Bleeding risk assessment in elderly patients with acute coronary syndrome.

Nowadays, elderly people represent a growing population segment with a well known increased risk of both ischemic and bleeding events. Current acute coronary syndrome guidelines, strongly recommend dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) with few specific references for aged patients due to lack of evidence. Patients aged ≥ 75 years are misrepresented in the classic derivation trials cohorts. Strategies to reduce the bleeding risk in this group of patients are urgently needed for the daily clinical practice. Identify the specific age related bleeding risk factors and the importance of an integral geriatric assessment remains challenging. Some of the available in-hospital and out-hospital bleeding risk scores have shown a lower to moderate predictive ability in older patients and no specific tools are developed in elderly population. The importance of an appropriate vascular access choice, type and duration of antiplatelet drugs is crucial to reduce the bleeding risk. Increase radial approaches and short DAPT duration leads to reduce hemorrhages. One interesting subgroup of patients is those who need chronic anticoagulation therapy after percutaneous coronary intervention, due to their very high risk of bleeding. New alternatives as dual therapy with oral anticoagulation and only one antiplatlet drug should be considered. In current review, we evaluate the available evidence about bleeding risk in elderly.

Effect of beta-blocker dose on mortality after acute coronary syndrome.

INTRODUCTION: Beta-blocker doses that have been shown to be effective in randomized clinical trials are not commonly used in daily clinical practice. The aim of this study was to analyze whether there is a prognostic benefit of high rather than low doses of beta-blockers after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, 2092 ACS patients discharged from hospital between June 2013 and January 2016 were classified according to the beta-blocker dose prescribed: high dose (≥50% of the target dose tested in clinical trials) and low dose (<50%). Two groups of 501 matched patients were obtained through propensity score matching according to treatment with high or low doses of beta-blockers. The prognostic impact (mortality) during follow-up of high vs. low dose was analyzed by Cox regression and represented by Kaplan-Meier curves. RESULTS: Of the 2092 patients, 80.5% were discharged under beta-blockers, with lower mortality during follow-up (18.6±9.7 months). Of the 1685 patients discharged under beta-blockers, only 31.4% received high doses. There were no differences in mortality during follow-up between patients under high-dose vs. low-dose beta-blockers (HR 0.935, 95% CI 0.628-1.392, p=0.740), and the equivalence between the two doses remained after propensity score matching (HR 1.183, 95% CI 0.715-1.958, p=0.513). CONCLUSION: No prognostic benefit was found in terms of mortality for high-dose vs. low-dose beta-blockers after an ACS.

Prognostic usefulness of an age-adapted equation for renal function assessment in older patients with acute coronary syndrome.

BACKGROUND:: Renal dysfunction negatively impacts survival in acute coronary syndrome patients. The Berlin Initiative Study creatinine-based (BIScrea) equation has recently been proposed for renal function assessment in older persons. However, up to now it is unknown if the superiority of the new BIScrea equation, with respect to the most recommended chronic kidney disease epidemiology collaboration creatinine-based (CKD-EPIcrea) formula, would translate into better risk prediction of adverse events in older patients with acute coronary syndrome. OBJECTIVES:: To study the impact of using estimated glomerular filtration rate calculated according to the BIScrea and CKD-EPIcrea equations on mortality in acute coronary syndrome patients aged 70 years and over. METHODS:: Retrospectively, between 2011 and 2016, a total of 2008 patients with acute coronary syndrome (64% men; age 79±7 years) were studied. Follow-up was 18±10 months. Measures of performance were evaluated using continuous data and stratifying patients into three estimated glomerular filtration rate subgroups: ≥60, 59.9-30 and <30 mL/min/1.73 m2. RESULTS:: The two formulas afforded independent prognostic information over follow-up. However, risk prediction was most accurate using the BIScrea formula as evaluated by Cox proportional hazards models (hazard ratio (for each 10 mL/min/1.73 m2 decrease) 1.47 vs. 1.27 with the CKD-EPI equation; P<0.001 for comparison), c-statistic values (0.69 vs. 0.65, respectively; P=0.04 for comparison) and Bayesian information criterion. Net reclassification improvement based on the estimated glomerular filtration rate categories significantly favoured BIScrea +9 (95% confidence interval 2-16%; P=0.02). CONCLUSIONS:: Our findings suggest that the BIScrea formula may improve death risk prediction more than the CKD-EPIcrea formula in older patients with acute coronary syndrome.

Anomalous hepatic vein drainage into a giant left atrium.

A 56-year-old man with a history of complex atrial-septal defect repair, atrial fibrillation, and severe mitral regurgitation presented with progressive shortness of breath. A cardiac CT examination was done as part of a preoperative protocol before mitral valve replacement and it showed a severely enlarged left atrium and an anomalous hepatic vein draining into the left atrium. These findings were totally unsuspected and changed the patient management, highlighting the benefit of cardiac CT beyond the coronary finding.