Cause Of In-hospital Death Research Articles

Epidemiological characteristics of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction in Peru: Results of the PEruvian Registry of ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (PERSTEMI)

To determine the epidemiological characteristics, treatment, reperfusion strategies and in-hospital adverse events of patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction in Peru. Observational, prospective multicentre study in patients over 18 years admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of ST elevation myocardial infarction. A total of 396 patients were enrolled in the registry during February 2016 to February 2017. The mean age was 64.9±12 years, and 21% were women. In the first 12h of onset 38% of patients were fibrinolysed, 29% underwent primary PCI, and 33% did not receive any reperfusion. Pharmaco-invasive strategy was used in 12.9% of cases. The fibrinolysis was successful in 65% of patients, and primary PCI success was 82%. The hospital stay was 6 days (IQR 5-10). In-hospital mortality was 10.1%, with the first cause of death being due to cardiogenic shock. The rate of in-hospital re-infarction was 2.2%, and the rate of acute heart failure was 25%. Age>75 years, large infarct size, left ventricular ejection fraction<40%, and absence of negative T waves on post-reperfusion electrocardiogram were independently related to higher in-hospital mortality. In Peru, ST elevation myocardial infarction most frequently affects men between 60-70 years. The most frequent initial reperfusion treatment is fibrinolysis, followed by primary angioplasty, and pharmaco-invasive strategy. The main reason for the lack of administration of reperfusion treatment was the delay from symptoms onset to first medical contact. The most common cause of in-hospital death was cardiogenic shock.

Rationale, Design and Methodology of the Computerized Registry of Patients with Venous Thromboembolism (RIETE).

Venous thromboembolism (VTE), including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), is a preventable cause of in-hospital death, and one of the most prevalent vascular diseases. There is a lack of knowledge with regards to contemporary presentation, management and outcomes of patients with VTE. Many clinically important subgroups (including the elderly, those with recent bleeding and pregnant patients) have been under-represented in clinical trials. Furthermore, design of clinical trials is challenging in some scenarios, such as in those with hemodynamically unstable PE. RIETE (Registro Informatizado Enfermedad TromboEmbolica) is a large prospective multinational ongoing registry, designed to address these unmet needs using representative data from multiple centres. Initiated in Spain in 2001, RIETE currently includes 179 centres in 24 countries and has enrolled more than 72,000 patients. RIETE has helped characterize the pattern of presentation and outcomes of VTE, including the aforementioned understudied subgroups. RIETE has recently expanded to collect long-term outcome data, and has broadened its inclusion criteria to enrol other forms of venous thrombosis (such as cerebral vein thrombosis and splanchnic vein thrombosis). The RIETE platform is also being used to conduct pragmatic comparative effectiveness studies, including randomized trials. Future steps would focus on collaboration with additional centres across the world, and efforts to ensure the quality and expansion of the registry. In conclusion, RIETE is a large ongoing registry of patients with VTE and other thrombotic conditions. Its results could be helpful for improving our understanding of the epidemiology, patterns of care and outcomes of patients with thrombotic disease.

The quality of medical death certification of cause of death in hospitals in rural Bangladesh: impact of introducing the International Form of Medical Certificate of Cause of Death

BackgroundAccurate and timely data on cause of death are critically important for guiding health programs and policies. Deaths certified by doctors are implicitly considered to be reliable and accurate, yet the quality of information provided in the international Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) usually varies according to the personnel involved in certification, the diagnostic capacity of the hospital, and the category of hospitals. There are no published studies that have analysed how certifying doctors in Bangladesh adhere to international rules when completing the MCCD or have assessed the quality of clinical record keeping.MethodsThe study took place between January 2011 and April 2014 in the Chandpur and Comilla districts of Bangladesh. We introduced the international MCCD to all study hospitals. Trained project physicians assigned an underlying cause of death, assessed the quality of the death certificate, and reported the degree of certainty of the medical records provided for a given cause. We examined the frequency of common errors in completing the MCCD, the leading causes of in-hospital deaths, and the degree of certainty in the cause of death data.ResultsThe study included 4914 death certificates. 72.9% of medical records were of too poor quality to assign a cause of death, with little difference by age, hospital, and cause of death. 95.6% of death certificates did not indicate the time interval between onset and death, 31.6% required a change in sequence, 13.9% required to include a new diagnosis, 50.7% used abbreviations, 41.5% used multiple causes per line, and 33.2% used an ill-defined condition as the underlying cause of death. 99.1% of death certificates had at least one error. The leading cause of death among adults was stroke (15.8%), among children was pneumonia (31.7%), and among neonates was birth asphyxia (52.8%).ConclusionPhysicians in Bangladeshi hospitals had difficulties in completing the MCCD correctly. Physicians routinely made errors in death certification practices and medical record quality was poor. There is an urgent need to improve death certification practices and the quality of hospital data in Bangladesh if these data are to be useful for policy.

