Late Mortality After Myocardial Injury in Critical Care Non-Cardiac Surgery Patients Using Machine Learning Analysis.

Myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery (MINS) increases mortality within 30 days. We aimed to evaluate the long-term impact of myocardial injury in a large cohort of patients admitted to intensive care after noncardiac surgery. All patients who stayed, at least, overnight with measurement of high-sensitive cardiac troponin were included. Clinical characteristics and occurrence of MINS were assessed between patients who died and survivors using chi-square test and Student t test. Variables with p <0.01 in the univariate model were included in the Cox regression model to identify predictor variables. Survival decision tree (SDT), a machine learning model, was also used to find the predictors and their correlations. We included 2,230 patients with mean age of 63.8±16.3 years, with most (55.6%) being women. The prevalence of MINS was 9.4% (209 patients) and there were 556 deaths (24.9%) in a median follow-up of 6.7 years. Univariate analysis showed variables associated with late mortality, namely: MINS, arterial hypertension, previous myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, dementia, urgent surgery, peripheral artery disease (PAD), chronic health status, and age. These variables were included in the Cox regression model and SDT. The predictor variables of all-cause death were MINS (hazard ratio [HR] 2.21; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.77 to 2.76), previous myocardial infarction (HR 1.47; 95% CI 1.14 to 1.89); urgent surgery (HR 1.24; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.52), PAD (HR 1.83; 95% CI 1.23 to 2.73), dementia (HR 2.54; 95% CI 1.86 to 3.46) and age (HR 1.05; 95% CI 1.04 to 1.06). SDT had the same predictors, except PAD. In conclusion, increased high-sensitive troponin levels in patients who underwent noncardiac surgery raised the risk of short and late mortality.

Synergistic Effect of Disease Severity, Anxiety Symptoms and Elderly Age on the Quality of Life of Outpatients with Heart Failure / Efeito Sinérgico da Gravidade da Doença, de Sintomas de Ansiedade e da Idade Avançada sobre a Qualidade de Vida de Pacientes Ambulatoriais com Insuficiência Cardíaca

Abstract Background: Heart failure (HF) is a multifactorial syndrome with repercussions on quality of life (QoL). Objectives: To investigate the main interacting factors responsible to worsen quality of life of outpatients with HF. Methods: Cross-sectional observational study with 99 patients of both genders, attending a HF outpatient clinic at a university hospital, all with a reduced ejection fraction (<40%) by echocardiography. They were evaluated using sociodemographic and clinical questionnaires, the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MLwHF), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS). QoL was the outcome variable. Two multivariate models were used: the parametric beta regression analysis, and the non-parametric regression tree, considering p < 0.05 and 0.05 < p < 0.10 for statistical and clinical significance, respectively. Results: Beta regression showed that depression and anxiety symptoms worsened the QoL of HF patients, as well as male sex, age younger than 60 years old, lower education level, lower monthly family income, recurrent hospitalizations and comorbidities such as ischemic heart diseases and arterial hypertension. The regression tree confirmed that NYHA functional class III and IV worsen all dimensions of MLwHF by interacting with anxiety symptoms, which influenced directly or indirectly the presence of poorer total score and emotional dimension of MLwHF. Previous hospitalization in the emotional dimension and age younger than 60 years in general dimension were associated with anxiety and NYHA functional class, also worsening the QoL of HF patients. Conclusion: HF with reduced ejection fraction was associated with poorer MLwHF. Anxiety symptoms, previous hospitalization and younger age were also associated with worsened MLwHF. Knowledge of these risk factors can therefore guide assessment and treatment of HF patients.

