Aims: To study the relationship between myocardial release of cTnI and myocardial cell death as assessed by the amount of apoptosis and necrosis after cardiac surgery. Methods: Eighteen young pigs were operated on with standardized cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Release of cTnI in the cardiac lymph (CL), coronary sinus (CS), and arterial blood (A) was related to postoperative myocardial cell death by both necrosis and apoptosis. Apoptotic cells were detected by a TUNEL detection kit. Necrotic cells were counted by light microscopy. Results: In all animals, cTnI was significantly released and reached peak values observed simultaneously in A (cTnI, 20.1±2.6 ng/ml) (mean ±SEM), CS (19.5±3.2 ng/ml) and CL (5202±2500 ng/ml). Percentage of total myocardial cell death was 3.1±0.5%, including 1.2±0.35% necrosis and 1.9±0.5% apoptosis. cTnI release during and after CPB did not correlate with the degree of myocardial apoptosis or necrosis. Conclusion: Cardiac operations with CPB are related to myocardial cell damage including myocardial cell death due to both necrosis and apoptosis. As the loss of cTnI is not related to the amount of cell death, our results suggest that increased cardiac myocyte membrane permeability more than cell death is responsible for intraoperative and postoperative cTnI release.

IntrPrevious studies already showed a reduction in sepsis' mortality rates after the implementation of protocols based on the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) bundles, in high income countries. However, there is no similar study in emerging szettings. ObjectivesTo assess the impact of a national initiative in implementing sepsis protocols in Brazilian institutions, analyzing them according to the source of income (public or private). MethodsRetrospective analysis of the Latin America Sepsis Institute (LASI) database, from 2005 to 2014. Participation was voluntary. The implementation process was based on a multifaceted intervention including a local sepsis team, protocols, screening procedures, laboratory and antibiotics flowchart for emergency department (ED), wards and intensive care units (ICU), checklists, physicians and nurses training nd audit/feedback strategies. After the initial training, the institutions collect data on SSC bundles compliance and hospital outcome in patients with severe sepsis or septic shock in all hospital settings. We included only the institutions with at least 80 patients and at least one year of data collection, excluding patients admitted after the first four years of the campaign. All patients were followed until hospital discharge. We define public institutions as those with the major income coming from public sources and private as those coming from private insurances. ResultsWe included 21,103 patients from 65 institutions being 9,032 from public institutions and 12,071 from private ones. Comparing the 1 st semester with the 8 th semester, compliance with the 6-hours bundle increased from 13.5% to 58.2% in the private institutions while the public ones improved from 7.4% to 15.7%. Mortality rates significantly decreased throughout the program in private institutions (1st semester: 47.6%, 8 th semester: 27.2%; odds ratio (OR): 0.45; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.32-0.64). However, there is no significant reduction in the public institutions throughout the semesters (1 st semester: 61.3%; 8 th semester: 54.5%, OR: 0.63; 95%CI: 0.39-1.02). The intervention reduced the mortality rates throughout the semesters in patients from all settings (1 st semester vs 8 th semester: ED -OR: 0.55; 95%CI: 0.38 -0.79; wards -OR: 0.59; 95%CI: 0.42-0.83; ICU -OR: 0.46; 95%CI: 0.39 -0.54) although the effect was less consistent in the ICU. In patients from private ED, mortality rates decreased from 38.1 to 21.2% (p < 0.001) while in the public institutions this reduction was not significant (56.3% to 49.8%, p = 0.057). ConclusionsThe implementation of sepsis protocols resulted in improved compliance to the quality indicators and reduction in mortality rates.

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