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Background: Impella is a percutaneous transcatheter left ventricular assist device. Device-related hemolysis is a serious complication that is sometimes encountered depending on the device position, device speed, and support duration. However, the impact of hemodynamics on the occurrence of hemolysis remains unknown. In this study, we aimed to clarify the relationships between hemodynamics, especially right ventricular function, and the occurrence of hemolysis during Impella-incorporated mechanical circulatory support. Methods: Consecutive patients who received Impella (2.5, CP, and 5.0) support at our institute between March 2018 and July 2021 were retrospectively included. The relationships between the pulmonary artery pulsatility index (PAPi) immediately after Impella insertion and the occurrence of hemolysis were investigated. Results: Forty-two patients (median 71 years old, 60% men) were included. Hemolysis occurred in 20 patients (48%). A cutoff of PAPi to predict hemolysis was calculated as 1.3, with 80.0% sensitivity and 72.7% specificity. Lower PAPi (<1.3) significantly correlated with the occurrence of hemolysis with an odds ratio of 11.65 (95% confidence interval 1.58–85.98, p = 0.017), adjusted for other potential confounders. Survival discharge was significantly lower in patients with lower PAPi (<1.3) (50% vs. 86%, p = 0.019). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that patients with right ventricular impairment indicated by lower PAPi following the initiation of Impella-incorporated mechanical circulatory support have a higher risk of hemolysis.

•Concomitant AF is prevalent amongst advanced HF patients undergoing LVAD implantation (38.8%)•Pre-operative AF is not associated with higher risks of early post-operative RVF or the need for RVAD support after LVAD implantation•The association of different AF phenotypes and management with risk of post-LVAD RVF needs further investigation Right ventricular failure (RVF) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality after left ventricular assist device (LVAD). Atrial fibrillation (AF) is known for its deleterious effects on cardiac function and hemodynamics. The association of pre-operative AF with the risk of early post-LVAD RVF has not been well described. A comprehensive literature search was performed through April, 9 2021. Cohort studies comparing the risk of post-operative RVF and/or need for right ventricular assist device (RVAD) after LVAD in patients with or without AF were included. Pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and I2 statistic were calculated using the random-effects model. Six studies were included in the analysis. Post-operative RVF was reported in 5 studies (1,841 patients) and RVAD use was reported in 4 studies (1,355 patients). There is a non-significant trend toward a higher risk of post-operative RVF in the AF group (pooled OR=1.25, 95%CI=0.99-1.58). No significant association between AF and RVAD use is noted (pooled OR=1.17, 95%CI=0.82-1.66). Pre-operative AF is not significantly associated with higher risks of post-operative RVF and RVAD use after LVAD implantation, although the trend toward higher post-operative RVF is observed in patients with pre-operative AF. Additional research using a larger study population is warranted to better understand the association of pre-operative AF and the development of post-LVAD RVF. [Display omitted]

Background: Acute right ventricular failure is a critical complication after left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation, often managed with a temporary paracorporeal right ventricular assist device (RVAD). This study examined three extracorporeal life support (ECLS) systems regarding mortality, bleeding complications, and intensive care unit (ICU) stay duration. Methods: This monocentric, retrospective case–control study included all patients receiving LVAD with paracorporeal RVAD between 2009 and 2020. Three patient groups were formed: CentrimagTM (A), CardiohelpTM (B), and DeltastreamTM (C). Results: A total of 245 patients were included. Preoperative parameters were similar between the CentrimagTM and DeltastreamTM groups, but CardiohelpTM patients had worse Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS) Scores (A: 1.7 ± 0.8, B: 1.36 ± 0.5, C: 1.9 ± 0.9; p < 0.05). In-hospital death rates were A: 61 (41.8%), B: 15 (32.6%), C: 29 (54.7%); p < 0.05, and reoperation due to bleeding rates were A: 32 (21.9%), B: 8 (17.4%), C: 25 (47.2%); p < 0.05, with the DeltastreamTM group showing the highest rates. This group also had increased thrombocyte consumption and prolonged ICU stays. Conclusions: Temporary RVADs lead to bleeding complications, affecting patient outcomes. The DeltastreamTM group had significantly higher bleeding complications, likely due to high pump revolution rates and thrombocyte decline. Due to the study’s retrospective nature and complex patient profiles, these interesting findings should be validated in future studies.

