Effectiveness of implementation of standard clinical pathway through healthcare professionals among acute myocardial infarction patients undergoing angiography / angioplasty in a public tertiary care hospital, Karachi

Objective: To assess the effect of acute myocardial infarction standard clinical pathway among acute myocardial infarction patients on length of stay in public tertiary care setting.Methods: The quasi-experimental non-randomised study was conducted at the Department of Cardiology, Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital, Karachi, from September to December 2018, and comprised acute myocardial infarction patients. Those admitted before the implementation of acute myocardial infarction standard clinical pathway formed the control group, while those admitted after the implementation were in the intervention group. Acute myocardial infarction standard clinical pathway was implemented and the interventional clinical practices of healthcare professionals, including cardiologists, postgraduates, residents, nurses and critical care technicians, were assessed using a standard checklist. Data was analysed using SPSS 21.Results: Of the 100 participants, 50(50%) were in the control group; 31(62%) males and 19(38%) females. The intervention group also had 50(50%) patients; 35(70%) males and 15(30%) females. Regarding effectiveness of the implementation of standard clinical pathway, length of hospital stay reduced significantly in the intervention group compared to the control group (p=0.003).Conclusions: The implementation of acute myocardial infarction standard clinical pathway reduced the length of hospital stay of acute myocardial infarction patients

Comparison of the Postprocedural Quality of Life between Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: A Systematic Review

The treatment of choice between coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has remained unclear. Considering quality of life (QOL) increases life expectancy, we believe QOL should be important in determining the optimum treatment. Thus the objective of this review was to illustrate the comparative effects of CABG and PCI on postprocedural QOL. Methods. We searched PubMed (Medline) and Embase from inception of the databases to May 2014 using “PCI versus CABG quality of life”, “Percutaneous Coronary intervention versus Coronary artery bypass graft surgery Quality of life”, “PCI versus CABG health status”, “Angioplasty versus CABG”, “Percutaneous coronary intervention versus coronary artery bypass surgery health status”, and different combinations of the above terms. 447 articles were found. After applying strict exclusion criteria, we included 13 studies in this review. Results. From the 9 studies that compared QOL scores at 6 months after procedure, 5 studies reported CABG to be superior. From the 10 studies that compared QOL among patients at 1 year after procedure, 9 reported CABG to be superior. Conclusion. It can be established that CABG is superior to PCI in improving patient’s QOL with respect to all scales used to determine quality of life

Comparison of the Postprocedural Quality of Life between Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: A Systematic Review

The treatment of choice between coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has remained unclear. Considering quality of life (QOL) increases life expectancy, we believe QOL should be important in determining the optimum treatment. Thus the objective of this review was to illustrate the comparative effects of CABG and PCI on postprocedural QOL. Methods. We searched PubMed (Medline) and Embase from inception of the databases to May 2014 using "PCI versus CABG quality of life", "Percutaneous Coronary intervention versus Coronary artery bypass graft surgery Quality of life", "PCI versus CABG health status", "Angioplasty versus CABG", "Percutaneous coronary intervention versus coronary artery bypass surgery health status", and different combinations of the above terms. 447 articles were found. After applying strict exclusion criteria, we included 13 studies in this review. Results. From the 9 studies that compared QOL scores at 6 months after procedure, 5 studies reported CABG to be superior. From the 10 studies that compared QOL among patients at 1 year after procedure, 9 reported CABG to be superior. Conclusion. It can be established that CABG is superior to PCI in improving patient's QOL with respect to all scales used to determine quality of life

The Effectiveness of implementation of standard clinical pathway through healthcare professionals among acute myocardial infarction patients undergoing for angiography / angioplasty in a public tertiary care hospital, Karachi

