Brahmajee K Nallamothu

VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System, Denver, CO, USA

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Publications (157)2319.19 Total impact

  • Article: Determinants of fluoroscopy time for invasive coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention: Insights from the NCDR(®)
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    ABSTRACT: Objectives: Identifying the distributions and determinants of fluoroscopy time for invasive coronary angiography (ICA) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Background: Invasive coronary angiography (ICA) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are significant contributors to radiation exposure from medical imaging in the US. Fluoroscopy time is a potentially-modifiable determinant of radiation exposure for these procedures, but has not been well characterized in contemporary practice. Methods: We evaluated the distribution of fluoroscopy time in patients undergoing ICA and/or PCI in the CathPCI Registry(®) , stratifying patients by numerous clinical scenarios. Hierarchical models were used to determine patient, procedure, operator and hospital-level factors associated with fluoroscopy time for these procedures. Results: Our study included a total of 3,295,348 ICA and PCI procedures performed by 9,600 operators from January 2005 through June 2009. There was wide variation in fluoroscopy times for these procedures with median [IQR] fluoroscopy times of 2.6 [1.7 - 4.5] minutes for ICA, 6.7 [4.2 - 10.8] minutes for ICA in patients with prior coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), 10.1 [6.0 - 17.4] minutes for PCI, 10.7 [7.0 - 16.9] minutes for PCI with ICA, and 16.0 [10.6 - 24.0] minutes for PCI and ICA in patients with prior CABG. Prolonged fluoroscopy times (>30 minutes) were rare for ICA, but occurred in 6.7% of PCIs and 14.7% of PCIs in patients with prior CABG. After accounting for patient characteristics and procedure complexity, operator and hospital-level factors explained nearly 20% of the variation in fluoroscopy time. Conclusions: Fluoroscopy times vary widely during ICA and PCI with operator and hospital-level factors contributing substantially to these differences. A better understanding of potentially-modifiable sources of this variation will elucidate opportunities for enhancing the radiation safety of these procedures. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
    Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions 05/2013; · 2.29 Impact Factor
  • Article: Regional Density of Cardiologists and Rates of Mortality for Acute Myocardial Infarction and Heart Failure
    Circulation Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes 05/2013; 2013(6):352-9. · 4.91 Impact Factor
  • Article: Regional Density of Cardiologists and Rates of Mortality for Acute Myocardial Infarction and Heart Failure.
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    ABSTRACT: Background-Cardiologists are distributed unevenly across regions of the United States. It is unknown whether patients in regions with fewer cardiologists have worse outcomes after hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or heart failure (HF).Methods and Results-Using Medicare administrative claims data from 2010, we examined the relationship between regional density of cardiologists and risk of death after hospitalization for AMI and HF using hospitalizations for pneumonia as a comparison. We defined density as the number of cardiologists divided by population aged≥65 years within hospital referral regions, categorized into quintiles. Among 171 126 admissions for AMI, 352 853 admissions for HF, and 343 053 admissions for pneumonia, we tested associations between density of cardiologists and 30-day and 1-year mortality for each condition. We used 2-level hierarchical logistic regression models that adjusted for characteristics of patients and hospital referral regions. Patients hospitalized for AMI (odds ratios [OR], 1.13; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-1.21) and HF (OR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.12-1.27) in the lowest quintile of density had modestly higher 30-day mortality risk compared with patients in the highest quintile, unlike patients hospitalized for pneumonia (OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.96-1.09). Patients hospitalized for AMI (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.00-1.12) and HF (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.04-1.13) in the lowest quintile had slightly higher 1-year mortality risk, unlike patients hospitalized for pneumonia (OR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.95-1.05).Conclusions-Patients hospitalized for AMI and HF in regions with a low density of cardiologists experienced modestly higher 30-day and 1-year mortality risk, unlike patients with pneumonia.
    Circulation Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes 05/2013; · 4.91 Impact Factor
  • Article: Long-term outcomes in elderly survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest.
