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Key Clinical Message Anomalous insertion of chordae is a rare disease that could be associated with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM), but clinical and echocardiographic diagnoses tend to be delayed. Alcohol septal ablation has emerged as an alternative to surgical myomectomy in HOCM. When a patient showed an anomalous insertion of chordae, physicians generally opt for surgery and not alcohol septal ablation. In this report, we present the case of a lady, with symptomatic HOCM associated with a chord inserted on the left ventricular outflow tract. We succeeded to relieve obstruction by alcohol septal ablation without the need for surgery.

BackgroundThis trial aimed to assess the efficacy of Atorvastatin reloading on the prevention of Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) in patients pre-treated with this statin and undergoing coronary catheterization.MethodsThis was a prospective randomized controlled study including patients on chronic atorvastatin therapy. We randomly assigned the population to the Atorvastatin Reloading group (AR group), by reloading patients with 80 mg of atorvastatin one day before and three days after the coronary procedure, and the Non-Reloading group (NR group), including patients who received their usual dose without a reloading dose. The primary endpoints were the incidence of cystatin (Cys)-based CIN and Creatinine (Scr)-based CIN. The secondary endpoints consisted of the changes in renal biomarkers (Δ biomarkers) defined as the difference between the follow-up level and the baseline level.ResultsOur population was assigned to the AR group (n = 56 patients) and NR group (n = 54 patients). The baseline characteristics of the 2 groups were similar. Serum creatinine (SCr)-based CIN occurred in 11.1% in the NR group, and in 8.9% in the AR group without any significant difference. Cys-based CIN occurred in 37% in the NR group and 26.8% in the AR group without any significant difference. The subgroup analysis showed that high dose reloading had significantly reduced the CYC-based CIN risk in patients with type 2 diabetes (43.5% vs 18.8%, RR = 0.43. CI 95% [0.18-0.99])). The comparison of "Δ Cystatin" and Δ eGFR between the AR and NR groups didn't show any significant difference. However, cystatin C had significantly increased between baseline and at 24 hours in the NR group (0.96 vs 1.05, p = 0.001), but not in the AR group (0.94 vs 1.03, p = 0.206).ConclusionsOur study did not find a benefit of systematic atorvastatin reloading in patients on chronic atorvastatin therapy in preventing CIN. However, it suggested that this strategy could reduce the risk of CyC-based CIN in diabetic type 2 patients.

Abstract We report a case of balloon shaft rupture during percutaneous coronary intervention. Although the entrapped balloon was not yet deflated when the complication occurred, we successfully retrieved it percutaneously using a trapping technique. This case described a cheap and straightforward technique of device retrieval that helped save our patient.

BackgroundThis study was designed to evaluate the care of hypertensive patients in daily clinical practice in public and private centers in all Tunisian regions. ObjectiveThis study will provide us an overview of hypertension (HTN) management in Tunisia and the degree of adherence of practitioners to international recommendations. MethodsThis is a national observational cross-sectional multicenter study that will include patients older than 18 years with HTN for a duration of 4 weeks, managed in the public sector from primary and secondary care centers as well as patients managed in the private sector. Every participating patient signed a consent form. The study will exclude patients undergoing dialysis. The parameters that will be evaluated are demographic and anthropometric data, lifestyle habits, blood pressure levels, lipid profiles, treatment, and adherence to treatment. The data are collected via the web interface in the Dacima Clinical Suite. ResultsThe study began on April 15, 2019 and ended on May 15, 2019. During this period, we included 25,890 patients with HTN. Data collection involved 321 investigators from 24 Tunisian districts. The investigators were doctors working in the private and public sectors. ConclusionsObservational studies are extremely useful in improving the management of HTN in developing countries. Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT04013503; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04013503 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/21878

BackgroundCoronary artery diseases remain the leading cause of death in the world. The management of this condition has improved remarkably in the recent years owing to the development of new technical tools and multicentric registries. ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to investigate the in-hospital and 1-year clinical outcomes of patients treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in Tunisia. MethodsWe will conduct a prospective multicentric observational study with patients older than 18 years who underwent PCI between January 31, 2020 and June 30, 2020. The primary end point is the occurrence of a major adverse cardiovascular event, defined as cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accident, or target vessel revascularization with either repeat PCI or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The secondary end points are procedural success rate, stent thrombosis, and the rate of redo PCI/CABG for in-stent restenosis. ResultsIn this study, the demographic profile and the general risk profile of Tunisian patients who underwent PCI and their end points will be analyzed. The complexity level of the procedures and the left main occlusion, bifurcation occlusion, and chronic total occlusion PCI will be analyzed, and immediate as well as long-term results will be determined. The National Tunisian Registry of PCI (NATURE-PCI) will be the first national multicentric registry of angioplasty in Africa. For this study, the institutional ethical committee approval was obtained (0223/2020). This trial consists of 97 cardiologists and 2498 patients who have undergone PCI with a 1-year follow-up period. Twenty-eight catheterization laboratories from both public (15 laboratories) and private (13 laboratories) sectors will enroll patients after receiving informed consent. Of the 2498 patients, 1897 (75.9%) are managed in the public sector and 601 (24.1%) are managed in the private sector. The COVID-19 pandemic started in Tunisia in March 2020; 719 patients (31.9%) were included before the COVID-19 pandemic and 1779 (60.1%) during the pandemic. The inclusion of patients has been finished, and we expect to publish the results by the end of 2022. ConclusionsThis study would add data and provide a valuable opportunity for real-world clinical epidemiology and practice in the field of interventional cardiology in Tunisia with insights into the uptake of PCI in this limited-income region. Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT04219761; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04219761 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)RR1-10.2196/24595