Objective: To assess the effect of acute myocardial infarction standard clinical pathway among acute myocardial infarction patients on length of stay in public tertiary care settings. Methods: The quasi-experimental non-randomised case-control study was conducted at the Department of Cardiology, Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital, Karachi, from September to December 2018, and comprised acute myocardial infarction in-patients. Those admitted before the implementation of acute myocardial infarction standard clinical pathway formed the control group, while those admitted after the implementation were in the intervention group. Acute myocardial infarction standard clinical pathway was implemented and the interventional clinical practices of healthcare professionals, including cardiologists, postgraduates, residents, nurses and critical care technicians, were assessed using a standard checklist. Data was analysed using SPSS 21. Results: Of the 100 participants, 50(50%) were in the control group; 31(62%) males and 19(38%) females. The intervention group also had 50(50%) patients; 35(70%) males and 15(30%) females. Regarding effectiveness of the implementation of standard clinical pathway, length of hospital stays reduced significantly in the intervention group compared to the control group (p=0.003). Conclusion: The implementation of acute myocardial infarction standard clinical pathway reduced the length of hospital stay of acute myocardial infarction in- patients. Key Words: Acute Myocardial Infarction, AMI standard clinical pathway, Length of hospital stay, LOS, Angiography, Angioplasty, Health care professionals. Continue..

Prognostic value of blood count parameters in patients with acute coronary syndrome

Background: Recent studies have shown that complete blood count (CBC) parameters can effectively predict long-term mortality and re-infarction rates in acute coronary syndrome (ACS). However, the role of these parameters in predicting short term mortality has not been studied extensively. The main objective of this study was to determine whether CBC parameters can predict 30-days mortality and the incidence of major adverse cardiac event (MACE) in ACS patients. Methodology: A total of 297 patients with ACS were recruited in this prospective study. The relationship of baseline white blood cell (WBC) to mean platelet volume ratio (WMR) with MACE and mortality was assessed during a 30-days follow up. The patients were divided into two groups: Group A [WMR  1000]. Multivariate COX regression was performed to calculate hazard ratios (HR). Results: WMR had the highest area under receiver operating characteristics curve and highest discriminative ability amongst all CBC parameters in predicting mortality. Patients in Group B had a higher mortality rate (p  1000 (HR = 2.9, 95% confidence interval 1.3–6.5, p = 0.01) was found to be strongest biochemical marker in predicting mortality. Conclusion: WMR is an easily accessible and an inexpensive indicator, which may be used as a prognostic marker in patients with ACS. Keywords: Acute coronary syndrome, Complete blood count, Mean platelet volume, White blood cel

Efficacy of serum blood urea nitrogen, creatinine and electrolytes in the diagnosis and mortality risk assessment of patients with acute coronary syndrome

Background: Although blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr) and electrolytes are not the mainstay of diagnosis in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients but they may have a role in providing a more detailed view of the complications and mortality rates. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of these parameters in the diagnosis and mortality risk-assessment of patients with ACS. Methodology: A total of 200 patients with ACS were recruited in this prospective study. The relationship of serum BUN, Cr and electrolytes with cardiac enzymes, Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) and mortality was assessed during a 6-months follow-up. Statistical test like multivariate linear regression and binary logistic regression analysis were applied. Results: On multivariate linear regression analysis, serum potassium (K) (Unstandardized Coefficient B = −3.77; p = 0.04) showed significant negative association with Creatine Kinease and serum BUN (Unstandardized Coefficient B = 0.52; p = 0.001) showed significant positive association with Troponin I. The patients with GRACE > 105 had significantly higher levels of serum BUN and Cr. Receiver operating characteristic curves showed that area under curve (AUC) of BUN (0.7) was higher than AUC of Cr (0.5). Multiple adjusted model showed that patients with BUN > 32.5 mg/dl were almost 20 times more likely to be associated with mortality as compared to reference group. Conclusion: In addition to cardiac enzymes, K along with BUN and Cr may serve as important aid in diagnosis of ACS. BUN and Cr may also serve as important tools in mortality-risk assessment of ACS patients. Keywords: Acute coronary syndrome, Blood urea nitrogen, Creatinine, Electrolytes, Potassiu