Outcomes of patients with heart failure followed in units accredited by the SEC-Excelente-IC quality program according to the type of unit.

Introduction And Objectives: The development of specific heart failure (HF) units has improved the management of patients with this disease due to improved organization and resource management. The Spanish Society of Cardiology (SEC) has defined 3 types of HF units (community, specialized, and advanced) based on their complexity and service portfolio. Our aim was to compare the characteristics, treatment, and outcomes of patients with HF according to the type of unit.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Antimicrobial Consumption and Hospital-Acquired Candidemia and Multidrug-Resistant Bloodstream Infections.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of antimicrobial stewardship strategies has been recommended. This study aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary care Spanish hospital with an active ongoing antimicrobial stewardship programme (ASP). For a 20-week period, we weekly assessed antimicrobial consumption, incidence density, and crude death rate per 1000 occupied bed days of candidemia and multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial bloodstream infections (BSI).

Prognosis of patients with syncope seen in the emergency room department: an evaluation of four different risk scores recommended by the European Society of Cardiology guidelines.

Aim: To apply, analyze, and evaluate the four syncope risk scores recommended by the 2009 European guidelines and the different parameters that they use to predict death, syncope recurrence, and hospital readmission in the population seen in the emergency room department (ERD) for syncope.

Methods And Results: A total of 323 patients aged older than 14 years [mean age 59 (32-75) years] and seen in ERD for syncope over a 2-month period were included in the study; 50.7% were women.

Spontaneous coronary dissection and its long-term prognostic implications in a cohort of 19 cases.

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection is a rare cause of acute coronary syndrome. It mainly affects women with no significant cardiovascular risk factors and its presentation varies from unstable angina to sudden death. Knowledge of the condition is based only on individual case reports and the lack of large case series means that its treatment and prognostic implications have not been fully established.

Thrombus development on a transseptal sheath in the right atrium before electrical pulmonary vein isolation.

We describe the case of a patient who developed a thrombus on the transseptal sheath in the right atrium before transseptal puncture for circumferential pulmonary vein isolation for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation treatment. The use of intracardiac echocardiography allowed to its identification and probably prevented the patient from suffering a serious thromboembolic complication.