Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection in a Patient With Cardiogenic Shock: To Revascularize or Not to Revascularize?

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is a rare cause of acute coronary syndrome in young patients. Supportive care is recommended for most uncomplicated cases. However, it is unclear if revascularization plays a role in treating SCAD, particularly in the setting of cardiogenic shock. We present a case of a 40-year-old female with no past medical history admitted for SCAD that was complicated by the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) stage D cardiogenic shock. She was successfully managed with a percutaneous left ventricular assist device without revascularization. Repeat angiogram showed healed left anterior descending (LAD) SCAD with recovery of left ventricular (LV) systolic function. This case highlights the importance of supportive care in the treatment of SCAD, as revascularization by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) can pose a significant perioperative risk in this patient population.

Primary Cardiac Sarcoma: Angiosarcoma Compressing the Right Coronary Artery.

Cardiac tumors are uncommon and can be classified as either primary benign, primary malignant, or metastatic. Cardiac tumors have a wide range of presentations, which can lead to delays in diagnosis and treatment. Primary cardiac tumors can also affect nearby structures, and there have been a few reported cases of coronary artery involvement with various underlying causes. In this case report, we describe a patient with a primary cardiac sarcoma (angiosarcoma) that had spread to other parts of the body and caused occlusion of the right coronary artery.

Utility of inflammatory markers to predict adverse outcome in acute pancreatitis: A retrospective study in a single academic center.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a commonly encountered emergency where early identification of complicated cases is important. Inflammatory markers like lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR) and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) are simple and readily available markers. In this study, we evaluated the utility of these markers in the early identification of patients with complicated AP. PATIENTS AND METHODS: All patients with a diagnosis of AP admitted to the University Medical Center in Las Vegas/Nevada between August 2015 and September 2018 were identified using ICD-10 codes. Medical records were reviewed retrospectively. Epidemiological measures and their associated confidence intervals were calculated using MedCalc (v. 18). RESULTS: The LMR showed a significant difference between groups, with the non-complicated cases consistently higher than the complicated cases but without significant temporal differences. The NLR showed a significant difference with a significant temporal relation. Using the bound of the 95% confidence interval separating the two groups, LMR <2 was found to be associated with a complicated case and NLR >10.5 was suggestive of a complicated case. High specificity (85-92%) with low sensitivity (23-69%) was noted; hence, these cut points were very good at discerning non-complicated cases. CONCLUSION: Our data show persistently low LMR that is associated with severe AP and a value of <2.0 can be used clinically to predict severe AP on admission. It also shows that elevated NLR is associated with complicated AP and prolonged hospital stay with a value >10.5 that can be used to predict severe complicated AP and to monitor response to treatment over time.

Reversal of anti-drug antibodies against tumor necrosis factor inhibitors with addition of immunomodulators: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The development of anti-drug antibodies (ADA) to tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) inhibitors is a significant result contributing to the loss of clinical response in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). AIMS: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess whether the addition of immunomodulators to TNF-α inhibitors lead to reversal of antibody formation in TNF-α inhibitor-treated IBD patients. METHODS: We conducted a comprehensive search of electronic databases from inception through October 2018 in order to identify specific studies describing clinical response in IBD patients following the addition of immunomodulators (methotrexate or thiopurines) to TNF-α inhibitors. Clinical response was expressed as an improvement of symptoms, with a noted decrease or complete elimination of ADA against TNF-α inhibitors. The meta-analysis was performed using the DerSimonian and Laird random-effect model. RESULTS: Four studies were included in our final meta-analysis, which reported outcomes in 72 patients receiving TNF-α inhibitors. Forty-nine of the seventy-two (68%) patients received either methotrexate (19) or thiopurines (30). The average follow up period was 13.5 months. The overall pooled clinical response was 73.86% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 47.36-94.38, I2 = 60.77%). CONCLUSION: In our meta-analysis, addition of immunomodulators to TNF-α inhibitors was shown to restore the clinical response in 74% of the patients by either decreasing or completely eliminating anti-drug antibody levels. Further long-term multicenter studies are needed to validate these findings.

