.2%, p = 0.001), lower summary socioeconomic scores (−4.12 (IQR −6.81, −2.13) vs. −1.62 (IQR −4.20, −0.74), p < 0.001), public insurance (67.9% vs. 29.3% p = 0.001), and frequent depressive symptoms. Women with PPCM were often admitted antepartum (34.0% vs. 18.5%, p = 0.001) and underwent Cesarean section (65.4% vs. 30.4%, p = 0.001), but had less preterm labor (27.3% vs. 51.1%, p = 0.001). Women were rarely treated with bromocriptine (3.8%), frequently underwent left ventricular assist device placement (9.4% and n = 2 with menorrhagia requiring transfusion and progesterone) or heart transplantation (3.8%), but there were no in-hospital deaths. In sum, women with PPCM had worse socioeconomic disadvantage and baseline health than matched peers. Programs addressing social determinants of health may be important for women at high risk of PPCM.

Persistence of abnormal global longitudinal strain in women with peripartum cardiomyopathy.

OBJECTIVES: Data regarding the longitudinal relationship of global longitudinal strain (GLS) and echocardiographic parameters are lacking in peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM). We evaluated GLS and its correlation with change (∆) in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). METHODS: We retrospectively identified women age ≥16 years hospitalized at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, NY from 1999-2015 with International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 9th revision codes for PPCM or an occurrence of unexplained heart failure during or up to 5 months postpartum. N = 195 charts were reviewed for inclusion/exclusion criteria, n = 53 patients met criteria for PPCM, and of those, n = 13 had a baseline and follow-up echocardiogram suitable for GLS analysis. RESULTS: Of those eligible for strain analysis, the mean age was 30 ± 6 years, 46.2% identified as Black and 38.5% as Hispanic/Latina. Baseline LVEF was 30 (25, 35)%, GLS was -13.2 (-14, -7.6)%. At a mean follow-up time of 1.2 ± 0.7 years, 11/13 had persistently mild -15.6 (-16.3, -12.7)%, and 2/13 severely abnormal GLS -7.05 (-7.1, -7.0)%. There was no correlation between baseline GLS and ∆LVEF (r = .014, P = .965). CONCLUSIONS: Global longitudinal strain is a sensitive method to identify subclinical myocardial dysfunction. In this series of women with PPCM, GLS remained persistently abnormal over time, even if LVEF improved. Future studies should examine the implication of persistently abnormal GLS in PPCM.

Hyperglycaemia, adverse outcomes and impact of intravenous insulin therapy in patients presenting with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction in a socioeconomically disadvantaged urban setting: The Montefiore STEMI Registry.

BACKGROUND: Hyperglycaemia occurs frequently in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and is associated with poor outcomes, for which continuous insulin infusion therapy (CIIT) may be beneficial. Information is limited regarding hyperglycaemia in acute STEMI affecting urban minority populations, or how CIIT fares in such real-world settings. METHODS AND RESULTS: We assembled an acute STEMI registry at an inner-city health system, focusing on patients with initial blood glucose ≥180 mg/dL to determine the impact of CIIT vs usual care. Clinical and outcomes data were added through linkage to electronic records. Inverse-probability-of-treatment weighting using propensity scores (PS) was used to compare CIIT vs no CIIT. The 1067 patients included were mostly Hispanic or African American; 356 had blood glucose ≥180 mg/dL. Such pronounced hyperglycaemia was related to female sex, minority race-ethnicity and lower socioeconomic score, and associated with increased death and death or CVD readmission. CIIT was preferentially used in patients with marked hyperglycaemia and was associated with in-hospital hypoglycaemia (21% vs 11%, P = .019) and, after PS weighting, with increased in-hospital (RR 3.23, 95% CI 0.94, 11.06) and 1-year (RR 2.26, 95% CI 1.02, 4.98) mortality. No significant differences were observed for death at 30 days or throughout follow-up, or death and readmission at any time point. CONCLUSIONS: Pronounced hyperglycaemia was common and associated with adverse prognosis in this urban population. CIIT met with selective use and was associated with hypoglycaemia, together with increased mortality at specific time points. Given the burden of metabolic disease, particularly among race-ethnic minorities, assessing the benefits of CIIT is a prerogative that requires evaluation in large-scale randomized trials.

