METHODS: Consecutive patients with a new histological diagnosis of LAPC were recruited over 20 months. Baseline CT and 18FDG PET-CT were performed and repeated after 12 weeks to assess response to treatment. Following 2 cycles of conventional chemotherapy, patients underwent EUS-guided 32P OncoSil implantation followed by a further six cycles of chemotherapy.
RESULTS: Twelve patients with LAPC (8M:4F; median age 69 years, IQR 61.5-73.3) completed the treatment. Technical success was 100% and no procedural complications were reported. At 12 weeks, there was a median reduction of 8.2cm3 (95% CI 4.95-10.85; p=0.003) in tumour volume, with minimal or no 18FDG uptake in 9 (75%) patients. Tumour downstaging was achieved in 6 (50%) patients, leading to successful resection in 5 (42%) patients, of which 4 patients (80%) had clear (R0) resection margins.
CONCLUSIONS: EUS guided 32P OncoSil implantation is feasible and well tolerated and was associated with a 42% rate of surgical resection in our cohort. However, further evaluation in a larger randomized multicenter trial is warranted. (32P funded by OncoSil Medical Ltd, equipment and staff funded by the Royal Adelaide Hospital, ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03003078).
METHODS: This study is supported and endorsed by the Asia Pacific Society of Interventional Cardiology. Due to the inability to have face to face discussions during the pandemic, an online survey was performed by inviting key opinion leaders (cardiac surgeon/interventional cardiologist/echocardiologist) in the field of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in Asia to participate. The answers to a series of questions pertaining to the impact of COVID-19 on TAVI were collected and analyzed. These led subsequently to an expert consensus recommendation on the conduct of TAVI during the pandemic.
RESULTS: The COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in a 25% (10-80) reduction of case volume and 53% of operators required triaging to manage their patients with severe aortic stenosis. The two most important parameters used to triage were symptoms and valve area. Periprocedural changes included the introduction of teleconsultation, preprocedure COVID-19 testing, optimization of protests, and catheterization laboratory set up. In addition, length of stay was reduced from a mean of 4.4 to 4 days.
CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on the delivery of TAVI services to patients in Asia. This expert recommendation on best practices may be a useful guide to help TAVI teams during this period until a COVID-19 vaccine becomes widely available.
METHODS: Seven (7) ASPECT members were approached to provide a harmonised anonymised dataset from their local registry. Patient characteristics were summarised and associations between the characteristics and in-hospital outcomes for STEMI patients were analysed.
RESULTS: Six (6) participating sites (86%) provided governance approvals for the collation of individual anonymised patient data from 2015 to 2017. Five (5) sites (83%) provided >90% of agreed data elements and 68% of the collated elements had <10% missingness. From the registry (n=12,620), 84% were male. The mean age was 59.2±12.3 years. The Malaysian cohort had a high prevalence of previous myocardial infarction (34%), almost twice that of any other sites (p<0.001). Adverse in-hospital outcomes were the lowest in Hong Kong whilst in-hospital mortality varied from 2.7% in Vietnam to 7.9% in Singapore.
CONCLUSIONS: Governance approvals for the collation of individual patient anonymised data was achieved with a high level of data alignment. Secure data transfer process and repository were established. Patient characteristics and presentation varied significantly across the Asia-Pacific region with this likely to be a major predictor of variations in the clinical outcomes observed across the region.