Background Post-implant right heart failure (RHF) has been recognized as a crucial prognostic factor in patients receiving left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), and its management has long attracted attention from cardiologists and surgeons. Case presentation This report described an 18-year-old female with acutely deteriorating heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy who underwent paracorporeal pulsatile-flow LVAD and developed early post-implant RHF. At postoperative day (POD) six, she was almost asymptomatic at rest on 2.5 mg/kg/min of dobutamine; however, the echocardiogram, performed as part of the daily postoperative care, revealed a severely enlarged right ventricle with a decompressed left ventricle, implying the development of post-implant RHF. Bolus infusion of saline and reduction of pump flow (6.0 L/min to 3.0 L/min) led to normalization of both ventricular shapes in 30 s, suggesting that RHF could be managed without surgical interventions. Milrinone was started on POD six, followed by sildenafil administration on POD seven. Fluid balance was strictly adjusted under the close observation of daily echocardiograms. Milrinone and dobutamine were discontinued on PODs 18 and 21, respectively. The patient was listed for a heart transplant on POD 40. Despite reduced right ventricular function (right ventricular stroke work index of 182.34 mmHg*ml/m − 2 , body surface area 1.5 m 2 ), she was successfully converted to implantable LVAD on POD 44 with no recurrence of post-implant RHF thereafter for four years. Conclusions In post-implant RHF management, early detection, together with proper and prompt medical management, is crucial to avoiding any surgical intervention. Close observation of daily echocardiograms might be helpful in detecting subclinical RHF and is useful for post-implant medical management.

A 58-year-old man with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), which had been implanted 1 year earlier, presented with rest dyspnea. Moderate to severe aortic regurgitation (AR), pre-postcapillary pulmonary hypertension, modarete right ventricular (RV) failure, and low cardiac output were observed at presentation. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) was performed to treat the AR and a self-expandable aortic valve was implanted. Within minutes, hypotension, RV and inferior vena cava dilatation, and left atrial (LA) and left ventricular (LV) collapse occurred and persisted despite LVAD speed reduction. It was observed that severe RV failure had developed and venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) was applied. Following VA-ECMO treatment, the RV dimensions decreased, and the LA and LV dimensions began to increase, as well as the LVAD flow. Weaning from VA-ECMO was unsuccessful and exitus occurred on the fifth day after TAVI secondary to RV failure. It was surmised that the decrease in blood circulation from the aorta to the LV after treatment of severe AR with TAVI caused an acute increase in the cardiac output and the RV preload. The acute increase in the RV preload led to acute severe right heart failure. It is necessary to prepare the RV to compete with an acute increase in preload before TAVI even when there is only modarete RV failure.

The authors discuss the mechanisms, clinical presentation, and evaluation of right ventricular failure, as well as its management.

Right ventricular function has prognostic significance in patients with pulmonary hypertension. We evaluated whether cardiac magnetic resonance-derived strain and strain rate parameters could reliably reflect right ventricular systolic and diastolic function in precapillary pulmonary hypertension. End-systolic elastance and the time constant of right ventricular relaxation tau, both derived from invasive high-fidelity micromanometer catheter measurements, were used as gold standards for assessing systolic and diastolic right ventricular function, respectively. Nineteen consecutive precapillary pulmonary hypertension patients underwent cardiac magnetic resonance and right heart catheterization prospectively. Cardiac magnetic resonance data were compared with those of 19 control subjects. In pulmonary hypertension patients, associations between strain- and strain rate-related parameters and invasive hemodynamic parameters were evaluated. Longitudinal peak systolic strain, strain rate, and early diastolic strain rate were lower in PAH patients than in controls; peak atrial-diastolic strain rate was higher in pulmonary hypertension patients. Similarly, circumferential peak systolic strain rate was lower and peak atrial-diastolic strain rate was higher in pulmonary hypertension. In pulmonary hypertension, no correlations existed between cardiac magnetic resonance-derived and hemodynamically derived measures of systolic right ventricular function. Regarding diastolic parameters, tau was significantly correlated with peak longitudinal atrial-diastolic strain rate (r = −0.61), deceleration time (r = 0.75), longitudinal systolic to diastolic time ratio (r = 0.59), early diastolic strain rate (r = −0.5), circumferential peak atrial-diastolic strain rate (r = −0.52), and deceleration time (r = 0.62). Strain analysis of the right ventricular diastolic phase is a reliable non-invasive method for detecting right ventricular diastolic dysfunction in PAH.

