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BACKGROUND: Text messages may enhance physical activity levels in patients with cardiovascular disease, including those enrolled in cardiac rehabilitation. However, the independent and long-term effects of text messages remain uncertain. METHODS: The VALENTINE study (Virtual Application-supported Environment to Increase Exercise) was a micro-randomized trial that delivered text messages through a smartwatch (Apple Watch or Fitbit Versa) to participants initiating cardiac rehabilitation. Participants were randomized 4× per day over 6-months to receive no text message or a message encouraging low-level physical activity. Text messages were tailored on contextual factors (eg, weather). Our primary outcome was step count 60 minutes following a text message, and we used a centered and weighted least squares mean method to estimate causal effects. Given potential measurement differences between devices determined a priori, data were assessed separately for Apple Watch and Fitbit Versa users over 3 time periods corresponding to the initiation (0-30 days), maintenance (31-120 days), and completion (121-182 days) of cardiac rehabilitation. RESULTS: One hundred eight participants were included with 70 552 randomizations over 6 months; mean age was 59.5 (SD, 10.7) years with 36 (32.4%) female and 68 (63.0%) Apple Watch participants. For Apple Watch participants, text messages led to a trend in increased step count by 10% in the 60-minutes following a message during days 1 to 30 (95% CI, -1% to +20%), with no effect from days 31 to 120 (+1% [95% CI, -4% to +5%]), and a significant 6% increase during days 121 to 182 (95% CI, +0% to +11%). For Fitbit users, text messages significantly increased step count by 17% (95% CI, +7% to +28%) in the 60-minutes following a message in the first 30 days of the study with no effect subsequently. CONCLUSIONS: In patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation, contextually tailored text messages may increase physical activity, but this effect varies over time and by device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Patients with heart failure (HF) overestimate survival compared with model-predicted estimates, but the reasons for this discrepancy are poorly understood. We characterized how patients with end-stage HF and their care partners understand prognosis and elicited their preferences around prognosis communication. METHODS: We conducted in-depth, semistructured interviews with patients with end-stage HF and their care partners between 2021 and 2022 at a tertiary care center in Michigan. Participants were asked to describe barriers they faced to understanding prognosis. All interviews were coded and analyzed using an iterative content analysis approach. RESULTS: Fifteen patients with end-stage HF and 15 care partners participated, including 7 dyads. The median patient age was 66.5 years (range, 31--80) and included 9 of 15 (60%) White participants and 9 of 15 (60%) were males. Care partners included 10 of 15 (67%) White participants and 6 of 15 (40%) were males. Care partners were partners (n=7, 47%), siblings (n=4, 27%), parents (n=2, 13%), and children (n=2, 13%). Most patients demonstrated a poor understanding of their prognosis. In contrast, care partners commonly identified the patient's rapidly declining trajectory. Patients and care partners described ineffective prognosis communication with clinicians, common barriers to understanding prognosis, and similar suggestions on improving prognosis communication. Barriers to understanding prognosis included (1) conversation avoidance by physicians, (2) information inconsistency across different physicians, (3) distractions during prognosis communication due to emphasis on other conditions, and (4) confusion related to the use of medical jargon. Most patients and care partners wanted discussions around prognosis to begin early in the course of the disease, repeated routinely using layperson's terms, incorporating both quality of life and survival assessments, and involving care partners. Both patients and care partners did not expect precise survival estimates. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with end-stage HF demonstrate a poor understanding of their prognosis compared with their care partners. Patients and care partners are open to discussing prognosis early, using direct and patient-centered language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific research embodies the spirit of growth and learning. Not infrequently, this means false starts and unforeseen errors will occur, and articles published in the American Heart Association family of journals are far from immune from such incidents.1 Correcting these mistakes in an objective and timely manner is critical to maintaining the credibility of the published work and the integrity of journals. In this article, I describe the retraction and republication of an original research article in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes that was brought about by the discovery of a statistical