High level of venous thromboembolism in critically ill trauma patients despite early and well-driven thromboprophylaxis protocol

BackgroundVenous thromboembolism (VTE) is one of the most common preventable causes of in-hospital death in trauma patients surviving their injuries. We assessed the prevalence, incidence and risk factors for deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) in critically ill trauma patients, in the setting of a mature and early mechanical and pharmacological thromboprophylaxis protocol.MethodsThis was a prospective observational study on a cohort of patients from a surgical intensive care unit of a university level 1 trauma centre. We enrolled consecutive primary trauma patients expected to be in intensive care for ≥48 h. Thromboprophylaxis was protocol driven. DVT screening was performed by duplex ultrasound of upper and lower extremities within the first 48 h, between 5 and 7 days and then weekly until discharge. We recorded VTE risk factors at baseline and on each examination day. Independent risk factors were analysed using a multivariate logistic regression.ResultsIn 153 patients with a mean Injury Severity Score of 23 ± 12, the prevalence of VTE was 30.7%, 95 CI [23.7–38.8] (29.4% DVT and 4.6% PE). The incidence was 18%, 95 CI [14–24] patients-week. The median time of apparition of DVT was 6 days [1; 4]. The global protocol compliance was 77.8% with a median time of introduction of the pharmacological prophylaxis of 1 day [1; 2]. We identified four independent risk factors for VTE: central venous catheter (OR 4.39, 95 CI [1.1–29]), medullar injury (OR 5.59, 95 CI [1.7–12.9]), initial systolic arterial pressure <80 mmHg (OR 3.64, 95 CI [1.3–10.8]), and pelvic fracture (OR 3.04, 95 CI [1.2–7.9]).ConclusionDespite a rigorous, protocol-driven thromboprophylaxis, critically ill trauma patients showed a high incidence of VTE. Further research is needed to tailor pharmacological prophylaxis and balance the risks and benefits.

Percutaneous cardiac support during myocardial infarction drastically reduces mortality: perspectives from a swine model.

Background/AimsAcute myocardial infarction (AMI) with cardiogenic shock (CS) remains the leading cause of in-hospital death in acute coronary syndromes. In the AMI-CS pig model we tested the efficacy of temporary percutaneous cardiorespiratory assist device (PCRA) in rescuing the failing heart and reducing early mortality.MethodsIn open-chest pigs we induced AMI by proximal left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) ligation. Eight animals without PCRA (C group) were compared with 12 animals otherwise treated with PCRA (T group), starting approximately at 60 minutes post-occlusion and lasting 120–180 minutes. In 3 animals of the T group, regional myocardial oxygen content was also imaged by two-dimensional near infrared spectroscopy (2D-NIRS) with and without PCRA, before and after LAD reperfusion.ResultsAll animals without PCRA died despite unrelenting resuscitation maneuvers (120 minutes average survival time). Conversely, animals treated with PCRA showed a reduction in life-threatening arrhythmia and maintenance of aortic pressure, allowing interruption of PCRA in all cases early in the experiments, with sound hemodynamics at the end of the observation period. During LAD occlusion, NIRS showed severe de-oxygenation of the LAD territory that improved with PCRA. After PCRA suspension and LAD reperfusion, the residual de-oxygenated area proved to be smaller than the initial risk area.ConclusionsIn AMI, PCRA initiated during advanced CS drastically reduced early mortality from 100% to 0% in a 4–5 hour observation period. PCRA promoted oxygenation of the ischemic area during LAD occlusion. Results support the use of PCRA as first line of treatment in AMI-CS, improving myocardial rescue and short-term survival.

Brain natriuretic peptide and right heart dysfunction after heart transplantation.

