Reduced Rate of Hospital Admissions for ACS during Covid-19 Outbreak in Northern Italy

To address the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic,1 strict social containment measures have been adopted worldwide, and health care systems have been reorganized to cope with the enormous increase in the numbers of acutely ill patients.2,3 During this same period, some changes in the pattern of hospital admissions for other conditions have been noted. The aim of the present analysis is to investigate the rate of hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) during the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak

Appraising the pathophysiologic impact of coronary collaterals as measured by fractional flow reserve on symptoms and signs of myocardial ischemia

Background The purpose of coronary revascularization in stable patients is anginal relief, yet there is no linear relationship between stenosis severity and clinical significance. A major factor in this complex lesion myocardium interaction is collateral flow. We aimed to define which collateral flow cut-offs separate asymptornatic from symptomatic patients during coronary occlusion. Methods Patients undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty for a single stenotic lesion were selected, collaterals were appraised angiographically, and fractional flow reserve was used during prolonged balloon occlusion to measure collateral flow index (FFRcoll). Changes in anginal symptoms, ST-T segment, and left ventricular wall motion were appraised before and during/ shortly after balloon dilation. Receiver-operating-characteristic curves and area under the curve were computed to identify the most appropriate FFRcoll cut-offs. Results Twenty consecutive patients were enrolled. At baseline, 10 patients had angiographic evidence of collaterals, whereas 10 had no angiographic evidence of collateral flow distal to the target lesion. FFRcoll had an excellent discriminatory performance for the presence of angiographic collaterals (area under the curve = 0.90, P = 0.003), a good discriminatory performance for the occurrence of angina (area under the curve = 0.80, P = 0.025), and a trend toward a good discriminatory performance for the occurrence of asynergy (area under the curve = 0.81, P = 0.06). On the basis of receiver-operating-characteristic curves, an FFRcoll cut-off greater than 0.26 could reliably distinguish patients with adequate collaterals (sensitivity = 0.90, specificity = 0.80), whereas a greater than 0.41 cut-off distinguished patients having angina or wall motion abnormalities from those remaining asymptomatic. Conclusion This study shows that distal collateral pressure greater than 41% of proximal perfusion pressure protects from anginal symptoms or regional systolic dysfunction during coronary occlusion, whereas a greater than 26% cutoff is more appropriate to identify angiographically evident collaterals ensuring distal myocardial viability. J Cardiovasc Med 9:1120-1126 (C) 2008 Italian Federation of Cardiology

Postpartum valve thrombosis: A happy ending thriller

A 29-year-old woman with two mechanical valve prostheses was referred to our institution for sudden and self-resolved diplopia 2 weeks after childbirth. From the beginning of pregnancy, nadroparin was started instead of warfarin. The echocardiogram performed at hospital admission revealed a severe aortic prosthesis regurgitation due to incomplete leaflet apposition with a prosthetic aortic transvalvular gradient increase. Three-dimensional transoesophageal echocardiography revealed a thrombus located between the two prostheses, causing intermittent aortic valve malfunction. Intravenous heparin was started. Three days later, a second transoesophageal echocardiogram revealed a decreased aortic transvalvular gradient, but an oval thrombus adhered to the mitral prosthesis and fluctuating through the prosthetic valve was detected. Tissue plasminogen activator infusion was started. To reduce cerebral embolization, carotid filters used during artery angioplasty were placed in common carotid arteries, left and right. No complication occurred during and after the procedure. With thrombus absence at 30-min transoesophageal echocardiography, filters were removed. The patient continued intravenous heparin until achievement of a therapeutic international normalized ratio range and she was asymptomatic on discharge