coding error that invalidated its results. Although such retractions are increasingly common,2 this one is special to me, as it is from my own team and was published in the journal I care most deeply about. This Editor's Note describes my reflections on this experience and suggests how journals may improve the retraction process moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smartphone and wearable device use is rising broadly and can be leveraged for chronic disease management. Just-in-time adaptive interventions promise to deliver personalized, dynamic interventions directly to patients through use of push notifications from mobile devices. Although just-in-time adaptive interventions are a powerful tool for shaping health behavior, their application to cardiovascular disease management has been limited as they can be challenging to design. Herein, we provide a general overview and conceptual framework for microrandomized trials, a novel experimental study design that can be used to optimize just-in-time adaptive interventions. Microrandomized trials leverage mobile devices to sequentially randomize participants to types or levels of an intervention to determine the effectiveness of an intervention and time-varying moderators of those effects. Microrandomized trials are an efficient study design that can be used to determine which intervention components to include in just-in-time adaptive interventions and to optimize their decision rules while maintaining the strength of causal inference associated with traditional randomized controlled trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Black patients have worse in-hospital survival than white patients after in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA), but less is known about long-term outcomes. We sought to assess among IHCA survivors whether there are additional racial differences in survival after hospital discharge and to explore potential reasons for differences.Methods: This was alongitudinal study of patients ≥65 years of age who had an IHCA and survived until hospital discharge between 2000 and 2011 from the national Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation registry whose data could be linked to Medicare claims data. Sequential hierarchical modified Poisson regression models evaluated the proportion of racial differences explained by patient, hospital, and unmeasured factors. Our exposure was black or white race. Our outcome was survival at 1, 3, and 5 years.Results: Among 8764 patients who survived to discharge, 7652 (87.3%) were white and 1112 (12.7%) were black. Black patients with IHCA were younger, more frequently female, sicker with more comorbidities, less likely to have a shockable initial cardiac arrest rhythm, and less likely to be evaluated with coronary angiography after initial resuscitation. At discharge, black patients were also more likely to have at least moderate neurological disability and less likely to be discharged home. Compared with white patients and after adjustment only for hospital site, black patients had lower 1-year (43.6% versus 60.2%; relative risk [RR], 0.72), 3-year (31.6% versus 45.3%; RR, 0.71), and 5-year (23.5% versus 35.4%; RR, 0.67; all P<0.001) survival. Adjustment for patient factors explained 29% of racial differences in 1-year survival (RR, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.75-0.86), and further adjustment for hospital treatment factors explained an additional 17% of racial differences (RR, 0.85; 95% confidence interval, 0.80-0.92). Approximately half of the racial difference in 1-year survival remained unexplained, and the degree to which patient and hospital factors explained racial differences in 3-year and 5-year survival was similar.Conclusions: Black survivors of IHCA have lower long-term survival compared with white patients, and about half of this difference is not explained by patient factors or treatments after IHCA. Further investigation is warranted to better understand to what degree unmeasured but modifiable factors such as postdischarge care account for unexplained disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the situation where observational CE studies reach different conclusions from previously conducted large RCTs on the same topic, the RCT result is invariably more valid and reliable, unless there were major methodological problems with the RCT. These observational CE findings, as limited as they are, raise the possibility that the rapid increase in Impella use and substantial variation in practice patterns may have potentially negative implications for patients. Although these data should not be used in isolation to conclude that balloon-expandable valves are the superior option for TAVR, they do raise the possibility that important differences may exist in patient outcomes related to valve choice. [Extracted from the article]