Resumo Fundamento: A insuficiência cardíaca (IC) é uma síndrome multifatorial com repercussões sobre a qualidade de vida (QV). Objetivo: Investigar os principais fatores que interagem e pioram a qualidade de vida de pacientes ambulatoriais com IC. Métodos: Estudo transversal observacional com 99 pacientes, de ambos os sexos, atendidos no ambulatório de IC de um hospital universitário, todos com uma fração de ejeção reduzida (<40%) pela ecocardiografia. Os participantes foram avaliados usando-se um questionário sociodemográfico, um questionário clínico, o Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MLwHF), e Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS). QV foi a variável de desfecho. Foram usados dois modelos de análise multivariada, a regressão beta (paramétrica) e a árvore de regressão (não paramétrica), considerando um p < 0,05 e 0,05 < p < 0,10 para significância estatística e clínica, respectivamente. Resultados: A análise por regressão beta mostrou que os sintomas de depressão e ansiedade pioraram a QV de pacientes com IC, bem como o sexo masculino, idade inferior a 60 anos, nível educacional mais baixo, renda familiar mensal menor, internações recorrentes e comorbidades tais como doenças cardíacas isquêmicas e hipertensão arterial. A árvore de regressão confirmou que as classes funcionais da NYHA III e IV pioraram todas as dimensões do MLwHF, interagindo com sintomas de ansiedade, e influenciando direta ou indiretamente, a presença de pior escore total e dimensão emocional do MLwHF. Internações anteriores, na dimensão emocional, e idade inferior a 60 anos, na dimensão geral, associaram-se com ansiedade e classe funcional NYHA, piorando também a QV dos pacientes com IC. Conclusão: IC com fração de ejeção reduzida associou-se com pior resultado do MLwHF. Sintomas de ansiedade, internação prévia e idade mais jovem também associaram-se com pior MLwHF. O conhecimento desses fatores de risco pode, portanto, orientar a avaliação e o tratamento dos pacientes com IC.

Synergistic Effect of Disease Severity, Anxiety Symptoms and Elderly Age on the Quality of Life of Outpatients with Heart Failure.

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is a multifactorial syndrome with repercussions on quality of life (QoL). OBJECTIVES: To investigate the main interacting factors responsible to worsen quality of life of outpatients with HF. METHODS: Cross-sectional observational study with 99 patients of both genders, attending a HF outpatient clinic at a university hospital, all with a reduced ejection fraction (<40%) by echocardiography. They were evaluated using sociodemographic and clinical questionnaires, the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MLwHF), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS). QoL was the outcome variable. Two multivariate models were used: the parametric beta regression analysis, and the non-parametric regression tree, considering p < 0.05 and 0.05 < p < 0.10 for statistical and clinical significance, respectively. RESULTS: Beta regression showed that depression and anxiety symptoms worsened the QoL of HF patients, as well as male sex, age younger than 60 years old, lower education level, lower monthly family income, recurrent hospitalizations and comorbidities such as ischemic heart diseases and arterial hypertension. The regression tree confirmed that NYHA functional class III and IV worsen all dimensions of MLwHF by interacting with anxiety symptoms, which influenced directly or indirectly the presence of poorer total score and emotional dimension of MLwHF. Previous hospitalization in the emotional dimension and age younger than 60 years in general dimension were associated with anxiety and NYHA functional class, also worsening the QoL of HF patients. CONCLUSION: HF with reduced ejection fraction was associated with poorer MLwHF. Anxiety symptoms, previous hospitalization and younger age were also associated with worsened MLwHF. Knowledge of these risk factors can therefore guide assessment and treatment of HF patients.

The measurement of social disablement and assessment of psychometric properties of the Social Behaviour Schedule (SBS-BR) in 881 Brazilian long-stay psychiatric patients.

BACKGROUND: Data on the prevalence of social disablement in long-stay psychiatric patients, and the assessment of the psychometric properties of the instruments that evaluate social behaviour in this population are scarce in Brazil. Therefore, this cross-sectional study aimed to estimate the prevalence rates of social disablement in a population of long-stay psychiatric patients from the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, and assessed the psychometric properties of the Social Behaviour Schedule (SBS). METHOD: Data were collected from a population of 881 psychiatric patients housed in the Municipal Mental Health Institute using the 21-item SBS. RESULTS: Most of the patients were women (59%), the mean age was 65.8 years (SD = 11) and the mean length of stay was 37.3 years (SD = 11.5). Of the population, 50.6% were scored as having poor self-care, 46% with little spontaneous communication, 41.1% with poor attention span, and 37.1% with underactivity. Comparing our data with international studies that used the same instrument, we found that our population was more disabled than the others, especially on the social withdrawal factor. Regarding psychometric properties, the inter-rater kappa was 0.709, the inter-informant kappa was 0.500, and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.766. The groups of patients in the six settings of the institute presented significant statistical differences in the total score (F = 11.447, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the high rates of social disablement in this population. The precarious conditions of the institution where the patients have been living for decades and unmet individual care may have exacerbated their social disablement. Furthermore, the SBS-BR had satisfactory psychometric properties, particularly reliability, showing it to be an adequate instrument for measuring social disablement in Brazil.