Does a Heart Team Improve Clinical Outcomes?

Consultation by a Heart Team (HT) is a class I recommendation by the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and the European Society of Cardiology for the management of patients with complex cardiac disease. Despite the class I recommendation, there is a paucity of data to support the role of an HT with only level C quality of evidence. This study was performed to follow patients who were referred for HT consultation and long-term outcomes in relation to whether the recommendation of the HT was followed or not. We performed a prospective analysis of our cohort of patients who underwent consultation by the HT. A total of 342 cases have been followed. Patient characteristics, referring physicians' favored treatment, and key outcomes were followed. A total of 336 patients were reviewed; 70.4% were male patients with a median age of 66.3 years and an average EuroSCORE II score of 7.2%. A total of 79.9% of the discussions resulted in a unanimous decision. The recommendations made by the HT differed from those documented by the referring physician in 54% of cases. In conclusion, recommendations made by the HT were followed in 269 cases (83.8%). There was a significant reduction in cardiac death (6.3% vs 15.3%, p = 0.042), composite cardiac outcome (23.4% vs 51.9%, p ≤0.001), and hospital admissions (10.4% vs 36.5%, p ≤0.001) when recommendations were followed. There was no statistical difference between the 2 groups when looking at noncardiac death, stroke, ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, dialysis, or an emergency room visit.

A multi-hospital analysis of predictors of oral anticoagulation prescriptions for patients with actionable atrial fibrillation who attend the emergency department.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia and is associated with an increase in the risk of ischemic stroke. The risk of stroke can be significantly decreased by oral anticoagulation (OAC). Our objective was to characterize the filling of OAC prescriptions for patients with actionable AF (new or existing AF with an indication for OAC but not prescribed) and determine the prevalence and predictors of guideline-appropriate therapy at 30 days. This is a multi-hospital, retrospective cohort study of patients who visited the Emergency Department (ED) and had a discharge diagnosis of AF. Patient records were examined to identify demographics, risk factors, and prescription data. Predictors of filling a prescription at 30 days were analyzed. 788 patients with AF were reviewed. 257 patients had actionable AF. Forty one percent (104) had newly diagnosed AF. The mean CHADS2 score was 2 ± 1. At 30 days after discharge, 25.7% of patients filled a prescription for OAC therapy. Large numbers of patients attending the ED have actionable AF, but rates of guideline-directed OAC at thirty days are low. Only a prescription written by the ED physician (OR 9.89) and documentation of stroke risk stratification in the patients' chart (OR 4.09) were associated with the primary outcome.