The impact and utility of encounter patient decision aids: Systematic review, meta-analysis and narrative synthesis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of encounter patient decision aids (PDAs) as evaluated in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and conduct a narrative synthesis of non-randomized studies assessing feasibility, utility and their integration into clinical workflows. METHODS: Databases were systematically searched for RCTs of encounter PDAs to enable the conduct of a meta-analysis. We used a framework analysis approach to conduct a narrative synthesis of non-randomized studies. RESULTS: We included 23 RCTs and 30 non-randomized studies. Encounter PDAs significantly increased knowledge (SMD = 0.42; 95% CI 0.30, 0.55), lowered decisional conflict (SMD= -0.33; 95% CI -0.56, -0.09), increased observational-based assessment of shared decision making (SMD = 0.94; 95% CI 0.40, 1.48) and satisfaction with the decision-making process (OR = 1.78; 95% CI 1.19, 2.66) without increasing visit durations (SMD= -0.06; 95% CI -0.29, 0.16). The narrative synthesis showed that encounter tools have high utility for patients and clinicians, yet important barriers to implementation exist (i.e. time constraints) at the clinical and organizational level. CONCLUSION: Encounter PDAs have a positive impact on patient-clinician collaboration, despite facing implementation barriers. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The potential utility of encounter PDAs requires addressing the systemic and structural barriers that prevent adoption in clinical practice.

Differential effects of cognitive load on subjective versus motor responses to ambiguously valenced facial expressions.

Valence is a principal dimension by which we understand emotional experiences, but oftentimes events are not easily classified as strictly positive or negative. Inevitably, individuals vary in how they tend to interpret the valence of ambiguous situations. Surprised facial expressions are one example of a well-defined, ambiguous affective event that induces trait-like differences in the propensity to form a positive or negative interpretation. To investigate the nature of this affective bias, we asked participants to organize emotional facial expressions (surprised, happy, sad) into positive/negative categories while recording their hand-movement trajectories en route to each response choice. We found that positivity-negativity bias resulted in differential hand movements for modal versus nonmodal response trajectories, such that when an individual categorized a surprised face according to his or her nonmodal interpretation (e.g., a negatively biased individual selecting a positive interpretation), the hand showed an enhanced spatial attraction to the alternative, modal response option (e.g., negative) in the opposite corner of the computer screen (Experiment 1). Critically, we also demonstrate that this asymmetry between modal versus nonmodal response trajectories is mitigated when the valence interpretations are made under a cognitive load, although the frequency of modal interpretations is unaffected by the load (Experiment 2). These data inform a body of seemingly disparate findings regarding the effect of cognitive effort on affective responses, by showing within a single paradigm that varying cognitive load selectively alters the dynamic motor movements involved in indicating affective interpretations, whereas the subjective interpretations themselves remain consistent across variable cognitive loads. (PsycINFO Database Record

An expanded composite scale of MRI-defined disease severity in multiple sclerosis: MRDSS2.

The objective of this study was to test a new version of the Magnetic Resonance Disease Severity Scale (MRDSS2), incorporating cerebral gray matter (GM) and spinal cord involvement from 3 T MRI, in modeling the relationship between MRI and physical disability or cognitive status in multiple sclerosis (MS). Fifty-five MS patients and 30 normal controls underwent high-resolution 3 T MRI. The patients had an Expanded Disability Status Scale score of 1.6±1.7 (mean±SD). The cerebral normalized GM fraction (GMF), the T2 lesion volume (T2LV), and the ratio of T1 hypointense LV to T2LV (T1/T2) were derived from brain images. Upper cervical spinal cord area (UCCA) was obtained from spinal cord images. A within-subject d-score (difference of MS from normal control) for each MRI component was calculated, equally weighted, and summed to form MRDSS2. With regard to the relationship between physical disability and MRDSS2 or its individual components, MRI-Expanded Disability Status Scale correlations were significant for MRDSS2 (r=0.33, P=0.013) and UCCA (r=-0.33, P=0.015), but not for GMF (P=0.198), T2LV (P=0.707), and T1/T2 (P=0.240). The inclusion of UCCA appeared to drive this MRI-disability relationship in MRDSS2. With regard to cognition, MRDSS2 showed a larger effect size (P=0.035) than its individual components [GMF (P=0.081), T2LV (P=0. 179), T1/T2 (P=0.043), and UCCA (P=0.818)] in comparing cognitively impaired with cognitively preserved patients (defined by the Minimal Assessment of Cognitive Function in MS). Both cerebral lesions (T1/T2) and atrophy (GMF) appeared to drive this relationship. We describe a new version of the MRDSS, which has been expanded to include cerebral GM and spinal cord involvement. MRDSS2 has concurrent validity with clinical status.