ObjectiveTo summarize the clinical characteristics and mid-long term efficacy of children under 15 years with mechanical valve replacement. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 51 children aged 1 to 15 years underwent mechanical valve replacement in Xinhua Hospital between January 2006 and January 2014. There were 32 males and 19 females with mean age of 9.6±4.0 years (ranged 1-15 years). ResultsThe average cardiopulmonary bypass time was 120.50±61.02 minutes, and average aortic cross-clamping time was 68.35±42.68 minutes. One patient died in hospital. There were 6 patients (11.8%) with complications including mitral paravalvular leakage in 1 patient, malignant ventricular arrhythmia in 1 patient, respiratory failure in 1 patient, acute renal failure in 2 patients, and delayed thoracic close in 1 patient. All the children cured and were followed up for 1-96 months. One patient died during the follow-up time. No other redo-valve replacement or complications correlated to anticoagulant occurred. ConclusionsMechanical valve replacement may be necessary in children with extremely dysplastic valves and severe hemodynamic impairment or after failed repair. With appropriate selection of the prosthetic valve and intensive care therapy during the peroperative period, the mid to long term efficacy is optimistic.
Heparin has long been a preferred anticoagulant during cardiovascular surgery, although limitations exist, including heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) and/or anti-platelet factor Ⅳ/heparin (anti-PF4/H) antibodies. Bivalirudin is a direct thrombin inhibitor, which can overcome the shortcoming of heparin. This article reviewed the application of bivalirudin in the field of cardiac surgery, its safety and effectiveness in various surgical treatments as well as summarized the standard protocol, doses, monitoring parameters and targets of bivalirudin for anticoagulation in cardiac surgery and mechanical circulation support. Bivalirudin as an alternative to heparin provides a new selection for anticoagulation in cardiac surgery.
In the intensive care units of Japan, nafamostat mesilate (NM) is the most used anticoagulant of continuous blood purification, with the rate of up to 85%. Its biggest characteristic is not to reduce the life of the filter in the group of patients with high risk of bleeding, and it can be safely used. However, there are not a few reports about severe anaphylaxis, when the symptoms of anaphylaxis is recognized after the start of continuous renal replacement therapy, it should be kept in mind that it is NM hypersensitivity. In addition, for an expensive drug, it may be required to be limited in the cases of risk of bleeding complications. NM has been developed for nearly 30 years, so it has high reliability in Japan. However, in the same case, regional citrate anticoagulation is recommended internationally. It may need a randomized controlled trial with regional citrate anticoagulation to prove the real effectiveness of NM.
Objective To assess different anticoagulant regimens in pregnant women with mechanical heart valves: taking oral warfarin throughout the pregnancy, or heparin in the 1st trimester and oral warfarin for the other trimesters. The main outcome measures were major maternal complications and perinatal outcomes. Methods The MEDLINE, EMbase, CBM and CNKI were searched. The quality of the included studies was evaluated and data were extracted by two reviewers independently. Meta-analyses were performed on the results of homogeneous studies. Result Seven studies involving 629 pregnancies in 469 patients met the inclusion criteria for this review, all of which were retrospective surveys. The comparison between the administration of heparin in the 1st trimester plus oral warfarin for the other trimesters and warfarin throughout the pregnancy showed that, there are not significant different in the incidence of major maternal complications and the incidence of adverse perinatal outcomes. Conclusion Compared with the administration of warfarin throughout the pregnancy, the administration of heparin in the 1st trimester and oral warfarin for the other trimesters might increase the incidence of major maternal complications, but with a similar incidence of adverse perinatal outcomes.
