Improvement in quality indicators using NCDR® registries: First international experience.

Background: The National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR®) Database is commonly used for quality-improvement initiatives in North America, but little is known about the application of this tool in other regions of the world.

Methods: All consecutive patients admitted due to myocardial infarction (MI) and/or undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) from January 2012 until December 2015 in a Brazilian private cardiovascular hospital were included respectively in ACTION REGISTRY®-GWTG™ and CathPCI Registry®. Meetings including all hospital staff were performed quarterly to discuss every NCDR® report.

Improving Indicators in a Brazilian Hospital Through Quality-Improvement Programs Based on STS Database Reports.

Objective: To report the initial changes after quality-improvement programs based on STS-database in a Brazilian hospital.

Methods: Since 2011 a Brazilian hospital has joined STS-Database and in 2012 multifaceted actions based on STS reports were implemented aiming reductions in the time of mechanical ventilation and in the intensive care stay and also improvements in evidence-based perioperative therapies among patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft surgeries.

Results: All the 947 patients submitted to coronary artery bypass graft surgeries from July 2011 to June 2014 were analyzed and there was an improvement in all the three target endpoints after the implementation of the quality-improvement program but the reduction in time on mechanical ventilation was not statistically significant after adjusting for prognostic characteristics.

Left Main Ostial Compression in a Patient with Pulmonary Hypertension: Dynamic Findings by IVUS.

Background: Pulmonary artery dilatation is a common feature among patients with severe pulmonary hypertension. Left main coronary artery extrinsic compression by an enlarged pulmonary artery is a rare complication and a potential cause for chest pain and sudden cardiac death in patients with pulmonary hypertension. This situation is very rare and few reports have described it.

Evaluation of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons score system for isolated coronary bypass graft surgery in a Brazilian population.

Objective: Report the experience with the Society of Thoracic Surgeons scoring system in a Brazilian population submitted to isolated coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Methods: Data were collected from January-2010 to December-2011, and analyzed to determine the performance of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons scoring system on the determination of postoperative mortality and morbidity, using the method of the receiver operating characteristic curve as well as the Hosmer-Lemeshow and the Chi-square goodness of fit tests. From the 1083 cardiac surgeries performed during the study period 659 represented coronary artery bypass graft procedures which are included in the present analysis.