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Patients with chronic kidney disease have a worse cardiovascular prognosis than those without. The aim of this study was to determine the incremental prognostic value of coronary computed tomographic angiography in predicting mortality across the entire spectrum of renal function in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). A large international multicenter registry was queried, and patients with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and creatinine data were screened. National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III risk was calculated. Coronary computed tomographic angiographic results were evaluated for CAD severity (normal, nonobstructive, or obstructive) and an LVEF <50%. Patients were followed for the end point of all-cause mortality. Among 5,655 patients meeting the study criteria, follow-up was available for 5,572 (98.9%; median follow-up duration 18.6 months). All-cause mortality (66 deaths) significantly increased with every 10-unit decrease in renal function (hazard ratio [HR] 1.23, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.07 to 1.41). All-cause mortality occurred in 0.33% of patients without coronary atherosclerosis, 1.82% of patients with nonobstructive CAD, and 2.43% of patients with obstructive CAD. Multivariate Cox proportional-hazards models revealed that impaired renal function (HR 2.29, 95% CI 1.65 to 3.18), CAD severity (HR 1.81, 95% CI 1.31 to 2.51), and an abnormal LVEF (HR 4.16, 95% CI 2.45 to 7.08) were independent predictors of all-cause mortality. In conclusion, coronary computed tomographic angiographic measures of CAD severity and the LVEF provide effective risk stratification across a wide spectrum of renal function. Furthermore, renal dysfunction, CAD severity, and the LVEF have additive value for predicting all-cause death in patients with suspected obstructive CAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies examining coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) have demonstrated increased mortality related to coronary artery disease (CAD) severity but are limited to relatively nondiverse ethnic populations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of CAD on CCTA according to ethnicity for patients without previous CAD in a prospective international CCTA registry of 11 sites (7 countries) who underwent 64-slice CCTA from 2005 to 2010. CAD was defined as any coronary artery atherosclerosis and obstructive CAD as ≥50% stenosis. All-cause mortality and nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) were assessed by ethnicity using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards, controlling for baseline risk factors, medications, and revascularization. A total of 16,451 patients of mean age 58 years (55% men) were followed over a median of 2.0 years (interquartile range 1.4 to 3.2). Patients were 60.1% Caucasian, 34.4% East Asian, and 5.5% African. Death or MI occurred in 0.5% (38 of 7,109) among patients with no CAD, 1.6% (91 of 5,600) among those with nonobstructive CAD, and 3.8% (142 of 3,742) among those with ≥50% stenosis (p <0.001 among all groups). The annualized incidence of death or MI comparing obstructive to no obstructive CAD among Caucasians was 2.2% versus 0.7% (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 2.77, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.73 to 4.43, p <0.001), among Africans 4.8% versus 1.1% (aHR 6.25, 95% CI 1.12 to 34.97, p = 0.037), and among East Asians 0.8% versus 0.1% (aHR 4.84, 95% CI 2.24 to 10.9, p <0.001). Compared to other ethnicities, East Asians had fewer than expected events (aHR 0.25, 95% CI 0.16 to 0.38, p <0.001). In conclusion, the presence and severity of CAD visualized by CCTA predict death or MI across 3 large ethnicities, whereas normal results on CCTA identify patients at very low risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronary lesions of intermediate severity often cause ischemia, and fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided revascularization for these coronary lesions is safe and effective. FFR derived from coronary computed tomography (FFRCT) is a noninvasive method for diagnosis of lesion-specific ischemia, but its performance for intermediate stenoses has not been examined to date. We examined the performance of FFRCT versus FFR at the time of invasive angiography in 66 vessels of 60 patients who were identified as having an intermediate stenosis, defined by quantitative coronary angiographic percent diameter stenosis 40% to 69%. Ischemia for FFRCT and FFR was defined as ≤0.80. Diagnostic performance of FFRCT was determined compared to an invasive FFR standard. Mean age of the study group was 63.5 ± 8.1 years (81% men). Thirty-one patients (47%) demonstrated ischemia with an FFR ≤0.80, with 2 of 16 (12.5%), 21 of 37 (56.8%), and 8 of 13 (61.5%) lesions of 40% to 49%, 50% to 59%, and 60% to 69% stenosis causal of ischemia, respectively. At an FFR ≤0.80 cutoff for lesion-specific ischemia, accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of FFRCT were 86.4%, 90.3%, 82.9%, 82.4%, and 90.6%, respectively, with an area under the receiver operator characteristics curve of 0.95 (p <0.001) and good correlation to FFR (0.60, p <0.0001). No biases between FFRCT and FFR were noted by Bland–Altman analysis (0.03 ± 0.12, p = 0.054). In conclusion, FFRCT is a novel noninvasive method for diagnosis of lesion-specific ischemia of coronary lesions of intermediate stenosis severity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American College of Cardiology Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) were developed to guide use of myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (MPS), stress echocardiography, and cardiac computed tomographic angiography (CCTA). To date, cardiologist application of AUC from a patient-based multiprocedure perspective has not been evaluated. A Web-based survey of 15 clinical vignettes spanning a wide spectrum of indications for MPS, STE, and CCTA in coronary artery disease was administered to cardiologists who rated the ordered test as appropriate, inappropriate, or uncertain by AUC application and suggested a preferred alternative imaging procedure, if any. In total 129 cardiologists responded to the survey (mean age 49.5 years, board certification for MPS 65%, echocardiography 39%, CCTA 32%). Cardiologists agreed with published AUC ratings 65% of the time, with differences in all categories (appropriate, 50% vs 53%; inappropriate, 42% vs 20%; uncertain, 9% vs 27%, p <0.0001 for all comparisons). Physician age, practice type, or board certification in MPS or echocardiography had no effect on concordance with AUC ratings, with slightly higher agreement for those board certified in CCTA (68% vs 64%, p = 0.04). Cardiologist procedure preference was positively associated with active clinical interpretation of MPS and CCTA (p = 0.03 for the 2 comparisons) but not for ownership of the respective imaging equipment. In conclusion, cardiologist agreement with published AUC ratings is generally high, although physicians classify more uncertain indications as inappropriate. Active clinical interpretation of a procedure contributes most to increased procedure preference. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) is associated with ionizing radiation, prompting concerns of future cancer risk. Recent studies have reported reduced radiation doses and similar image quality by the selective use of dose reduction techniques, although the clinical penetration of these methods has been limited. In a quality improvement initiative, a comprehensive, standardized radiation dose reduction protocol was implemented, and its effect on radiation dose and image quality was assessed. A total of 449 patients who underwent 64-detector CCTA at 3 centers were prospectively evaluated, and patients were compared before (n = 247) and after (n = 202) the implementation of a standardized body mass index–based and heart rate–based protocol that simultaneously incorporated multiple dose reduction strategies. Median radiation dose decreased from 2.6 mSv (interquartile range 2.0 to 4.2) to 1.3 mSv (interquartile range 0.8 to 1.9) after the implementation of the standardized protocol (p <0.001). On multivariate analysis, reduction in overall radiation dose was observed by numerous dose reduction techniques, with varying efficacy of dose lowering: prospective (vs retrospective) electrocardiographic gating (−82%), reduced tube voltage (−41% for 100 vs 120 kV), lower tube current (−25% per −100 mA), and reduced overall scan length (−6% per −1 cm) (p <0.001 for each). No differences were observed between patients before and after the initiation of the protocol for study interpretability (96% vs 96%, p = 0.66). There was an increase in signal-to-noise ratio after implementing the standardized protocol (11 ± 3 vs 12 ± 4, p <0.01). In conclusion, a quality improvement protocol for CCTA incorporating multiple dose reduction techniques permits significant radiation dose reduction and may improve the safety profile of CCTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although numerous strategies for radiation dose decrease in coronary computed tomographic angiography are effective, their combined impact on diagnostic performance is not known. We therefore assessed the effect of a standardized coronary computed tomographic angiographic protocol on diagnostic accuracy. We evaluated 80 consecutive patients from 3 sites with coronary computed tomographic angiography and quantitative coronary angiography. All sites initially used nonstandardized protocols; 2 sites then initiated a standardized protocol, and 1 site continued its nonstandardized protocol as a