Background: In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is common, and outcomes vary substantially across US hospitals, but reasons for these differences are largely unknown. We set out to better understand how top-performing hospitals organize their resuscitation teams to achieve high survival rates for IHCA.Methods: We calculated risk-standardized IHCA survival to discharge rates across American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation registry hospitals between 2012 and 2014. We identified geographically and academically diverse hospitals in the top, middle, and bottom quartiles of survival for IHCA and performed a qualitative study that included site visits with in-depth interviews of clinical and administrative staff at 9 hospitals. With the use of thematic analysis, data were analyzed to identify salient themes of perceived performance by informants.Results: Across 9 hospitals, we interviewed 158 individuals from multiple disciplines including physicians (17.1%), nurses (45.6%), other clinical staff (17.1%), and administration (20.3%). We identified 4 broad themes related to resuscitation teams: (1) team design, (2) team composition and roles, (3) communication and leadership during IHCA, and (4) training and education. Resuscitation teams at top-performing hospitals demonstrated the following features: dedicated or designated resuscitation teams; participation of diverse disciplines as team members during IHCA; clear roles and responsibilities of team members; better communication and leadership during IHCA; and in-depth mock codes.Conclusions: Resuscitation teams at hospitals with high IHCA survival differ from non-top-performing hospitals. Our findings suggest core elements of successful resuscitation teams that are associated with better outcomes and form the basis for future work to improve IHCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Acute renal replacement therapy in patients with sepsis has increased dramatically with substantial costs. However, the extent of variability in use across hospitals-and whether greater use is associated with better outcomes-is unknown.Design: Retrospective cohort study.Setting: Nationwide Inpatient Sample in 2011.Patients: Eighteen years old and older with sepsis and acute kidney injury admitted to hospitals sampled by the Nationwide Inpatient Sample in 2011.Interventions: We estimated the risk- and reliability-adjusted rate of acute renal replacement therapy use for patients with sepsis and acute kidney injury at each hospital. We examined the association between hospital-specific renal replacement therapy rate and in-hospital mortality and hospital costs after adjusting for patient and hospital characteristics.Measurements and Main Results: We identified 293,899 hospitalizations with sepsis and acute kidney injury at 440 hospitals, of which 6.4% (n = 18,885) received renal replacement therapy. After risk and reliability adjustment, the median hospital renal replacement therapy rate for patients with sepsis and acute kidney injury was 3.6% (interquartile range, 2.9-4.5%). However, hospitals in the top quintile of renal replacement therapy use had rates ranging from 4.8% to 13.4%. There was no significant association between hospital-specific renal replacement therapy rate and in-hospital mortality (odds ratio per 1% increase in renal replacement therapy rate: 1.03; 95% CI, 0.99-1.07; p = 0.10). Hospital costs were significantly higher with increasing renal replacement therapy rates (absolute cost increase per 1% increase in renal replacement therapy rate: $1,316; 95% CI, $157-$2,475; p = 0.03).Conclusions: Use of renal replacement therapy in sepsis varied widely among nationally sampled hospitals without associated differences in mortality. Improving renal replacement standards for the initiation of therapy for sepsis may reduce healthcare costs without increasing mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background--The association of short-term readmissions after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on healthcare costs has not been well studied. Methods and Results--The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project National Readmission Database encompassing 722 US hospitals was used to identify index PCI cases in patients ≥18 years old. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine the factors associated with risk of 30-day readmission and higher cumulative costs. We evaluated 206 869 hospitalized patients who survived to discharge after PCI from January through November 2013 and analyzed readmissions over 30 days after discharge. A total of 24 889 patients (12%) were readmitted within 30 days, with rates ranging from 6% to 17% across hospitals. Among the readmitted patients, 13% had PCI, 2% had coronary artery bypass surgery, and 3% died during the readmission. The most common reasons for readmission included nonspecific chest pain/ angina (24%) and heart failure (11%). Mean cumulative costs were higher for those with readmissions ($39 634 versus $22 058; P<0.001). The multivariable analyses showed that readmission increased the log10 cumulative costs by 45% (β: 0.445; P<0.001). There was no significant difference in cumulative costs by the type of insurance. Conclusions--In a national