Heart transplantation (HT) should normalize cardiac endocrine function, but brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels remain elevated after HT, even in the absence of left ventricular hemodynamic disturbance or allograft rejection. Right ventricle (RV) abnormalities are common in HT recipients (HTx), as a result of engraftment process, tricuspid insufficiency, and/or repeated inflammation due to iterative endomyocardial biopsies. RV function follow-up is vital for patient management as RV dysfunction is a recognized cause of in-hospital death and is responsible for a worse prognosis. Interestingly, few and controversial data are available concerning the relationship between plasma BNP levels and RV functional impairment in HTx. This suggests that infra-clinical modifications, such as subtle immune system disorders or hypoxic conditions, might influence BNP expression. Nevertheless, due to other altered circulating molecular forms of BNP, a lack of specificity of BNP assays is described in heart failure patients. This phenomenon could exist in HT population and could explain elevated BNP plasmatic levels despite a normal RV function. In clinical practice, intra-individual change in BNP over time, rather than absolute BNP values, might be more helpful in detecting right cardiac dysfunction in HTx.

Stroke-Associated Pneumonia Risk Score: Validity in a French Stroke Unit

Stroke-associated pneumonia is a leading cause of in-hospital death and post-stroke outcome. Screening patients at high risk is one of the main challenges in acute stroke units. Several screening tests have been developed, but their feasibility and validity still remain unclear. The aim of our study was to evaluate the validity of four risk scores (Pneumonia score, A2DS2, ISAN score, and AIS-APS) in a population of ischemic stroke patients admitted in a French stroke unit. Consecutive ischemic stroke patients admitted to a stroke unit were retrospectively analyzed. Data that allowed to retrospectively calculate the different pneumonia risk scores were recorded. Sensitivity and specificity of each score were assessed for in-hospital stroke-associated pneumonia and mortality. The qualitative and quantitative accuracy and utility of each diagnostic screening test were assessed by measuring the Youden Index and the Clinical Utility Index. Complete data were available for only 1960 patients. Pneumonia was observed in 8.6% of patients. Sensitivity and specificity were, respectively, .583 and .907 for Pneumonia score, .744 and .796 for A2DS2, and .696 and .812 for ISAN score. Data were insufficient to test AIS-APS. Stroke-associated pneumonia risk scores had an excellent negative Clinical Utility Index (.77-.87) to screen for in-hospital risk of pneumonia after acute ischemic stroke. All scores might be useful and applied to screen stroke-associated pneumonia in stroke patients treated in French comprehensive stroke units.

Implementation of a multicenter performance improvement program for early detection and treatment of severe sepsis in general medical-surgical wards.

Sepsis is a leading cause of in-hospital death, and evidence suggests a higher mortality in patients presenting with sepsis on the ward compared to those presenting to the emergency department. Ward patients who develop severe sepsis may have poor outcomes for a variety of reasons, including delayed diagnosis, lack of readily available staffing, and delayed treatment. We report on a multihospital quality improvement program for early detection and treatment of sepsis on general medical-surgical wards. We describe a multipronged approach to improve severe sepsis outcomes using the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Plan-Do-Study-Act model. Sixty sites engaged in a collaborative implementation process that aligned people, process, and technology. Based on our experience, we recommend a stepwise approach to implement such a program: (1) both administrative and clinical leadership commit to a common goal; (2) appoint clinical champions and give them authority to engage other clinicians to improve timeliness of interventions; (3) map workflows and processes to rely heavily on the nursing staff's ability to evaluate and report severe sepsis screening results; (4) if available, design and deploy technology with the assistance of clinical informaticians (eg, to enable electronic health records-based continuous screening); (5) to determine success, consider tracking screening compliance and process, and outcome measures such as length of stay and mortality. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2016;S11:32-S39. © 2016 Society of Hospital Medicine.

Elective or Emergency Use of Mechanical Circulatory Support Devices During Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.