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    ABSTRACT: Little is known about the long-term outcomes in elderly survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest. We determined rates of long-term survival and readmission among survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest and examined whether these outcomes differed according to demographic characteristics and neurologic status at discharge. We linked data from a national registry of inpatient cardiac arrests with Medicare files and identified 6972 adults, 65 years of age or older, who were discharged from the hospital after surviving an in-hospital cardiac arrest between 2000 and 2008. Predictors of 1-year survival and of readmission to the hospital were examined. One year after hospital discharge, 58.5% of the patients were alive, and 34.4% had not been readmitted to the hospital. The risk-adjusted rate of 1-year survival was lower among older patients than among younger patients (63.7%, 58.6%, and 49.7% among patients 65 to 74, 75 to 84, and ≥85 years of age, respectively; P<0.001), among men than among women (58.6% vs. 60.9%, P=0.03), and among black patients than among white patients (52.5% vs. 60.4%, P=0.001). The risk-adjusted rate of 1-year survival was 72.8% among patients with mild or no neurologic disability at discharge, as compared with 61.1% among patients with moderate neurologic disability, 42.2% among those with severe neurologic disability, and 10.2% among those in a coma or vegetative state (P<0.001 for all comparisons). Moreover, 1-year readmission rates were higher among patients who were black, those who were women, and those who had substantial neurologic disability (P<0.05 for all comparisons). These differences in survival and readmission rates persisted at 2 years. At 3 years, the rate of survival among survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest was similar to that of patients who had been hospitalized with heart failure and were discharged alive (43.5% and 44.9%, respectively; risk ratio, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.95 to 1.02; P=0.35). Among elderly survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest, nearly 60% were alive at 1 year, and the rate of 3-year survival was similar to that among patients with heart failure. Survival and readmission rates differed according to the demographic characteristics of the patients and neurologic status at discharge. (Funded by the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.).
    New England Journal of Medicine 03/2013; 368(11):1019-26. · 53.30 Impact Factor
  • Article: Comparison of Clinical Interpretation with Visual Assessment and Quantitative Coronary Angiography in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Contemporary Practice: The Assessing Angiography (A2) Project.
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    ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Studies conducted decades ago described substantial disagreement and errors in physicians' angiographic interpretation of coronary stenosis severity. Despite the potential implications of such findings, no large-scale efforts to measure or improve clinical interpretation were subsequently made. METHODS AND RESULTS: We compared clinical interpretation of stenosis severity in coronary lesions with an independent assessment using quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) in 175 randomly selected patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at 7 U.S. hospitals in 2011. To assess agreement, we calculated mean difference in percent diameter stenosis between clinical interpretation and QCA and a Cohen's weighted kappa statistic. Of 216 treated lesions, median percent diameter stenosis was 80.0% (Q1 and Q3, 80.0 and 90.0%) with 213 (98.6%) assessed as ≥70%. Mean difference in percent diameter stenosis between clinical interpretation and QCA was +8.2 ± 8.4%, reflecting an average higher percent diameter stenosis by clinical interpretation (P<0.001). A weighted kappa of 0.27 (95% CI, 0.18 to 0.36) was found between the 2 measurements. Of 213 lesions considered ≥70% by clinical interpretation, 56 (26.3%) were <70% by QCA though none was <50%. Differences between the 2 measurements were largest for intermediate lesions by QCA (50 to <70%) with variation existing across sites. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians tended to assess coronary lesions treated with PCI as more severe than measurements by QCA. Almost all treated lesions were ≥70% by clinical interpretation, while approximately a quarter were <70% by QCA. These findings suggest opportunities to improve clinical interpretation of coronary angiography.
    Circulation 03/2013; · 14.74 Impact Factor
  • Article: Duration of resuscitation efforts and survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest - Authors' reply.
    The Lancet 02/2013; 381(9865):447. · 38.28 Impact Factor
  • Article: Trends in Survival after In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.
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    ABSTRACT: Background Despite advances in resuscitation care in recent years, it is not clear whether survival and neurologic function after in-hospital cardiac arrest have improved over time. Methods We identified all adults who had an in-hospital cardiac arrest at 374 hospitals in the Get with the Guidelines-Resuscitation registry between 2000 and 2009. Using multivariable regression, we examined temporal trends in risk-adjusted rates of survival to discharge. Additional analyses explored whether trends were due to improved survival during acute resuscitation or postresuscitation care and whether they occurred at the expense of greater neurologic disability in survivors. Results Among 84,625 hospitalized patients with cardiac arrest, 79.3% had an initial rhythm of asystole or pulseless electrical activity, and 20.7% had ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia. The proportion of cardiac arrests due to asystole or pulseless electrical activity increased over time (P<0.001 for trend). Risk-adjusted rates of survival to discharge increased from 13.7% in 2000 to 22.3% in 2009 (adjusted rate ratio per year, 1.04; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 1.06; P<0.001 for trend). Survival improvement was similar in the two rhythm groups and was due to improvement in both acute resuscitation survival and postresuscitation survival. Rates of clinically significant neurologic disability among survivors decreased over time, with a risk-adjusted rate of 32.9% in 2000 and 28.1% in 2009 (adjusted rate ratio per year, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.97 to 1.00; P=0.02 for trend). Conclusions Both survival and neurologic outcomes after in-hospital cardiac arrest have improved during the past decade at hospitals participating in a large national quality-improvement registry. (Funded by the American Heart Association.).