sample of inpatient PCI cases, 30-day readmissions were associated with a significant increase in cumulative costs. The majority of readmissions were because of low-risk chest pain that did not require any intervention. Ongoing effort is warranted to recognize and mitigate potentially preventable post-PCI readmissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Early reports suggest the number of cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) patients with primary noncardiac diagnoses is rising in the United States, but no national data currently exist. We examined changes in primary noncardiac diagnoses among elderly patients admitted to a CICU during the past decade.Methods and Results: Using 2003 to 2013 Medicare data, we grouped elderly patients admitted to CICUs into 2 categories based on principal diagnosis at discharge: (1) primary noncardiac diagnoses and (2) primary cardiac diagnoses. We examined changes in patient demographics, comorbidities, procedure use, and risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality. Among 3.4 million admissions with a CICU stay, primary noncardiac diagnoses rose in prevalence from 38.0% to 51.7% between 2003 and 2013. The fastest rising primary noncardiac diagnoses were infectious diseases (7.8%-15.1%) and respiratory diseases (6.0%-7.6%; P<0.001 for both), whereas the fastest declining primary cardiac diagnosis was coronary artery disease (32.3%-19.0%; P<0.001). Simultaneously, the prevalence of both cardiovascular and noncardiovascular comorbidities rose: heart failure (13.9%-34.4%), pulmonary vascular disease (1.2%-7.1%), valvular heart disease (5.0%-9.8%), and renal failure (7.1%-19.6%; P<0.001 for all). As compared with those with primary cardiac diagnoses, elderly CICU patients with primary noncardiac diagnoses had higher rates of noncardiac procedure use and risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality (P<0.001 for all). Risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality declined slightly in the overall cohort from 9.3% to 8.9% (P<0.001).Conclusions: More than half of all elderly patients with a CICU stay across the United States now have primary noncardiac diagnoses at discharge. These patients receive different types of care and have worse outcomes than patients with primary cardiac diagnoses. Our work has important implications for the development of appropriate training and staffing models for the future critical care workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background--Acute kidney injury (AKI) remains a common complication after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and is associated with adverse in-hospital patient outcomes. The incidence of adverse events after hospital discharge in patients having post-PCI AKI is poorly defined, and the relationship between AKI and outcomes after hospital discharge remains understudied. Methods and Results--Using the National Cardiovascular Data Registry CathPCI registry, we assessed the incidence of AKI among Medicare beneficiaries after PCI from 2004 to 2009 and subsequent post-discharge adverse events at 1 year. AKI was defined using Acute Kidney Injury Network (AKIN) criteria. Adverse events included death, myocardial infarction, bleeding, and recurrent kidney injury. Using Cox methods, we determined the relationship between in-hospital AKI and risk of post-discharge adverse events by AKIN stage. In a cohort of 453 475 elderly patients undergoing PCI, 39 850 developed AKI (8.8% overall; AKIN stage 1, 85.8%; AKIN 2/3, 14.2%). Compared with no AKI, in-hospital AKI was associated with higher post-discharge hazard of death, myocardial infarction, or bleeding (AKIN 1: hazard ratio [HR], 1.53; confidence interval [CI], 1.49-1.56 and AKIN 2/3: HR, 2.13; CI, 2.01-2.26), recurrent AKI (AKIN 1: HR, 1.70; CI, 1.64-1.76; AKIN 2/3: HR, 2.22; CI, 2.04-2.41), and AKI requiring dialysis (AKIN 1: HR, 2.59; CI, 2.29-2.92; AKIN 2/3: HR, 4.73; CI, 3.73-5.99). For each outcome, the highest incidence was within 30 days. Conclusions--Post-PCI AKI is associated with increased risk of death, myocardial infarction, bleeding, and recurrent renal injury after discharge. Post-PCI AKI should be recognized as a significant risk factor not only for in-hospital adverse events but also after hospital discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cardiac arrest is a major public health concern worldwide. The extent and types of randomized controlled trials (RCT)-our most reliable source of clinical evidence-conducted in these high-risk patients over recent years are largely unknown.Methods and Results: We performed a systematic review, identifying all RCTs published in PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library from 1995 to 2014 that focused on the acute treatment of nontraumatic cardiac arrest in adults. We then extracted data on the setting of study populations, types and timing of interventions studied, risk of bias, outcomes reported, and how these factors have changed over time. Over this 20-year period, 92 RCTs were published containing 64 309 patients (median, 225.5 per trial). Of these, 81 RCTs (88.0%) involved out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, whereas 4 (4.3%) involved in-hospital cardiac arrest and 7 (7.6%) included both. Eighteen RCTs (19.6%) were performed in the United States, 68 (73.9%) were performed outside the United States, and 6 (6.5%) were performed in both settings. Thirty-eight RCTs (41.3%) evaluated drug therapy, 39 (42.4%) evaluated device therapy, and 15 (16.3%) evaluated protocol improvements. Seventy-four RCTs (80.4%) examined interventions during the cardiac arrest, 15 (16.3%) examined post cardiac arrest treatment, and 3 (3.3%) studied both. Overall, reporting of the risk of bias was limited. The most common outcome reported was return of spontaneous circulation: 86 (93.5%) with only 22 (23.9%) reporting survival beyond 6 months. Fifty-three RCTs (57.6%) reported global ordinal outcomes, whereas 15 (16.3%) reported quality-of-life. RCTs in the past 5 years were more likely to be focused on protocol improvements and postcardiac arrest care.Conclusions: Important gaps in RCTs of cardiac arrest treatments exist, especially those examining in-hospital cardiac arrest, protocol improvement, postcardiac arrest care, and long-term or quality-of-life outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) must often see multiple providers dispersed across many care locations. To test whether teamwork (assessed with the bipartite clustering coefficient) among these physicians is a determinant of surgical outcomes, we examined national Medicare data from patients undergoing CABG.Methods and Results: Among Medicare beneficiaries who underwent CABG between 2008 and 2011, we mapped relationships between all physicians who treated them during their surgical episodes, including both surgeons and nonsurgeons. After aggregating across CABG episodes in a year to construct the physician social networks serving each health system, we then assessed the level of physician teamwork in these networks with the bipartite clustering coefficient. Finally, we fit a series of multivariable regression models to evaluate associations between a health system's teamwork level and its 60-day surgical outcomes. We observed substantial variation in the level of teamwork between health systems performing CABG (SD for the bipartite clustering coefficient was 0.09). Although health systems with high and low teamwork levels treated beneficiaries with comparable comorbidity scores, these health systems differed over several sociocultural and healthcare capacity factors (eg, physician staff size and surgical caseload). After controlling for these differences, health systems with higher teamwork levels had significantly lower 60-day rates of emergency department visit, readmission, and mortality.Conclusions: Health systems with physicians who tend to work together in tightly-knit groups during CABG episodes realize better surgical outcomes. As such, delivery system reforms focused on building teamwork may have positive effects on surgical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Several antiplatelet medications used during and after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are contraindicated for specific patient groups. A broad assessment of contraindicated medication use and associated clinical outcomes is not well described.Methods and Results: Using national Veterans Affairs Clinical Assessment, Reporting, and Tracking Program data for all PCI between 2007 and 2013, we evaluated patients with contraindications to commonly used antiplatelet medications during and after PCI, defined in accordance with package inserts. Adjusted association between contraindicated medication use and outcomes of periprocedural bleeding and 30-day mortality were assessed using Cox proportional hazards with inverse probability weighting. Among 64 294 patients undergoing PCI, 11 315(17.6%) had a contraindication to a common antiplatelet medication and 737 (6.5%) of these patients received a contraindicated medication. In unadjusted analyses, any contraindicated medication use was associated with both increased bleeding and 30-day mortality. In adjusted models, contraindicated abciximab use in patients with thrombocytopenia (hazard ratio, 2.23; 95% confidence interval, 1.58-3.16) and in patients with a previous stroke (hazard ratio, 1.93; 95% confidence interval, 1.37-2.71) remained significantly associated with increased bleeding. Contraindicated abciximab use was not significantly associated with 30-day mortality in adjusted models. Use of eptifibatide in dialysis patients was not significantly associated with an increased risk of bleeding or mortality.Conclusions: In this national cohort, ≈18% of patients undergoing PCI had contraindications to common antiplatelet medications. Approximately 6% of those patients received a contraindicated medication with attendant bleeding risk, although this did not translate into significantly higher risk of 30-day mortality. Continued efforts to reduce contraindicated medication use may help avoid periprocedural complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anticoagulation clinics were initially developed to provide safe and effective care for warfarin-treated patients with atrial fibrillation, venous thromboembolism, and mechanical valve replacement. Traditionally, these patients required ongoing laboratory monitoring and warfarin dose adjustment by expert providers. With the introduction of direct oral anticoagulants (dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban, and edoxaban), many have questioned the need for anticoagulation clinic. However, we think that the growing number of oral anticoagulant choices creates an urgent need for expanding the traditional role of the anticoagulation clinic. We outline 3 key purposes that a reimagined anticoagulation clinic would serve: (1) to assist patients and clinicians with selecting the most appropriate drug and dose from a growing list of anticoagulant options (including warfarin), (2) to help patients minimize the risk of serious bleeding complications with careful long-term monitoring and peri-procedural management, and (3) to encourage ongoing adherence to these life-saving medications. We also describe how repurposing anticoagulation clinics as broader medication safety clinics would promote safe and effective care across a range of cardiovascular conditions for high-risk medications (eg, spironolactone, amiodarone). Finally, we highlight a few existing health systems that are overcoming key challenges to implementing a reimagined anticoagulation or medication safety clinic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background--Although out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is common because of acute myocardial infarction, it is unknown whether early coronary angiography is associated with improved survival in these patients. Methods and Results--Using data from the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES), we identified 4029 adult patients admitted to 374 hospitals after successful resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest because of ventricular fibrillation, pulseless ventricular tachycardia, or unknown shockable rhythm between January 2010 and December 2013. Early coronary angiography (occurring within one calendar day of cardiac arrest) was performed in 1953 (48.5%) patients, of whom 1253 (64.2%) received coronary revascularization. Patients who underwent early coronary angiography were younger (59.9 versus 62.0 years); more likely to be men (78.1% versus 64.3%), have a witnessed arrest (84.6% versus 77.4%), and have ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (32.7% versus 7.9%); and less likely to have known cardiovascular disease (22.8% versus 35.0%), diabetes mellitus (11.0% versus 17.0%), and renal disease (1.8% versus 5.8%; P<0.01 for all comparisons). In analysis of 1312 propensity score-matched pairs, early coronary angiography was associated with higher odds of survival to discharge (odds ratio 1.52 [95% confidence interval 1.28-1.80]; P<0.0001) and survival with favorable neurological outcome (odds ratio 1.47 [95% confidence interval 1.25-1.71]; P<0.0001). Further adjustment for coronary revascularization in our models significantly attenuated both odds ratios, suggesting that revascularization was a key mediator of the survival benefit. Conclusions--Among initial survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest caused by VF or pulseless VT, we found early coronary angiography was associated with higher odds of survival to discharge and favorable neurological outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Baseline physical activity in patients when they initiate cardiac rehabilitation is poorly understood. We used mobile health technology to understand baseline physical activity of patients initiating cardiac rehabilitation within a clinical trial to potentially inform personalized care.Methods: The VALENTINE (Virtual Application-Supported Environment to Increase Exercise During Cardiac Rehabilitation Study) is a prospective, randomized-controlled, remotely administered trial designed to evaluate a mobile health intervention to supplement cardiac rehabilitation for low- and moderate-risk patients. All participants receive a smartwatch and usual care. Baseline physical activity was assessed remotely after enrollment and included (1) 6-minute walk distance, (2) daily step count, and (3) daily exercise minutes, both over 7 days and for compliant days, defined by >8 hours of watch wear time. Multivariable linear regression identified patient-level features associated with these 3 measures of baseline physical activity.Results: From October 2020 to March 2022, 220 participants enrolled in the study. Participants are mostly White (184 [83.6%]); 67 (30.5%) are female and 84 (38.2%) are >65 years old. Most participants enrolled in cardiac rehabilitation after percutaneous coronary intervention (105 [47.7%]) or coronary artery bypass surgery (39 [17.7 %]). Clinical diagnoses include coronary artery disease (78.6%), heart failure (17.3%), and valve repair or replacement (26.4%). Baseline mean 6-minute walk distance was 489.6 (SD, 143.4) meters, daily step count was 6845 (SD, 3353), and exercise minutes was 37.5 (SD, 33.5). In a multivariable model, 6-minute walk distance was significantly associated with age and sex, but not cardiac rehabilitation indication. Sex but not age or cardiac rehabilitation indication was significantly associated with daily step count and exercise minutes.Conclusions: Baseline physical activity varies substantially in low- and moderate-risk patients enrolled in cardiac rehabilitation. Future studies are warranted to explore whether personalizing cardiac rehabilitation programs using mobile health technologies could optimize recovery.Registration: URL: https://www.Clinicaltrials: gov; Unique identifier: NCT04587882. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background--Acute kidney injury (AKI) post percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is associated with increased mortality but both death and AKI share common risk factors. Moreover, the effect of a high contrast dose, a known modifiable risk factor for AKI, on mortality is unknown. The aim of our study was to analyze the association between AKI and in-hospital mortality post PCI after adjustment for confounding by common risk factors. Methods and Results--This study was performed using a regional registry of all patients undergoing PCI in Michigan. Primary end points were AKI (serum creatinine increase >0.5 mg/dL) and all-cause in-hospital mortality. Propensity matching was performed, with each AKI patient matched to 4 controls. Attributable risk fraction and the exposed index number of AKI for mortality were calculated within the propensity-matched cohort. Between 2010 and 2013, 92 317 patients underwent PCI, of whom 2141 (2.3%) developed AKI. We matched 1371/2141 patients with AKI to 5484 controls. AKI was strongly associated with mortality (odds ratio=12.52, 95% confidence interval 9.29-16.86) in the propensity-matched cohort. The attributable risk fraction for mortality of AKI was 31.4% (95% confidence interval 26.8%-37.5%), and one death could be prevented for every 9 cases of AKI successfully avoided. The independent impact of a high contrast dose at time of PCI on in-hospital mortality risk was weak (adjusted odds ratio 1.19, 95% confidence interval 0.97-1.45). Conclusions--Nearly one-third of the in-hospital mortality post PCI is attributable to AKI. Preventing 9 cases of AKI could potentially prevent one death. These study findings stress the need for developing effective AKI preventive strategies beyond minimization of contrast dose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although an in-hospital cardiac arrest is common, little is known about readmission patterns and an inpatient resource use among survivors of an in-hospital cardiac arrest.Methods and Results: Within a large national registry, we examined long-term inpatient use among 6972 adults aged ≥65 years who survived an in-hospital cardiac arrest. We examined 30-day and 1-year readmission rates and inpatient costs, overall and by patient demographics, hospital disposition (discharge destination), and neurological status at discharge. The mean age was 75.8±7.0 years, 56% were men, and 12% were black. There were a total of 2005 readmissions during the first 30 days (cumulative incidence rate, 35 readmissions/100 patients; 95% confidence interval, 33-37) and 8751 readmissions at 1 year (cumulative incidence rate, 185 readmissions/100 patients; 95% confidence interval, 177-190). Overall, mean inpatient costs were $7741±$2323 at 30 days and $18 629±$9411 at 1 year. Thirty-day inpatient costs were higher in patients of younger age (≥85 years, $6052 [reference]; 75-84 years, $7444 [adjusted cost ratio, 1.23; 1.06-1.42; 65-74 years, $8291 [adjusted cost ratio, 1.37; 1.19-1.59; both P<0.001) and black race (whites, $7413; blacks, $9044; adjusted cost ratio, 1.22; 1.05-1.42; P<0.001), as well as those discharged with severe neurological disability or to skilled nursing or rehabilitation facilities. These differences in resource use persisted at 1 year and were largely because of higher readmission rates.Conclusions: Survivors of an in-hospital cardiac arrest have frequent readmissions and high follow-up inpatient costs. Readmissions and inpatient costs were higher in certain subgroups, including patients of younger age and black race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical journals currently find themselves in the throes of 2 powerful trends: (1) a growing concern for the irreproducibility of scientific reports, and (2) a rising imperative to accelerate dissemination of new knowledge in the digital era. Without question, the individual merit of tackling each issue is readily apparent. Irreproducibility of scientific reports is surprisingly common and contributes to an overall loss of confidence in research by the public and other stakeholders. And who could argue with efforts to leverage new online technologies to distribute information as rapidly and widely as possible? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]