Evaluate the use of mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices in high-risk patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). The use of MCS devices in elderly patients with multiple comorbidities undergoing TAVR is underexplored. All patients undergoing TAVR at a single tertiary academic center who required MCS during index procedure between 2008 and 2015 were included in a prospective database. MCS was used in 9.4% (54/577) of all TAVRs (n = 52 Edwards Sapien and n = 2 CoreValves) of which 68.5% (n = 37) were used as part of a planned strategy, and 31.5% (n = 17) were used in emergency "bail-out" situations. IABP was the most commonly used device (87%) followed by Impella and ECMO (6% each). Among the MCS group, 22% required cardiopulmonary resuscitation during the procedure (n = 4 elective [11%] vs. n = 8 emergent [47%]) and 15% upgrade to a second device (Impella or CPB after IABP; n = 5 elective [14%] vs. n = 3 emergent [18%]). Median duration of support was 1-day. Device related complications were low (4%). In-hospital mortality in this extremely high-risk population was 24% (13/54) (11% [4/37] for elective cases and 53% [9/17] for emergency cases). Cardiogenic shock (50%) was the most common cause of in-hospital death. Cumulative all-cause 1-year mortality was 35% (19/54) (19% 97/370 for elective and 71% [12/17] for emergency cases). Emergent use of MCS during TAVR in extremely high-risk population is associated with high short and long-term mortality rates. Early identification of patients at risk for hemodynamic compromise may rationalize elective utilization of MCS during TAVR.

Disease types discovery from a large database of inpatient records: A sepsis study

Data-driven phenotype discoveries on Electronic Health Records (EHR) data have recently drawn benefits across many aspects of clinical practice. In the method described in this paper, we map a very large EHR database containing more than a million inpatient cases into a low dimensional space where diseases with similar phenotypes have similar representation. This embedding allows for an effective segmentation of diseases into more homogeneous categories, an important task of discovering disease types for precision medicine. In particular, many diseases have heterogeneous nature. For instance, sepsis, a systemic and progressive inflammation, can be caused by many factors, and can have multiple manifestations on different human organs. Understanding such heterogeneity of the disease can help in addressing many important issues regarding sepsis, including early diagnosis and treatment, which is of huge importance as sepsis is one of the main causes of in-hospital deaths in the United States. This study analyzes state of the art embedding models that have had huge success in various fields, applying them to disease embedding from EHR databases. Particular interest is given to learning multi-type representation of heterogeneous diseases, which leads to more homogeneous groups. Our results show evidence that such representations have phenotypes of higher quality and also provide benefit when predicting mortality of inpatient visits.

Lung and gastrointestinal complications are leading causes of death in SCORE, a multi-ethnic Singapore systemic sclerosis cohort

Objectives: To assess contemporary outcomes and predictors of mortality in the well-characterized multi-ethnic systemic sclerosis cohort Singapore (SCORE).Method: From 2008, patients diagnosed with systemic sclerosis (SSc) fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) or Very Early Diagnosis of Systemic Sclerosis (VEDOSS) criteria were recruited from three major tertiary rheumatology centres in Singapore. Mortality was verified with the Singapore National Registry of Deaths and in-hospital cause of death was determined by two independent reviewers, up to 10 December 2013. A Cox proportional hazard (PH) regression analysis was used to examine the association between demographic and clinical indices and mortality, controlling for age and race.Results: Of the 349 patients (86.8% female; 77.7% Chinese), 97.4% fulfilled the ACR/EULAR 2013 criteria. The mean age at diagnosis was 46.2 years. The prevalence of limited (lcSSc), diffuse (dcSSc) cutaneous SSc, and SSc-overlap syndromes was 34.4, 37.1, and 26.8%, respectively. Thirty-five patients died after a mean follow-up of 2.1 years (743.6 person-years). Fifty-seven per cent of deaths were attributed to SSc, with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), interstitial lung disease (ILD), and gastrointestinal (GI) complications as the leading causes of death. Multivariate analysis (n = 275) showed that smoking [hazard ratio (HR) 4.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5–10.6], SSc-overlap (HR 6.0, 95% CI 1.8–19.1), baseline renal involvement (HR 2.5, 95% CI 1.1–6.0), pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) ≥ 40 mmHg on echocardiography (HR 5.1, 95% CI 2.2–11.7), treatment for peripheral vasculopathy (HR 2.6, 95% CI 1.1–6.5), and parenteral nutrition (HR 8.8, 95% CI 2.2–34.3) were independent predictors of mortality.Conclusions: PAH, ILD, and GI complications were leading causes of death in this cohort. We identified a high-risk group of patients who would benefit from closer monitoring and early intervention.

Use of Prophylactic Inferior Vena Cava Filters in Trauma.

