Finding a Path to Entrustment in Undergraduate Medical Education: A Progress Report From the AAMC Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency Entrustment Concept Group.

Problem: To better prepare graduating medical students to transition to the professional responsibilities of residency, 10 medical schools are participating in an Association of American Medical Colleges pilot to evaluate the feasibility of explicitly teaching and assessing 13 Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency. The authors focused on operationalizing the concept of entrustment as part of this process.

Approach: Starting in 2014, the Entrustment Concept Group, with representatives from each of the pilot schools, guided the development of the structures and processes necessary for formal entrustment decisions associated with students' increased responsibilities at the start of residency.

Preoperative assessment of high-risk candidates to predict survival after heart transplantation.

Background: Alternate waiting list strategies expand listing criteria for patients awaiting heart transplantation (HTx). We retrospectively analyzed clinical events and outcome of patients listed as high-risk recipients for HTx.

Methods And Results: We analyzed 822 adult patients who underwent HTx of whom 111 patients met high-risk criteria.

Cardiac transplantation using extended-donor criteria organs for systemic amyloidosis complicated by heart failure.

Background: Systemic amyloidosis complicated by heart failure is associated with high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Heart transplantation for patients with systemic amyloidosis is controversial due to recurrence of disease in the transplanted organ or progression of disease in other organs.

Methods: All patients with systemic amyloidosis and heart failure referred for heart transplant evaluation from 1997 to 2004 were included in this retrospective cohort analysis.

Factors affecting long-term survival (>10 years) after cardiac transplantation in the cyclosporine era.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine long-term survival (>10 years) after cardiac transplantation in the cyclosporine era and identify risk factors influencing long-term survival.

Background: Despite the availability of newer modalities for heart failure, cardiac transplantation remains the treatment of choice for end-stage heart disease.

Methods: Between 1983 and 1988, 195 patients underwent heart transplantation at a single center for the treatment of end-stage heart disease.

Cyclosporine-associated end-stage nephropathy after cardiac transplantation: incidence and progression.

Background: The salutary immunosuppressive effects of cyclosporine in extending cardiac allograft survival may be curtailed by its nephrotoxic effects. We reviewed our first 9 years of experience with cyclosporine after cardiac transplantation, to evaluate the incidence and progression of cyclosporine-associated end-stage renal failure necessitating chronic hemodialysis.

Methods: Retrospective computer-based file review and personal interview when possible.

Posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disorders treated with cyclophosphamide-doxorubicin-vincristine-prednisone chemotherapy.

Background: Posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disorders after solid organ transplantation are a serious complication occurring in 1-10% of patients. Different therapies have been used, but the optimal treatment is unknown. There is relatively little information in the literature on the experience with cytotoxic chemotherapy.

Evaluation of surgical procedures. Changing patterns of patient selection and costs in heart transplantation.

During the past 4 years we have observed a marked increase in costs of heart transplantation in our center. This trend coincides with a shift in our recipient population toward the more severely ill patients. The percentage of patients bound for the intensive care unit has doubled.

High-risk reparative surgery. A neglected alternative to heart transplantation.

The selection of patients for either high-risk reparative operations on the heart or for transplantation has become increasingly difficult as a result of improved results with both modalities. A retrospective review was done of patients referred for heart transplantation who were not considered candidates for conventional cardiac surgery, yet instead underwent reparative procedures rather than transplantation. Of 23 adult patients referred during a 7-year period, 18 had coronary artery disease, and five had valvular heart disease.

Respiratory complications of cardiac transplantation.

The authors evaluated all respiratory complications of cardiac transplantation in a 10-year study of 94 consecutive recipients. Mean follow-up time was 20 +/- 17 months. The initial 20 patients were treated with azathioprine and prednisone, while the subsequent 74 patients received cyclosporine and prednisone.

Utility of airway endoscopy in the diagnosis of respiratory complications of cardiac transplantation.

We evaluated 39 episodes (in 32 patients) of pulmonary parenchymal infiltrates following cardiac transplantation with fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) in a prospective study of 94 consecutive recipients. Initial FOB established the diagnosis in 24/39 (62 percent) instances. Subsequent examinations included repeat FOB (five), open lung biopsy (five), needle aspiration (two), and autopsy (nine), establishing 49 diagnoses.

Present status of human cardiac allografts and prospects for xenografts.

Cardiac allotransplantation is no longer experimental. It is the standard by which all other methods of cardiac replacement must be judged. The dramatic improvement in survival and the quality of life of cardiac transplant recipients reflects many factors including refined criteria for patient and donor selection, as well as the clinical introduction of cyclosporine.

Elevated pulmonary vascular resistance and cardiac transplantation.

Severe elevation of pulmonary vascular resistance has been considered a contraindication to cardiac transplantation. Most centers exclude patients with pulmonary vascular resistance greater than 6 Wood units. Wood units, however, do not correct for variations in body size and therefore may not be the best measure for use in comparison of patients.

Idiopathic cardiomyopathy and panic disorder: clinical association in cardiac transplant candidates.

Patients under evaluation for cardiac transplant surgery were seen for routine psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. Of 35 patients with idiopathic cardiomyopathy, 83% (N = 29) had definite or probable panic disorder. Of 25 patients with postinfarction cardiac failure, rheumatic heart disease, or congenital heart disease, only 16% (N = 4) had definite or probable panic disorder.

Patent foramen ovale complicating heart transplantation. A window on posttransplantation hemodynamics.

A patient developed refractory hypoxemia and right-to-left shunt across a patent foramen ovale after orthotopic cardiac transplantation. The right-to-left shunt was produced by volume overload of the donor right ventricle during the period of early postoperative myocardial depression and resolved with preload reduction and diuresis. Increased preload of the right heart needs to be considered in the early postoperative management after cardiac transplantation.

Reversal of cardiac transplant rejection without massive immunosuppression.

Although cyclosporine has decreased the severity of acute cardiac transplant rejection, most centers have continued to use high-dose intravenous steroids to treat acute rejection. To minimize the morbidity of antirejection therapy, acute rejection episodes in 37 cardiac transplant recipients were treated prospectively with only a boost of oral prednisone. Cyclosporine was continued at the same maintenance dose while oral prednisone was increased to 100 mg/day for 3 days, then rapidly tapered over 1 week to the maintenance dose.