    New England Journal of Medicine 11/2012; 367(20):1912-1920. · 53.30 Impact Factor
  • Article: Duration of resuscitation efforts and survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest: an observational study.
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    ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: During in-hospital cardiac arrests, how long resuscitation attempts should be continued before termination of efforts is unknown. We investigated whether duration of resuscitation attempts varies between hospitals and whether patients at hospitals that attempt resuscitation for longer have higher survival rates than do those at hospitals with shorter durations of resuscitation efforts. METHODS: Between 2000 and 2008, we identified 64 339 patients with cardiac arrests at 435 US hospitals within the Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation registry. For each hospital, we calculated the median duration of resuscitation before termination of efforts in non-survivors as a measure of the hospital's overall tendency for longer attempts. We used multilevel regression models to assess the association between the length of resuscitation attempts and risk-adjusted survival. Our primary endpoints were immediate survival with return of spontaneous circulation during cardiac arrest and survival to hospital discharge. FINDINGS: 31 198 of 64 339 (48·5%) patients achieved return of spontaneous circulation and 9912 (15·4%) survived to discharge. For patients achieving return of spontaneous circulation, the median duration of resuscitation was 12 min (IQR 6-21) compared with 20 min (14-30) for non-survivors. Compared with patients at hospitals in the quartile with the shortest median resuscitation attempts in non-survivors (16 min [IQR 15-17]), those at hospitals in the quartile with the longest attempts (25 min [25-28]) had a higher likelihood of return of spontaneous circulation (adjusted risk ratio 1·12, 95% CI 1·06-1·18; p<0·0001) and survival to discharge (1·12, 1·02-1·23; 0·021). INTERPRETATION: Duration of resuscitation attempts varies between hospitals. Although we cannot define an optimum duration for resuscitation attempts on the basis of these observational data, our findings suggest that efforts to systematically increase the duration of resuscitation could improve survival in this high-risk population. FUNDING: American Heart Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, and the National Institutes of Health.
    The Lancet 09/2012; · 38.28 Impact Factor
  • Article: Through the looking glass: evaluating the dissemination of research in cardiology.
    Joseph S Ross, Brahmajee K Nallamothu
    European Heart Journal 06/2012; · 10.48 Impact Factor
  • Article: A validated prediction tool for initial survivors of in-hospital cardiac arrest.
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    ABSTRACT: Accurate estimation of favorable neurological survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest could provide critical information for physicians, patients, and families. Within the Get With the Guidelines-Resuscitation registry, we identified 42,957 patients from 551 hospitals admitted between January 2000 and October 2009 who were successfully resuscitated from an in-hospital cardiac arrest. A simple prediction tool for favorable neurological survival in patients successfully resuscitated from an in-hospital cardiac arrest was developed using multivariate logistic regression, with two-thirds of the sample randomly selected as the derivation cohort and one-third as the validation cohort. Favorable neurological status was defined as the absence of severe neurological deficits (cerebral performance category score of ≤2). Rates of favorable neurological survival were similar in the derivation cohort (7052 patients [24.6%]) and validation cohort (3510 patients [24.5%]). Eleven variables were associated with favorable neurological survival: younger age, initial cardiac arrest rhythm of ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia with a defibrillation time of 2 minutes or less, baseline neurological status without disability, arrest location in a monitored unit, shorter duration of resuscitation, and absence of mechanical ventilation, renal insufficiency, hepatic insufficiency, sepsis, malignant disease, and hypotension prior to the arrest. The model had excellent discrimination (C statistic of 0.80 for both the derivation and validation cohorts) and calibration. The prediction tool demonstrated the ability to identify patients across a wide range of rates of favorable neurological survival: patients in the top decile had a 70.7% probability of this outcome, whereas patients in the bottom decile had a 2.8% probability. Among successfully resuscitated patients with an in-hospital cardiac arrest, a simple, bedside prediction tool provides robust estimates of the probability of favorable neurological survival. This tool permits accurate prognostication after cardiac arrest for physicians, patients, and families.