Venous thromboembolisms, specifically pulmonary embolisms (PEs), represent a significant burden on healthcare systems worldwide, particularly within the setting of trauma. According to the literature, PEs are the most common cause of in-hospital death; however, this condition can be prevented with a variety of prophylactic and therapeutic measures. This article aimed to examine current evidence on the use, indications for prophylaxis, outcomes and complications of prophylactic inferior vena cava filters in trauma patients.

Prevention and Early Management of In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Challenge for Nursing Educators

Cardiac arrest can be defined as the heart’s inability to effectively eject blood out due to either an electrical or mechanical failure. This condition poses an immediate threat to life and is always considered to be a medical emergency. In Western countries, cardiac arrest is continuously highlighted as one of the leading causes of in-hospital death and the latest research suggests that survival rates after suffering one of these episodes still remain below 20%. Consequently, prevention and effective early management of in-hospital cardiac arrest constitute the basis of international algorithms for saving lives.

A Risk-Adjusted Retrospective Data Analysis between Younger and Elderly Patients with Acute Coronary Syndromes—Long-Term Prognosis

Purpose: To compare the demographic data and outcomes of younger versus elderly patients with acute coronary syndromes. Methods: This was a retrospective data bank analysis study with 966 patients (268 in the younger group (less than 55 years) and 698 in the elderly group (more than 55 years)). Data were obtained about clinical characteristics, angiography, and medication used at hospital and coronary definitive treatment. The primary endpoint was all cause of in-hospital death and combined events. Comparison between groups was made by Anova and Q-square. Multivariative analysis was determined by logistic regression and was considered significative when p < 0.05. Long-term mortality and combined events were studied using Kaplan- Meyer curves with median follow-up of 11.21 months. Results: The median age in the younger group was 48 years versus 69 years in the elderly group. In the younger group 26% was ST-myocardial infarction versus 18% in the elderly group. About 7% of younger patients were submitted to coronary bypass surgery and 42% to percutaneous coronary angioplasty versus 12% and 25% in elderly group, respectively. Significant difference was observed between the younger versus elderly groups in deaths (1.5% × 7.5%, p = 0.004), combined events (14.9% × 26.3%, p = 0.02) and killip III/IV (3.7% × 8.3%, p = 0.04). Long-term mortality was 3.7% × 10.2%, p = 0.01). Conclusions: In patients with acute coronary syndromes age was an important predictor factor of mortality and complications. Significative differences in outcomes were observed between the two groups in-hospital and long-term follow-up.

Thrombolysis for postoperative Submassive pulmonary Embolism

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is the most preventable cause of inhospital death. Although safe and effective, thrombolytic therapy is relatively contraindicated within 10 days of major surgery due to the risk of bleeding. Our patient developed submassive PE, within 48 h of surgery and had catheter-directed thrombolysis with Streptokinase (STK) injection successfully, without any bleeding complications. This case demonstrates that thrombolysis may be safely and effectively done in postoperative patients. In such scenarios, where the therapy is relatively contraindicated, the decision whether to thrombolyse or not, must be multidisciplinary, giving utmost importance to the patient's best interest and to ensure that no single individual is denied potentially life-saving therapy.

Analysis of the Clinical Characteristics, Management, and Causes of Death in Patients with ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction Treated With Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention from 2005 to 2014.

It is unknown whether there has been any change in the causes of death for acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in the era of aggressive reperfusion. We analyzed the direct causes of in-hospital death in patients with STEMI treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in a tertiary referral center over the past 10 years.We retrospectively analyzed 878 STEMI patients treated with primary PCI in our hospital between January 2005 and December 2014. There were no significant changes in the age and sex of patients, but the prevalence of hypertension and smoking decreased. STEMI severity increased with more patients in Killip classification > 2. The number of out-ofhospital cardiac arrest events also increased over the 10 years. Symptom onset-to-door time did not change in the 10year study period. The care quality was improved with shorter door-to-balloon time for primary PCI and increased use of dual antiplatelet therapy. The all-cause in-hospital mortality was 9.1%, which did not vary over the 10 years. Multivariable analysis showed that Killip classification > 2 was the most important determinant of death. Cardiogenic shock was the major cause of cardiovascular death. There was an increase in non-cardiovascular causes of death in the most recent 3 years, with infection being a major problem.Despite improvement in care quality for STEMI, the in-hospital mortality did not decrease in this tertiary referral center over these 10 years due to increased disease severity and non-cardiovascular causes of death.

