Cost-Effectiveness of a Shock Team Approach in Refractory Cardiogenic Shock.

Background: Multidisciplinary Shock Teams have improved clinical outcomes for cardiogenic shock, but their implementation costs have not been studied. This study's objective was to compare costs between patients treated with and without a Shock Team and determine if the team's implementation is cost-effective compared with standard of care.

Methods: We examined patients with refractory cardiogenic shock treated with or without a Shock Team at a tertiary academic hospital from 2009 to 2018.

Magnitude and time course of changes induced by continuous-flow left ventricular assist device unloading in chronic heart failure: insights into cardiac recovery.

Objectives: This study sought to prospectively investigate the longitudinal effects of continuous-flow left ventricular assist device (LVAD) unloading on myocardial structure and systolic and diastolic function.

Background: The magnitude, timeline, and sustainability of changes induced by continuous-flow LVAD on the structure and function of the failing human heart are unknown.

Methods: Eighty consecutive patients with clinical characteristics consistent with chronic heart failure requiring implantation of a continuous-flow LVAD were prospectively enrolled.

Pulsatility and the risk of nonsurgical bleeding in patients supported with the continuous-flow left ventricular assist device HeartMate II.

Background: Bleeding is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). Reduced pulsatility has been implicated as a contributing cause. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of different degrees of pulsatility on the incidence of nonsurgical bleeding.

Obesity and left ventricular assist device driveline exit site infection.

Driveline exit site (DLES) infection is a persistent problem among the left ventricular assist device (LVAD) patients. This study investigated the relationship between obesity and DLES infection. Records of LVAD patients at two institutions from January 1999 to January 2009 were queried.

The substituted aspartate analogue L-beta-threo-benzyl-aspartate preferentially inhibits the neuronal excitatory amino acid transporter EAAT3.

The excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs) play key roles in the regulation of CNS L-glutamate, especially related to synthesis, signal termination, synaptic spillover, and excitotoxic protection. Inhibitors available to delineate EAAT pharmacology and function are essentially limited to those that non-selectively block all EAATs or those that exhibit a substantial preference for EAAT2. Thus, it is difficult to selectively study the other subtypes, particularly EAAT1 and EAAT3.