time-overlapping control. Two blinded readers interpreted coronary computed tomographic angiographic studies; a third obtained consensus. A blinded core laboratory performed quantitative coronary angiography. Each segment was graded as <50% or ≥50% diameter stenosis. Compared to those using nonstandardized protocols (n = 35), studies using standardized protocols (n = 45) had a trend to increased use of prospective gating (p = 0.09), lower voltage (p <0.01), decreased current (p <0.01), and shorter scan length (p <0.01). Median (interquartile range) radiation dose decreased from 5.7 mSv (4.0 to 10.8) to 2.0 mSv (1.3 to 3.4, p <0.001). There were no significant differences in sensitivity (100%, 20 of 20, vs 100%, 18 of 18, p = 1.0), specificity (93%, 14 of 15, vs 85%, 23 of 27, p = 0.61), or accuracy (97%, 34 of 35, vs 91%, 41 of 45, p = 0.27) by patient; sensitivity (83%, 33 of 40, vs 83%, 25 of 30, p = 0.93), specificity (92%, 86 of 93, vs 92%, 134 of 146, p = 0.85), or accuracy (89%, 119 of 133, vs 90%, 159 of 176, p = 0.80) by artery; or sensitivity (80%, 44 of 55, vs 72%, 26 of 36, p = 0.74), specificity (94%, 332 of 353, vs 94%, 499 of 531, p = 0.96), or accuracy (92%, 376 of 408, vs 93%, 525 of 567, p = 0.80) by segment. In conclusion, a standardized dose-decrease protocol for coronary computed tomographic angiography decreases radiation dose without affecting diagnostic performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Improvement in survival in patients living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) has led to increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease. Whether HIV-associated immune dysfunction is associated with preclinical left ventricular (LV) dysfunction despite normal LV ejection fraction (LVEF) is unclear. Accordingly, we investigated the relation of immune status and LV function in PLHIV. Global longitudinal strain (GLS) analyses were performed retrospectively on all echocardiograms for PLHIV who had available HIV-1 RNA viral load, nadir, and proximal CD4 cell count data at Duke University Medical Center between 2001 and 2012. The relation between HIV-1 RNA viral load, nadir, and proximal CD4 count and GLS as a continuous dependent variable was assessed with unadjusted and adjusted linear regression. GLS was calculated for 253 PLHIV. Median GLS in our cohort was - 15.1% with interquartile range from (-16.7 to -13.6). All participants had an LVEF ≥50%. In adjusted analyses, proximal CD4 <500 cells/mm 3 and nadir CD4 <250 cells/mm 3 were significantly inversely correlated with GLS (p = 0.01 and p = 0.004, respectively). In PLHIV, patient with plasma HIV RNA <400 copies/ml at baseline had a trend toward significantly more negative values of GLS compared with those patients without viral suppression at baseline (p = 0.08). In conclusion, this study is the first to demonstrate such a high prevalence of abnormal GLS in PLHIV, and the first to identify that proximal and nadir CD4 cell count are independently associated with GLS despite normal LVEF., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The introduction of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has revolutionized the treatment of patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS). However, despite the great clinical success of TAVI, less is known about the cardiac hemodynamics and structural changes to post-TAVI. We analyzed patients with AS who had a transthoracic echocardiography at most 6 months before index TAVI and follow-up transthoracic echocardiography 9 to 18 months later, performed at Duke University Medical Center from 2012 to 2014. A total of 152 TAVI patients with a median age of 81 years (median interquartile range 74 to 86) were included. TAVI resulted in the reduction of left ventricle (LV) mass index (g/m 2 ), median (interquartile range) 130 (115 to 157) pre versus 106 (85 to 135) post, p <0.001; LV end-diastolic volume (ml) 127 (105 to 143) pre versus 120 (100 to 143) post, p = 0.013; and LV end-systolic volume (ml) 55 (38 to 77) pre versus 45 (40 to 65) post, p = 0.027. TAVI also significantly improved LV global longitudinal strain (%) -14.4 (-11.3, -15.5) pre versus -14.8 (-12.2, -16.6) post (p <0.001, respectively). Post-TAVI LV mass regression was predicted by baseline LV mass and LV global longitudinal strain whereas post-TAVI LV ejection fraction was predicted by baseline LV ejection fraction, LV mass, and post-TAVI paravalvular leak. In conclusion, TAVI results in significant cardiac hemodynamic, geometrical, and functional changes at approximately 1-year postprocedure for patients with AS. Better baseline myocardial structure and function leads to more reverse remodeling., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