Evaluation of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) for Patient Outcomes and their Predictors.

Cardiac arrest continues to be a common cause of in-hospital deaths. Even small improvements in survival can translate into thousands of lives saved every year. The aim of our prospective observational study was to elicit the outcomes and predictors of in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation among adult patients. All in-hospital adult patients (age >14) who suffered cardiac arrest & were attended by a Code Blue Team between 1(st) January 2012 & 30(th) April 2013 were part of the study. The cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was assessed in terms of: Response time, Presenting initial rhythm, Time to first defibrillation, Duration of CPR and Outcome (Return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), Glasgow outcome scale (GOS) at discharge). Age, GOS and mean response time were analysed using t-test and ANOVA. Logistic regression was applied to determine the significance of the various factors in determining mortality. ROSC was achieved in 44% of a total of 127 patients included in our study. Asystole/Pulseless electrical activity (PEA) was the most common presenting rhythm (87.5%). The survival to discharge was seen in 7.1% patients of whom only 3.9% patients had good neurological outcome. Regression and survival analysis depicted achievement of ROSC during CPR, absence of co-morbidities and shorter response time of code blue team as predictors of good outcome. We found poor outcome of CPR after in-hospital cardiac arrest. This was mainly attributed to an initial presenting rhythm of Asystole/PEA in most cases and delayed response times.

Spotlight on the January 5 Issue

#### Notable in Neurology This issue features an article demonstrating the neuroradiologic patterns and novel imaging findings in Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome and another on the use of amyloid-PET to determine cutpoints for CSF markers. Another featured article compares time trends in causes of in-hospital death after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. ### Cerebral injury in perinatally HIV-infected children compared to matched healthy controls This study included 35 perinatally HIV-infected children and 37 controls who underwent 3.0 T MRI. Children with HIV had lower brain volumes, a higher white matter hyperintensity load, and poorer white matter integrity, along …

Time trends in causes of death after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: A hospital-based study.

To compare causes of in-hospital death after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) in 2 time periods within the same institution. From a prospectively collected institutional database, we retrieved data on 844 consecutive patients with aSAH admitted ≤3 days after ictus in 1999-2002 and 2009-2012. We assessed case-fatality <90 days and causes of in-hospital death and used Poisson regression analyses to calculate adjusted risk ratios (aRR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) for change in individual causes of death, with the first time period as the reference group. Ninety-day case-fatality declined from 150/381 patients (39%) in 1999-2002 to 140/463 (30%) in 2009-2012 (aRR 0.74 [95% CI 0.62-0.88]). Compared with 1999-2002, the aRR for specific cause of in-hospital death in 2009-2012 was 1.06 (95% CI 0.72-1.56) for death from the initial bleeding, 0.47 (95% CI 0.31-0.71) for death from rebleeding, and 0.91 (95% CI 0.50-1.65) for death from delayed cerebral ischemia. Over time, the proportion of patients with in-hospital rebleeding declined from 90/381 (24%) to 78/463 (17%) (aRR 0.68 [95% CI 0.52-0.90]), median day of rebleeding from day 5 (IQR 1-10) to day 0 (IQR 0-1), and median day of aneurysm treatment from day 4 (IQR 2-13) to day 1 (IQR 1-2). An important contributor to the reduction in in-hospital death is the reduction in death from rebleeding, which probably results from earlier aneurysm treatment. Our results stress the need for early occlusion of the aneurysm and the need for other strategies that improve outcome by reducing the risk of rebleeding.

Acute myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock: pharmacologic and mechanical hemodynamic support pathways.

Cardiogenic shock (CS) is still the predominant cause of in-hospital death in patients with acute myocardial infarction, although mortality has been reduced in recent years. Early percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass grafting are causal therapies implemented in CS, supported by catecholamines, fluids, intra-aortic balloon pumping, and also active percutaneous assist devices. There is only limited evidence from randomized studies of any of these treatments in CS, except for early revascularization and the relative ineffectiveness of intra-aortic balloon pumping. This review will present treatment pathways of CS complicating acute myocardial infarction, with a major focus on revascularization, intensive care unit treatment, and mechanical support devices.