Safety of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in pregnancy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is a technically challenging procedure rarely associated with severe postprocedure complications. Hormonal changes during pregnancy promote cholelithiasis, but there are limited clinical data available on the outcomes of ERCP in pregnant women. ERCP techniques without irradiation were recently introduced as potential alternative. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the safety of ERCP in pregnancy and to compare outcomes of radiation versus nonradiation ERCP. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic search of PubMed, Medline/Ovid, Web of Science, and Google Scholar through April 18th, 2018 using PRISMA and MOOSE guidelines identified 27 studies reporting the outcomes of ERCP in pregnancy. Random effects pooled event rate and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated. Heterogeneity was measured by I2, and meta-regression analysis was conducted. Adverse outcomes were divided into fetal, maternal pregnancy-related, and maternal nonpregnancy-related. RESULTS: In all, 27 studies reporting on 1,307 pregnant patients who underwent ERCP were identified. Median age was 27.1 years. All results were statistically significant (P < 0.01). The pooled event rate for overall adverse outcomes was 15.9% (95% CI = 0.132-0.191) in all studies combined, 17.6% (95% CI = 0.109-0.272) in nonradiation ERCP (NR-ERCP) subgroup and 21.6% (95% CI = 0.154-0.294) in radiation ERCP subgroup. There was no significant difference in the pooled event rate for fetal adverse outcomes in NR-ERCP 6.2% (95% CI = 0.027-0.137) versus 5.2% (95% CI = 0.026-0.101) in radiation ERCP group. There was no significant difference in maternal pregnancy-related adverse outcome event rate between NR-ERCP (8.4%) (95% CI = 0.038-0.173) and radiation ERCP (7.1%) (95% CI = 0.039-0.125). Maternal nonpregnancy-related adverse outcome event rate in NR-ERCP was 7.6% (95% CI = 0.038-0.145), which was half the event rate in radiation ERCP group of 14.9% (95% CI = 0.102-0.211). CONCLUSIONS: ERCP done by experienced endoscopists is a safe procedure during pregnancy. Radiation-free techniques appear to reduce the rates of nonpregnancy-related complications, but not of fetal and pregnancy-related complications.

Autoimmune hepatitis in patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection: A systematic review of the published literature.

BACKGROUND: Liver disease in patients with HIV is common and typically has complex and multifactorial presentations that represent a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is rarely reported in patient with HIV and the disease course and clinical outcomes for treatment have not been well characterized. We are aiming to determine the patient characteristics, disease prevalence, and treatment outcomes from published articles of patients with HIV and AIH. METHOD: A systematic search of PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar through February 20, 2019 identified 15 studies that reported the outcomes of AIH in patients with HIV. Because of the small sample sizes and skewed distributions, resampling tests of mean differences using permutation distributions (MAXn = 10,000 permutations) were utilized; analyses were performed using R (v. 3.5.1). Categorical differences were calculated using Fisher exact test for odds ratio = 1 (equal odds), and Cramer V was calculated for effect size; analyses were completed in SPSS (v. 25). RESULTS: By reviewing 15 studies reporting a total of 35 patients with AIH and HIV, male patients were found to have significantly higher aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase levels at time of diagnosis. No other significant findings identified. The CD4 count and viral load did not show significant correlation with AIH diagnosis or its prognosis. All patients but one who presented with severe immune deficiency and responded to highly active anti-retroviral therapy received immunosuppressive treatment without side effects and achieved remission except 2 lost to follow-up and 3 expired. CONCLUSION: Although rare, but AIH can develop in patients with HIV and physicians should consider it in the differential diagnosis for HIV patients presented with abnormal liver function tests, especially after excluding hepatitis C virus and drug-induced liver injury.Patients with immune deficiency disorders who present with AIH can be treated safely with steroid either as monotherapy or in combination with another immune suppressant therapy.