We aimed to study whether jugular venous distension (JVD) and peripheral edema were associated with worse outcomes in patients with acute heart failure in the Acute Study of Clinical Effectiveness of Nesiritide in Decompensated Heart Failure trial. Of 7,141 patients in Acute Study of Clinical Effectiveness of Nesiritide in Decompensated Heart Failure, 7,135 had complete data on baseline JVD and peripheral edema status. Patients were grouped according to baseline examination findings: (1) no JVD or peripheral edema; (2) JVD only; (3) peripheral edema only; (4) JVD and peripheral edema. We used unadjusted and adjusted logistic or Cox regression analyses to assess associations between groups and the outcomes of index length of stay (LOS), in-hospital mortality, 30- and 180-day all-cause mortality. Patients with peripheral edema (Groups 3 and 4) had higher body mass index, NT-proBNP and BNP values, and more co-morbid disease, and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction compared with patients in Groups 1-2. The median (25th-75th) LOS for Groups 1-4 was 6 (4-9), 5 (4-8), 7 (4-11), and 6 days (4-10), respectively. For the 30-day and 180-day outcomes, adjusted analyses found no significant difference in risk for patients presenting with JVD only or peripheral edema only as compared with patients without evidence of JVD or peripheral edema (p >0.05 for all). The presence of both JVD and peripheral edema was associated with an adjusted 24% increase in risk for all-cause mortality at 30 days, but no risk difference at 180 days. In conclusion, in patients with heart failure presenting to the hospital with dyspnea, the presence of peripheral edema is associated with a longer hospital LOS, but no difference in short- and long-term clinical outcomes when compared with patients wihout peripheral edema. The combination of peripheral edema and JVD identifies the highest risk cohort for poor clinical outcomes., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

We compared the incidence of left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) among patients with left bundle branch block (LBBB) to a matched cohort of patients with a narrow QRS duration <120 ms (NQRS). We hypothesized patients with preserved ejection fraction (EF) ≥50% and LBBB would have higher incidence of LVSD compared with a matched population of NQRS patients. Patients with LBBB on electrocardiogram within 30 days of a baseline echocardiogram with EF ≥50%, who had at least 1 follow-up echocardiogram ≥6 months later, were matched 1:1 on risk factors for cardiomyopathy to patients with NQRS. Incident LVSD was defined as a decline in EF to ≤45% on follow-up echocardiogram, or heart transplant, receipt of a cardiac device for LVSD (defibrillator or biventricular pacemaker), or implantation of a left ventricular assist device ≥6 months post baseline echocardiogram. Relative risk was calculated using conditional Poisson regression techniques. The final study cohort consisted of 188 patients, 94 with LBBB and 94 with NQRS. On follow-up, progression to LVSD was noted in 36% of LBBB patients and 10% of NQRS patients. The relative risk for LVSD in patients with LBBB was 3.78 (95% confidence interval = 1.98 to 7.19). In conclusion, there is a strong association between LBBB and the subsequent development of LVSD independent of common risk factors for cardiomyopathy., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Although family history (FH) of coronary artery disease (CAD) is considered a risk factor for future cardiovascular events, the prevalence, extent, severity, and prognosis of young patients with FH of CAD have been inadequately studied. From 27,125 consecutive patients who underwent coronary computed tomographic angiography, 6,308 young patients (men aged <55 years and women aged <65 years) without known CAD were identified. Obstructive CAD was defined as >50% stenosis in a coronary artery >2 mm diameter. Risk-adjusted logistic regression, Kaplan-Meier, and Cox proportional-hazards models were used to compare patients with and without FH of CAD. Compared with subjects without FH of CAD, those with FH of CAD (FH+) had higher prevalences of any CAD (40% vs 30%, p <0.001) and obstructive CAD (11% vs 7%, p <0.001), with multivariate odds of FH+ increasing the likelihood of obstructive CAD by 71% (p <0.001). After a mean follow-up period of 2 ± 1 years (42 myocardial infarctions and 39 all-cause deaths), FH+ patients experienced higher annual rates of myocardial infarction (0.5% vs 0.2%, log-rank p = 0.001), with a positive FH the strongest predictor of myocardial infarction (hazard ratio 2.6, 95% confidence interval 1.4 to 4.8, p = 0.002). In conclusion, young FH+ patients have higher presence, extent, and severity of CAD, which are associated with increased risk for myocardial infarction. Compared with other clinical CAD risk factors, positive FH in young patients is the strongest clinical predictor of future unheralded myocardial infarction., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)