Efficacy and safety of percutaneous mitral balloon valvotomy in patients with mitral stenosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Aims: Percutaneous mitral balloon valvotomy PMBV is an acceptable alternative to Mitral valve surgery for patients with mitral stenosis. The purpose of this study was to explore the immediate results of PMBV with respect to echocardiographic changes, outcomes, and complications, using a meta-analysis approach. Methods: MEDLINE, and EMBASE databases were searched (01/2012 to 10/2018) for original research articles regarding the efficacy and safety of PMBV. Two reviewers independently screened references for inclusion and abstracted data including article details and echocardiographic parameters before and 24–72 h after PMBV, follow-up duration, and acute complications. Disagreements were resolved by third adjudicator. Quality of all included studies was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale NOS. Results: 44/990 references met the inclusion criteria representing 6537 patients. Our findings suggest that PMBV leads to a significant increase in MVA (MD = 0.81 cm2; 0.76–0.87, p < 0.00001), LVEDP (MD = 1.89 mmHg; 0.52–3.26, p = 0.007), LVEDV EDV (MD = 5.81 ml; 2.65–8.97, p = 0.0003) and decrease in MPG (MD = 7.96 mmHg; 8.73 to 7.20, p < 0.00001), LAP (MD = 10.09 mmHg; 11.06 to 9.12, p < 0.00001), and SPAP (MD = 15.55 mmHg; 17.92 to 13.18, p < 0.00001). On short term basis, the pooled overall incidence estimates of repeat PMBV, mitral valve surgery, post-PMBV severe MR, and post- PMBV stroke, and systemic thromboembolism were 0.5%, 2%, 1.4%, 0.4%, and 0.7% respectively. On long term basis, the pooled overall incidence estimates of repeat PMBV, mitral valve surgery, post-PMBV severe MR, and post-PMBV stroke, systemic thromboembolism were 5%, 11.5%, 5.5%, 2.7%, and 1.7% respectively Conclusion: PMBV represents a successful approach for patients with mitral stenosis as evidenced by improvement in echocardiographic parameters and low rate of complications.The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and publication of this article

Impact of anemia on exercise and pharmacologic stress echocardiography

Background: The safety and diagnostic accuracy of stress testing in anemic patients have not been well studied. Despite a lack of data, significant anemia may be considered a relative contraindication to stress testing because of safety concerns related to insufficient myocardial oxygen supply. Methods: The authors reviewed 28,829 consecutive patients with blood hemoglobin drawn within 48 hours of stress echocardiography (15,624 exercise and 13,205 dobutamine). The associations of blood hemoglobin concentration with arrhythmia and other stress echocardiographic findings were examined. Additionally, the effect of anemia on the positive predictive value of stress echocardiography for the detection of significant coronary artery stenosis ($50%) was assessed in patients who subsequently underwent coronary angiography. Results: Anemia was present in 6,401 patients (22.2%) and was severe (hemoglobin < 8.0 g/dL) in 52. Stress testing with either exercise or dobutamine was safe, with no significant increase in serious arrhythmia events or need for hospitalization. In the exercise cohort, worsening anemia was associated with reduced treadmill exercise time, lower peak heart rate, peak rate-pressure product, and achieved workload. In the dobutamine stress cohort, worsening anemia was associated with higher resting heart rate, more use of atropine, and fewer patients attaining target heart rate. The positive predictive value of stress echocardiography was higher in patients with moderate anemia compared with those without anemia (71.8% vs 60.2%, P = .01). Conclusions: This study demonstrates that stress testing is safe in patients with mild and moderately anemia, albeit with a small increase in mild supraventricular arrhythmias with exercise. However, worsening anemia was associated with a significant reduction in exercise capacity. Additionally, worsening anemia was associated with an improvement in the positive predictive value of stress echocardiography. Extrapolation of these data to patients with severe anemia should be performed with caution given the limited number of patients with severe anemia in this study