Harnessing the Power of ChatGPT in Cardiovascular Medicine: Innovations, Challenges, and Future Directions.

Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, posing significant challenges to public health. The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly with large language models such as ChatGPT, has introduced transformative possibilities in cardiovascular medicine. This review examines ChatGPT's broad applications in enhancing clinical decision-making-covering symptom analysis, risk assessment, and differential diagnosis; advancing medical education for both healthcare professionals and patients; and supporting research and academic communication.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as a bridge to thoracic multiorgan transplantation.

Background: Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has emerged as a crucial tool in the care of patients with multiorgan failure and is increasingly utilized as a bridge to transplantation. While data on ECMO as a bridge to isolated heart and lung transplantation have been described, our emerging experience with ECMO as a bridge to thoracic multiorgan transplantation is not yet well understood.

Methods: The United Network for Organ Sharing database was used to identify adult patients undergoing thoracic multiorgan transplantation between 1987 and 2022.

Beating Heart Transplant Procedures Using Organs From Donors With Circulatory Death.

Importance: The use of ex vivo normothermic organ perfusion has enabled the use of deceased after circulatory death (DCD) donors for heart transplants. However, compared with conventional brain death donation, DCD heart transplantation performed with ex vivo organ perfusion involves an additional period of warm and cold ischemia, exposing the allograft to multiple bouts of ischemia reperfusion injury and may contribute to the high rates of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation usage after DCD heart transplantation.

Objective: To assess whether the beating heart method of DCD heart transplantation is safe and whether it has an acceptable rate of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use postoperatively.

Case report: Heart retransplant from a donor after circulatory death and extended transport period with normothermic perfusion.

A 55-year-old man with end-stage heart failure, who had an orthotopic heart transplant 21 years prior, underwent heart retransplantation using a heart from a donor with circulatory death in a distant location and an extended transport period with normothermic perfusion. Owing to the persistent and worsening shortage of donor hearts, this case illustrates that expanding the donor acceptance criteria to include more distant donor locations and enrolling recipients with extended criteria (e.g.

The Arrhythmic Substrate for Atrial Fibrillation in Patients with Mitral Regurgitation.

Objective: Patients with severe mitral regurgitation commonly develop atrial fibrillation. The precise mechanisms of this relationship remain unknown. The objective of this study was to apply noninvasive electrocardiographic imaging of the atria during sinus rhythm to identify changes in atrial electrophysiology that may contribute to development of atrial fibrillation in patients with severe mitral regurgitation referred for mitral valve surgery.

Bipolar Radiofrequency Ablation on Explanted Human Hearts: How to Ensure Transmural Lesions.

Background: Bipolar radiofrequency (RF) clamps have been shown to be capable of reproducibly creating transmural lesions with a single ablation in animal models. Unfortunately in clinical experience the bipolar clamps have not been as effective and often require multiple ablations to create conduction block. This study created a new experimental model using fresh, cardioplegically arrested human hearts turned down for transplant to evaluate the performance of a nonirrigated bipolar RF clamp.

The hemodynamic and atrial electrophysiologic consequences of chronic left atrial volume overload in a controllable canine model.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of chronic left atrial volume overload on atrial anatomy, hemodynamics, and electrophysiology using a titratable left ventriculoatrial shunt in a canine model.

Methods: Canines (n = 16) underwent implantation of a shunt between the left ventricle and the left atrium. Sham animals (n = 8) underwent a median sternotomy without a shunt.

The Cox-maze IV procedure in its second decade: still the gold standard?

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and the treatment options include medical treatment and catheter-based or surgical interventions. AF is a major cause of stroke, and its prevalence is increasing. The surgical treatment of AF has been revolutionized over the past 2 decades through surgical innovation and improvements in endoscopic imaging, ablation technology and surgical instrumentation.

Long-Term Survival Prediction for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: Validation of the ASCERT Model Compared With The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Predicted Risk of Mortality.

Background: The recently developed American College of Cardiology Foundation-Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Collaboration on the Comparative Effectiveness of Revascularization Strategy (ASCERT) Long-Term Survival Probability Calculator is a valuable addition to existing short-term risk-prediction tools for cardiac surgical procedures but has yet to be externally validated.

Methods: Institutional data of 654 patients aged 65 years or older undergoing isolated coronary artery bypass grafting between 2005 and 2010 were reviewed. Predicted survival probabilities were calculated using the ASCERT model.