Despite progressive improvements over the decades, the rich temporally resolved data in an echocardiogram remain underutilized. Human assessments reduce the complex patterns of cardiac wall motion, to a small list of measurements of heart function. All modern echocardiography artificial intelligence (AI) systems are similarly limited by design – automating measurements of the same reductionist metrics rather than utilizing the embedded wealth of data. This underutilization is most evident where clinical decision making is guided by subjective assessments of disease acuity. Predicting the likelihood of developing post-operative right ventricular failure (RV failure) in the setting of mechanical circulatory support is one such example. Here we describe a video AI system trained to predict post-operative RV failure using the full spatiotemporal density of information in pre-operative echocardiography. We achieve an AUC of 0.729, and show that this ML system significantly outperforms a team of human experts at the same task on independent evaluation. The echocardiogram allows for a comprehensive assessment of the cardiac musculature and valves, but its rich temporally resolved data remain underutilized. Here, the authors develop a video AI system trained to predict post-operative right ventricular failure.

BackgroundThe change in right-ventricular function (RVF) after transcatheter mitral valve repair is still poorly understood. We assessed the early response of RVF to the MitraClip procedure and its clinical relevance.MethodsWe analyzed consecutive patients who underwent a MitraClip procedure to treat MR between August 2010 and March 2019 in the Heart Failure Network Rhineland registry. RVF was assessed before and after the procedure. Impaired RVF was defined as an RV fractional area change (RVFAC) < 35% or tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) < 16 mm.Results816 eligible patients (77 ± 9 years, 58.5% male) were included in the analysis. Baseline values of RVF were: RVFAC 38.6 (IQR 29.7–46.7) % and TAPSE 17.0 (IQR 14.0–21.0) mm. At a median time of 3 (IQR 2–5) days after the procedure, the RVF remained normal in 34% (n = 274), normalized in 17% (n = 140), deteriorated in 15% (n = 125), and was persistently impaired in 34% (n = 277) of patients. The RVF response was significantly associated with a composite outcome of all-cause mortality and hospitalization due to heart failure within a 2-year follow-up. Compared to stable/normal RVF, the adjusted hazard ratios for the outcome were 1.78 (95% CI 1.10–2.86) for normalized RVF, 1.89 (95% CI 1.34–3.15) for deteriorated RVF, and 2.25 (95% CI 1.47–3.44) for persistently impaired RVF. Changes in TAPSE and RVFAC as continuous variables were significantly correlated with the outcome.ConclusionAn early change in RVF following transcatheter mitral valve repair is predictive of mortality and hospitalization due to heart failure during follow-up.Graphic abstractEarly response of RVF after MitraClip and its clinical significance. An acute, early change in RVF can be observed following the MitraClip procedure, which is associated with the risk of mortality and hospitalization for HF.

End stage heart failure is associated with high mortality. However, recent developments such as the ventricular assist device (VAD) have improved patient outcomes, with left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) most commonly implanted. This narrative review evaluates LVAD epidemiology, indications, normal function and components, and the assessment and management of complications in the emergency department (ED). The LVAD is a life-saving device in patients with severe heart failure. While first generation devices provided pulsatile flow, current LVAD devices produce continuous flow. Normal components include the pump, inflow and outflow cannulas, driveline, and external controller. Complications related to the LVAD can be divided into those that are LVAD-specific and LVAD-associated, and many of these complications can result in severe patient morbidity and mortality. LVAD-specific complications include device malfunction/failure, pump thrombosis, and suction event, while LVAD-associated complications include bleeding, cerebrovascular event, infection, right ventricular failure, dysrhythmia, and aortic regurgitation. Assessment of LVAD function, patient perfusion, and mean arterial pressure is needed upon presentation. Electrocardiogram and bedside ultrasound are key evaluations in the ED. LVAD evaluation and management require a team-based approach, and consultation with the LVAD specialist is recommended. Emergency clinician knowledge of LVAD function, components, and complications is integral in optimizing care of these patients.