Objective To analyze the clinical features of patients with acute pulmonary embolism ( APE) with normal blood pressure and right ventricular dysfunction. Methods 130 hospitalized patients with normotensive APE between January 2009 and January 2012 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography to determine if they were complicated with RVD. The clinical features, risk factors, diagnosis, and treatment were analyzed and compared between the normotensive APE patients with or without RVD. Results 41 normotensive APE patients with RVD were as RVD group, and other 89 patients without RVD were as non-RVD group. The incidences of syncope ( 34.1% vs. 7.8% ) , tachycardia( 41.4% vs. 21.3% ) , P2 hyperthyroidism( 46.3% vs. 25.8% ) , jugular vein filling ( 12.1% vs. 1.1% ) , and cyanosis ( 26.8% vs. 8.9% ) were all significantly higher in the RVD group than those in the non-RVD group ( P lt; 0.05) . Computed tomography pulmonary angiography ( CTPA) revealed that the incidences of thromboembolism involving proximal pulmonary artery ( 58. 3% vs. 8. 3% ) and thromboembolism involving lobar pulmonary ( 77.8% vs.51.2% ) were also higher in the RVD group ( P lt; 0.001, P = 0.025 ) . In the RVD group, the patients were assigned to received thrombolysis plus anticoagulation therapy, or anticoagulation therapy alone. The clinical indicators ( heart rate, PaCO2 , AaDO2 , SPAP, TRPG) were all statistically improved after thrombolysis or anticoagulation treatment ( P lt;0.001) . But compared with the patients who underwent anticoagulation therapy alone, the cost of treatment and the incidence of minor bleeding were significantly higher, and the levels of AaDO2 , SPAP and TRPG were statistically lower in the patients with thrombolysis plus anticoagulation therapy. Conclusions For APE patients with central pulmonary embolism demonstrated by CTPA, syncope, and tachycardia, transthoracic echocardiograph should be performed as early as possible to confirm RVD diagnosis. For normotensive APE patients with RVD, anticoagulant treatment can achieve higher efficacy of costeffectiveness ratio.
ObjectiveTo investigate long-term outcomes of patients without warfarin anticoagulation after isolated prosthetic aortic valve replacement (AVR) and evaluate the feasibility of short-term instead of lifelong anticoagulation therapy for low-risk AVR patients. MethodsSeven patients who underwent prosthetic AVR in Guangdong General Hospital between 1996 and 1999 but discontinued warfarin anticoagulation 3 years after surgery were regularly followed up. There were 6 male and 1 female patients with their age of 25-75 (40.0±11.4) years. These patients received warfarin anticoagulation during the first 3 years after surgery but discontinued oral anticoagulant 3 years after surgery (discontinued anticoagulation group). Fifteen patients who underwent prosthetic AVR during the same period and continued warfarin anticoagulation were enrolled as the control group (continuing anticoagulation group). International normalized ratio (INR) was set between 1.8 and 2.5 during warfarin anticoagulation period in both groups. Survival rate and the incidence of severe adverse events were compared between the 2 groups. ResultsIn the discontinued anticoagulation group,1 patient was lost during follow-up. No thromboembolic event,death or prosthetic valve thrombosis was observed. All the patients were in NYHA class Ⅰ. In the continuing anticoagulation group,3 patients were lost during follow-up. Eleven patients were in NYHA class Ⅰ and 2 patients were in NYHA class Ⅱ. Severe anticoagulation-related bleeding events occurred in 3 patients with gastrointestinal bleeding. One patient died of massive outbreak of vomiting blood,and another patient had sudden death. Ten-year survival rate was 100.0% and 86.7% in the discontinued anticoagulation group and continuing anticoagulation group, respectively. ConclusionFor low-risk patients after isolated prosthetic AVR,short-term warfarin anticoagulation may be acceptable, which means warfarin is administered only in the first 3 years after surgery and discontinued 3 years after surgery.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the safety and efficiency of perioperative low molecular heparin (LMH) as the replacement of anticoagulant for patients with inguinal hernia. MethodsSixty-three patients with oblique inguinal hernia from April 2009 to April 2012 in this hospital were analyzed retrospectively.Seventeen cases because of other diseases were long-term oral aspirin anticoagulant therapy (aspirin group), 11 cases because of other diseases were long-term oral warfarin anticoagulant therapy (warfarin group), anticoagulant therapy was replaced by continuing LMH 7 d before operation in the aspirin group and the warfarin group.The other 35 cases did not take any anticoagulant therapy (control group). Results①The demography and preoperative international normalized ratio were similar among three groups (P > 0.05).