    Archives of internal medicine 05/2012; 172(12):947-53. · 11.46 Impact Factor
  • Article: Hospital percutaneous coronary intervention appropriateness and in-hospital procedural outcomes: insights from the NCDR.
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    ABSTRACT: Measurement of hospital quality has traditionally focused on processes of care and postprocedure outcomes. Appropriateness measures for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) assess quality as it relates to patient selection and the decision to perform PCI. The association between patient selection for PCI and processes of care and postprocedural outcomes is unknown. We included 203 531 patients undergoing nonacute (elective) PCI from 779 hospitals participating in the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) CathPCI Registry between July 2009 and April 2011. We examined the association between a hospital's proportion of nonacute PCIs categorized as inappropriate by the 2009 Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) for Coronary Revascularization and in-hospital mortality, bleeding complications, and use of optimal guideline-directed medical therapy at discharge (ie, aspirin, thienopyridines, and statins). When categorized as hospital tertiles, the range of inappropriate PCI was 0.0% to 8.1% in the lowest tertile, 8.1% to 15.2% in the middle tertile, and 15.2% to 58.6% in the highest tertile. Compared with lowest-tertile hospitals, mortality was not significantly different at middle-tertile (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73-1.19) or highest-tertile hospitals (OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 0.88-1.43; P=0.35 for differences between tertiles). Similarly, risk-adjusted bleeding did not vary significantly (middle-tertile OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.02-1.16; highest-tertile OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.91-1.16; P=0.07 for differences between tertiles) nor did use of optimal medical therapy at discharge (85.3% versus 85.7% versus 85.2%; P=0.58). In a national cohort of nonacute PCIs, a hospital's proportion of inappropriate PCIs was not associated with in-hospital mortality, bleeding, or medical therapy at discharge. This suggests PCI appropriateness measures aspects of hospital PCI quality that are independent of how well the procedure is performed. Therefore, PCI appropriateness and postprocedural outcomes are both important metrics to inform PCI quality.
    Circulation Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes 05/2012; 5(3):290-7. · 4.91 Impact Factor
  • Article: Improving outcomes following in-hospital cardiac arrest: life after death.
    Paul S Chan, Brahmajee K Nallamothu
    JAMA The Journal of the American Medical Association 05/2012; 307(18):1917-8. · 30.03 Impact Factor
  • Article: In reply.
    Keith E Kocher, Brahmajee K Nallamothu
    Annals of emergency medicine 05/2012; 59(5):446-8. · 4.23 Impact Factor
  • Article: No "i" in Heart Team: incentivizing multidisciplinary care in cardiovascular medicine.
    Brahmajee K Nallamothu, David J Cohen
    Circulation Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes 05/2012; 5(3):410-3. · 4.91 Impact Factor
  • Article: Effect of testing and treatment on emergency department length of stay using a national database.
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    ABSTRACT: Testing and treatment are essential aspects of the delivery of emergency care. Recognition of the effects of these activities on emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS) has implications for administrators planning efficient operations, providers, and patients regarding expectations for length of visit; researchers in creating better models to predict LOS; and policy-makers concerned about ED crowding. A secondary analysis was performed using years 2006 through 2008 of the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), a nationwide study of ED services. In univariate and bivariate analyses, the authors assessed ED LOS and frequency of testing (blood test, urinalysis, electrocardiogram [ECG], radiograph, ultrasound, computed tomography [CT], or magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]) and treatment (providing a medication or performance of a procedure) according to disposition (discharged or admitted status). Two sets of multivariable models were developed to assess the contribution of testing and treatment to LOS, also stratified by disposition. The first was a series of logistic regression models to provide an overview of how testing and treatment activity affects three dichotomized LOS cutoffs at 2, 4, and 6 hours. The second was a generalized linear model (GLM) with a log-link function and gamma distribution to fit skewed LOS data, which provided time costs associated with tests and treatment. Among 360 million weighted ED visits included in this analysis, 227 million (63%) involved testing, 304 million (85%) involved treatment, and 201 million (56%) involved both. Overall, visits with any testing were associated with longer LOS (median = 196 minutes; interquartile range [IQR] = 125 to 305 minutes) than those with any treatment (median = 159 minutes; IQR = 91 to 262 minutes). This difference was more pronounced among discharged patients than admitted patients. Obtaining a test was associated with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 2.29 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.86 to 2.83) for experiencing a more than 4-hour LOS, while performing a treatment had no effect (adjusted OR = 0.84; 95% CI = 0.68 to 1.03). The most time-costly testing modalities included blood test (adjusted marginal effects on LOS = +72 minutes; 95% CI = 66 to 78 minutes), MRI (+64 minutes; 95% CI = 36 to 93 minutes), CT (+59 minutes; 95% CI = 54 to 65 minutes), and ultrasound (US; +56 minutes; 95% CI = 45 to 67 minutes). Treatment time costs were less substantial: performing a procedure (+24 minutes; 95% CI = 20 to 28 minutes) and providing a medication (+15 minutes; 95% CI = 8 to 21 minutes). Testing and less substantially treatment were associated with prolonged LOS in the ED, particularly for blood testing and advanced imaging. This knowledge may better direct efforts at streamlining delivery of care for the most time-costly diagnostic modalities or suggest areas for future research into improving processes of care. Developing systems to improve efficient utilization of these services in the ED may improve patient and provider satisfaction. Such practice improvements could then be examined to determine their effects on ED crowding.
