Development and Utility of Quality Metrics for Ambulatory Pediatric Cardiology in Kawasaki Disease.

The Adult Congenital and Pediatric Cardiology (ACPC) Section of the American College of Cardiology sought to develop quality indicators/metrics for ambulatory pediatric cardiology practice. The objective of this study was to report the creation of metrics for patients with Kawasaki disease. Over a period of 5 months, 12 pediatric cardiologists developed 24 quality metrics based on the most relevant statements, guidelines, and research studies pertaining to Kawasaki disease. Of the 24 metrics, the 8 metrics deemed the most important, feasible, and valid were sent on to the ACPC for consideration. Seven of the 8 metrics were approved using the RAND method by an expert panel. All 7 metrics approved by the ACPC council were accepted by ACPC membership after an "open comments" process. They have been disseminated to the pediatric cardiology community for implementation by the ACPC Quality Network

Referral for specialist follow-up and its association with post-discharge mortality among patients with systolic heart failure (from the National Heart Failure Audit for England and Wales)

For patients admitted with worsening heart failure, early follow-up after discharge is recommended. Whether outcomes can be improved when follow-up is done by cardiologists is uncertain. We aimed to determine the association between cardiology follow-up and risk of death for patients with heart failure discharged from hospital. Using data from the National Heart Failure Audit (England & Wales), we investigated the effect of referral to cardiology follow-up on 30-day and one-year mortality in 68 772 patients with heart failure and a reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HFREF) discharged from 185 hospitals between 2007 to 2013. The primary analyses used instrumental variable analysis complemented by hierarchical logistic and propensity matched models. At the hospital level, rates of referral to cardiologists varied from 6% to 96%. The median odds ratio (OR) for referral to cardiologist was 2.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.1, 2.5), suggesting that, on average, the odds of a patient being referred for cardiologist follow-up after discharge differed approximately 2.3 times from one randomly selected hospital to another one. Based on the proportion of patients (per region) referred for cardiology follow-up, referral for cardiology follow-up was associated with lower 30-day (OR 0.70; CI 0.55, 0.89) and one-year mortality (OR 0.81; CI 0.68, 0.95) compared with no plans for cardiology follow-up (i.e., standard follow-up done by family doctors). Results from hierarchical logistic models and propensity matched models were consistent (30-day mortality OR 0.66; CI 0.61, 0.72 and 0.66; CI 0.58, 0.76 for hierarchical and propensity matched models, respectively). For patients with HFREF admitted to hospital with worsening symptoms, referral to cardiology services for follow-up after discharge is strongly associated with reduced mortality, both early and late

Use of hospital services by age and comorbidity after an index heart failure admission in England: an observational study

© Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited.Objectives To describe hospital inpatient, emergency department (ED) and outpatient department (OPD) activity for patients in the year following their first emergency admission for heart failure (HF). To assess the proportion receiving specialist assessment within 2â €...weeks of hospital discharge, as now recommended by guidelines. Design Observational study of national administrative data. Setting All acute NHS hospitals in England. Participants 82â €...241 patients with an index emergency admission between April 2009 and March 2011 with a primary diagnosis of HF. Main outcome measures Cardiology OPD appointment within 2â €...weeks and within a year of discharge from the index admission; emergency department (ED) and inpatient use within a year. Results 15.1% died during the admission. Of the 69â €...848 survivors, 19.7% were readmitted within 30â €...days and half within a year, the majority for non-HF diagnoses. 6.7% returned to the ED within a week of discharge, of whom the majority (77.6%) were admitted. The two most common OPD specialties during the year were cardiology (24.7% of the total appointments) and anticoagulant services (12.5%). Although half of all patients had a cardiology appointment within a year, the proportion within the recommended 2â €...weeks of discharge was just 6.8% overall and varied by age, from 2.4% in those aged 90+ to 19.6% in those aged 18-45 (p<0.0001); appointments in other specialties made up only some of the shortfall. More comorbidity at any age was associated with higher rates of cardiology OPD follow-up. Conclusions Patients with HF are high users of hospital services. Postdischarge cardiology OPD follow-up rates fell well below current National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, particularly for the elderly and those with less comorbidity

Deep Learning in Cardiology

The medical field is creating large amount of data that physicians are unable to decipher and use efficiently. Moreover, rule-based expert systems are inefficient in solving complicated medical tasks or for creating insights using big data. Deep learning has emerged as a more accurate and effective technology in a wide range of medical problems such as diagnosis, prediction and intervention. Deep learning is a representation learning method that consists of layers that transform the data non-linearly, thus, revealing hierarchical relationships and structures. In this review we survey deep learning application papers that use structured data, signal and imaging modalities from cardiology. We discuss the advantages and limitations of applying deep learning in cardiology that also apply in medicine in general, while proposing certain directions as the most viable for clinical use.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures, 10 table

Stroke following percutaneous coronary intervention : type-specific incidence, outcomes and determinants seen by the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society 2007-12

Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2015. For permissions please email: [email protected] reviewedPostprin

単心室心筋ストレインと同期性障害によるフォンタン術後遠隔期の心事故予測：feature tracking法を用いた心臓シネMRI解析

博士(医学) 甲第690号(主論文の要旨、要約、審査結果の要旨、本文)，著者名:Umiko ISHIZAKI・Michinobu NAGANO・Yumi SHIINA・Kei INAI・Hiroki MORI・Tatsunori TAKAHASHI・Shuji SAKAI，タイトル:Global strain and dyssynchrony of the single ventricle predict adverse cardiac events after the Fontan procedure: Analysis using feature-tracking cine magnetic resonance imaging，掲載誌:Journal of cardiology(0914-5087)，巻・頁・年:73巻2号 p.163-170(2019)，著作権関連情報:© 2018 Japanese College of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.，DOI:10.1016/j.jjcc.2018.07.005博士(医学)東京女子医科大

U wave: an Important Noninvasive Electrocardiographic Diagnostic Marker

Study of U waves exemplifies important clinical role of noninvasive electrocardiography in modern cardiology. Present article highlights significance of U waves with a clinical case and also summarizes in brief the history of the same

Patient attitudes to sternotomy and thoracotomy scars

Young adults with congenital heart defects expressed dissatisfaction with their surgical scar. The impact extended to their social life and ability to form close relationships, and has implications for holistic practice. Presented at Association for European Paediatric Cardiology conference in Munich