②All the patients were followed-up.The duration of follow-up ranged from 12 months to 18 months.There were no statistical differences of the scrotal hematoma or subcutaneous hematoma, operation time, postoperative hospital stay, and VAS scoring among these three groups (P > 0.05).There was no recurrence in all the patients. ConclusionFor a long term application of anticoagulant in patients with oblique inguinal hernia, perioperative application of LMH instead of anticoagulant does not increase the risk of bleeding, and could prevent thrombosis.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk and anticoagulant therapy in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).MethodsThe patients with COVID-19 in Optics Valley Hospital of Wuhan Tongji Hospital from February 9, 2020 to March 29, 2020 were collected and analyzed. Padua scores were performed within 24 hours after admission. The relationship between Padua score, disease severity and 28 day prognosis was analyzed.ResultsCOVID-19 was diagnosed in 102 cases. The age, fibrinogen and mortality of the severe group were significantly higher than those of the common group. The Padua score of the severe group was higher than that of the common group, but there was no statistical difference. The platelet count in the critical group was significantly lower than that in the severe group, while the prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), and D dimer were significantly higher than that in the severe group, and the Padua score, anticoagulation ratio, and mortality were significantly higher than those in the severe group. According to Padua score 4, it was divided into VTE high risk group (≥ 4 points) and VTE low risk group (<4 points). The mortality, APTT, D dimer and fibrinogen of high risk group were significantly higher than those of low risk group. In the high-risk group of VTE, the anticoagulation rate was significantly higher than that in the low-risk group of VTE, but it was still only 41.7%. The mortality of patients with anticoagulation was lower than that of patients without anticoagulation.ConclusionsSevere and critical novel coronavirus pneumonia patients have obvious coagulation dysfunction and high risk of VTE. Anticoagulant therapy may be associated with low mortality in patients with high risk of VTE, but the proportion of drug-induced anticoagulant intervention still needs to be improved.
ObjectivesTo develop a tool to assess the credibility of cohort studies regarding anticoagulants treatment for patients with atrial fibrillation.MethodsMEDLINE, EMbase and CBM databases were retrieved for eligible studies on the methodological quality and credibility of the cohort study. The retrieval period was from inception to December 19th, 2017, and the languages were limited to Chinese and English. Based on the search results, the items on the methodology quality of the research or the credibility of the results were collected. Through brainstorming of the core group, the collected items were expanded and sorted out to a preliminary scale. Furthermore, we conducted 4 rounds of internal expert seminars to discuss and evaluate the preliminary scale content and discuss the scale framework. Finally, we organized domestic authoritative experts to conduct 4 external evaluations on the scale and formed the final scale.ResultsA total of 7 734 literatures were obtained from primary search, in which 17 of which were included. Fifty-five tools with 780 items for the quality assessment of observational studies were collected from the included studies. After removing duplicated keywords with similar meanings, we obtained the " keyword pool” with 46 keywords, which were preliminarily formed 46 items. After discussion of the core group, which aimed to supplement the potential items, eliminate the items irrelevant to methodology, and integrate the items with partial overlapping meanings, a preliminary scale of 43 items was formed. According to the four rounds of internal expert consultative meetings, these items were integrated to form a preliminary scale of 40 items. After further evaluation by four rounds of external expert consultative meetings, a consensus was reached and a scale of 21 items from seven domains (i.e., definition of question, measurement, follow-up, confounder, missing data, statistical analysis, and results assessment) was finally formed.ConclusionsThis study developed an assessment tool for the credibility of the results from the cohort studies regarding anticoagulants treatment in patients with atrial fibrillation, which has practical clinical value. Clinicians can refer to the results of credibility assessment by using this tool to better assist clinical decision-making in clinical practice. In addition, in the preparation of relevant guidelines, this tool can be used to assess the credibility of results from cohort studies.