INTRODUCTION: Les procédures de cardiologie interventionnelle sont devenues complexes et chronophages avec un sur-risque d´exposition aux rayonnements ionisants. L´objectif de notre étude était d´évaluer le niveau des connaissances et des pratiques en radioprotection des cardiologues Tunisiens exposés au rayon X. METHODES: Notre étude est descriptive analytique réalisée en octobre 2019, organisée sous forme de questionnaire anonyme des connaissances et pratiques en radioprotection et envoyé à tous les Cardiologues Tunisiens exposés aux rayons X. RESULTATS: parmi 126 cardiologues exposés aux rayons X et ayant reçu le questionnaire, 58 médecins ont répondu au questionnaire (48%), avec une prédominance masculine (72%, n=42). Trente-huit médecins (65%) exerçaient dans le secteur public. L´expérience professionnelle était en moyenne de 12,02 ans (ET 6,88 ans). La moitié des médecins avaient un score de connaissances inférieur à 50%. La moyenne du score des pratiques était de 43,83 (ET 13,95%). Le port du tablier en plomb, de la cache thyroïde, du dosimètre, des lunettes en plomb, du calot en plomb était respectivement de 100% (n=58), 86,2% (n=50), 30,7% (n=18), 12,1% (n=7) et 1,7% (n=1). Il n´y avait pas de corrélation entre les scores et l´âge du médecin ainsi que la durée de l´expérience professionnelle. Les scores de connaissances ne différaient pas statistiquement entre les 2 sexes (p=0,06) ni entre le secteur public et le secteur privé (p=0,9). Le score de pratique était significativement plus élevé chez les hommes (0.007) et les cardiologues interventionnels comparés aux rythmologues et cardiopédiatres (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Le niveau des connaissances et des pratiques des cardiologues Tunisiens en radioprotection est globalement insuffisant. Ce qui interpelle les autorités sanitaires à organiser un plan de formation régulier pour cette population.

The distal radial approach (DRA) is suggested to have benefits over the conventional radial approach (CRA) in terms of local complications and comfort of both patient and operator. Therefore, we aimed to compare the feasibility and safety of DRA and CRA in a real life population. We conducted a prospective, observational multicentric trial, including all patients undergoing coronary procedures in September 2019. Patients with impalpable proximal or distal radial pulse were excluded. Thus, the choice of the approach is left to the operator discretion. The primary endpoints were cannulation failure and procedure failure. The secondary endpoints were time of puncture, local complications and radial occlusion assessed by Doppler performed one day after the procedure. We enrolled 177 patients divided into two groups: CRA (n = 95) and DRA (n = 82). Percutaneous intervention was achieved in 37% in CRA group and 34% in DRA group (p = 0.7). Cannulation time was not significantly different between the two sets (p = 0.16). Cannulation failure was significantly higher in DRA group (4.8% vs 2%, p

INTRODUCTION: L´hypertension (HTA), la fibrillation auriculaire (FA) et l´accident vasculaire cérébral (AVC) sont trois problèmes de santé publique. A travers cette étude nous avons cherché à déterminer la prévalence de la FA et de l´AVC ischémique chez les patients hypertendus et déterminer les facteurs associés à la survenue de la FA non valvulaire chez ces patients. METHODES: nous avons utilisé les données recueillies dans le service de cardiologie de l´hôpital universitaire de Sfax dans le cadre du registre national tunisien d´HTA. Nous avons étudié les associations entre les différentes variables sociodémographiques, cliniques, para cliniques et thérapeutiques et la FA chez les hypertendus en utilisant des modèles de régression logistique. RESULTATS: notre échantillon comprenait 2887 patients avec un sexe ratio à 0,95. L´âge moyen était de 65 ans (±11). La FA était notée chez 230 patients (8%), alors que l´AVC ischémique chez 152 patients (5,3%). Au décours de l´analyse multivariée, les facteurs indépendants associés à une augmentation de la prévalence de la FA étaient: l´âge avancé (p=0,001, Odds Ratio(OR) = 1,647, Intervalle de confiance (IC) à 95%: 1,1227-2,213), la présence d´une hypertrophie ventriculaire gauche (HVG) à l´échographie cardiaque(p = 0,004, OR = 2,140, IC95%: 1,281-3,576), et la fraction d´éjection du ventricule gauche (FEVG) = 50% (p = 0,001, OR=4,677, IC95%: 2,715-8,057). CONCLUSION: nous avons confirmé qu´il existe une relation directe et indépendante entre l´HTA, l´âge avancé, l´HVG et la FA. L´installation d´une FA au cours de l´HTA constitue un tournant évolutif de la maladie par majoration du risque d´AVC ischémique. Un contrôle optimal de la pression artérielle tensionnel être hautement prioritaire chez les hypertendus, en particulier âgés, afin de prévenir le risque de la FA et de l´AVC.