    Academic Emergency Medicine 05/2012; 19(5):525-34. · 1.86 Impact Factor
  • Article: Medicare's public reporting initiative on hospital quality had modest or no impact on mortality from three key conditions.
    Andrew M Ryan, Brahmajee K Nallamothu, Justin B Dimick
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    ABSTRACT: Hospital Compare, Medicare's public reporting initiative, began reporting measures of hospital quality for almost all US acute care hospitals in 2005. The impact of this public reporting initiative on patient mortality is unknown. We used Medicare claims data from the period 2000-08 to estimate the effect of Hospital Compare on thirty-day mortality for heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia. Our analysis indicates that the fact that hospitals had to report quality data under Hospital Compare led to no reductions in mortality beyond existing trends for heart attack and pneumonia and led to a modest reduction in mortality for heart failure. We conclude that Medicare's public reporting initiative for hospitals has had a minimal impact on patient mortality.
    Health Affairs 03/2012; 31(3):585-92. · 4.31 Impact Factor
  • Article: 2011 ACCF/AHA/SCAI Guideline for Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: executive summary: a report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.
    Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions 02/2012; 79(3):453-95. · 2.29 Impact Factor
  • Article: Contemporary use and effectiveness of N-acetylcysteine in preventing contrast-induced nephropathy among patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.
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    ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to examine the use of and outcomes associated with use of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in real-world practice. The role of NAC in the prevention of contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is controversial, leading to widely varying recommendations for its use. Use of NAC was assessed in consecutive patients undergoing nonemergent percutaneous coronary intervention from 2006 to 2009 in the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Cardiovascular Consortium, a large multicenter quality improvement collaborative. We examined the overall prevalence of NAC use in these patients and then used propensity matching to link its use with clinical outcomes, including CIN, nephropathy-requiring dialysis, and death. Of the 90,578 percutaneous coronary interventions performed during the study period, NAC was used in 10,574 (11.6%) procedures, with its use steadily increasing over the study period. Patients treated with NAC were slightly older and more likely to have baseline renal insufficiency and other comorbidities. In propensity-matched, risk-adjusted models, we found no differences in outcomes between patients treated with NAC and those not receiving NAC for CIN (5.5% vs. 5.5%, p = 0.99), nephropathy-requiring dialysis (0.6% vs. 0.6%, p = 0.69), or death (0.6% vs. 0.8%, p = 0.15). These findings were consistent across many prespecified subgroups. Use of NAC is common and has steadily increased over the study period but does not seem to be associated with improved clinical outcomes in real-world practice.
    01/2012; 5(1):98-104. · 1.07 Impact Factor
  • Article: Variation in the use of lower extremity vascular procedures for critical limb ischemia.
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    ABSTRACT: Many believe that variation in vascular practice may affect limb salvage rates in patients with severe peripheral arterial disease. However, the extent of variation in procedural vascular care obtained by patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI) remains unknown. By using Medicare 2003 to 2006 data, we identified all patients with CLI who underwent major lower extremity amputation in the 306 hospital referral regions described in the Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare. For each patient, we studied the use of lower extremity vascular procedures (open surgery or endovascular intervention) in the year before amputation. Our main outcome measure was the intensity of vascular care, defined as the proportion of patients in the hospital referral region undergoing a vascular procedure in the year before amputation. Overall, 20,464 patients with CLI underwent major lower extremity amputations during the study period, and collectively underwent 25,800 vascular procedures in the year before undergoing amputation. However, these procedures were not distributed evenly: 54% of patients had no vascular procedures performed in the year before amputation, 14% underwent 1 vascular procedure, and 32% underwent >1 vascular procedure. In the regions in the lowest quintile of vascular intensity, vascular procedures were performed in 32% of patients. Conversely, in the regions in the highest quintile of vascular intensity, revascularization was performed in 58% of patients in the year before amputation (P<0.0001). In analyses accounting for differences in age, sex, race, and comorbidities, patients in high-intensity regions were 2.4 times as likely to undergo revascularization in the year before amputation than patients in low-intensity regions (adjusted odds ratio, 2.4; 95% CI, 2.1-2.6; P<0.001). Significant variation exists in the intensity of vascular care provided to patients in the year before major amputation. In some regions, patients receive intensive care, whereas in other regions, far less vascular care is provided. Future work is needed to determine the association between intensity of vascular care and limb salvage.
    Circulation Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes 12/2011; 5(1):94-102. · 4.91 Impact Factor
  • Article: Use and effectiveness of intra-aortic balloon pumps among patients undergoing high risk percutaneous coronary intervention: insights from the National Cardiovascular Data Registry.
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    ABSTRACT: Intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABP) frequently are used to provide hemodynamic support during high risk percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), but clinical evidence to support their use is mixed. We examined hospital variation in IABP use among high risk PCI patients, and determined the association of IABP use on mortality in this population. We analyzed data submitted to the CathPCI Registry between January 2005 and December 2007. High risk PCI was defined as having at least 1 of the following features: unprotected left main artery as the target vessel, cardiogenic shock, severely depressed left ventricular function, or ST segment elevation myocardial infarction. Hospitals were categorized into quartiles by their proportional use of IABP. We examined differences in in-hospital mortality across hospital quartiles using a hierarchical logistic regression model to adjust for differences in patient and hospital characteristics across hospital quartiles of IABP use. IABPs were used in 18,990 (10.5%) of 181,599 high risk PCIs. Proportional use of IABP varied significantly across hospital quartiles: Q1, 0.0 to 6.5%; Q2, 6.6 to 9.2%; Q3, 9.3 to 14.1%; Q4, 14.2 to 40.0%. In multivariable analysis, after adjustment for differences in patient and hospital characteristics, in-hospital mortality was comparable across quartiles of hospital IABP usage (Q1, Ref; Q2, odds ratio 1.11, 95% CI 0.99-1.24; Q3, OR 1.03, 95% CI 0.92-1.15; Q4, OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.94-1.18). IABP use varied significantly across hospitals for high risk PCI. However, this variation in IABP use was not associated with differences in in-hospital mortality.
    Circulation Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes 12/2011; 5(1):21-30. · 4.91 Impact Factor

Institutions

  • 2012
    • VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System
      Denver, CO, USA
  • 2008–2012
    • Saint Luke's Health System (KS, USA)
      Kansas City, KS, USA
  • 2006–2012
    • Yale University
      • • Section of General Internal Medicine
      • • Section of Cardiovascular Medicine
      • • Department of Internal Medicine
      • • School of Public Health
      New Haven, CT, USA
    • Spokane VA Medical Center
      Spokane, WA, USA
  • 2002–2012
    • University of Michigan
      • • Department of Emergency Medicine
      • • Division of Pediatric Cardiology
      • • Department of Internal Medicine
      Ann Arbor, MI, USA
  • 2008–2011
    • Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
      • Division of Cardiovascular Diseases
      Scottsdale, AZ, USA
  • 2010
    • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
      Princeton, NJ, USA
    • University of Missouri - Kansas City
      Kansas City, MO, USA
    • Tilburg Universiteit
      • CoRPS-Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic diseases
      Tilburg, North Brabant, Netherlands
  • 2008–2010
    • University of Iowa
      • Department of Internal Medicine
      Iowa City, IA, USA
  • 2007–2010
    • University of Toronto
      • Division of Cardiology
      Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    • Rice University
      Houston, TX, USA
    • Mount Sinai School of Medicine
      Manhattan, NY, USA
  • 2006–2010
    • Yale-New Haven Hospital
      New Haven, CT, USA
  • 2009
    • University of Colorado Denver
      • Division of General Internal Medicine
      Denver, CO, USA
  • 2007–2009
    • Emory University
      • Division of Cardiology
      Atlanta, GA, USA
  • 2006–2007
    • The Clinical Trial Center, LLC
      Jenkintown, PA, USA
  • 2002–2007
    • Concordia University–Ann Arbor
      Ann Arbor, MI, USA
  • 2005
    • Ocala Heart Institute
      Ocala, FL, USA