Dealing with the epidemic of endocarditis in people who inject drugs

Aortic Valve Endocarditis in an Intravenous Drug User With Psychiatric History: A Diagnostic Challenge

Infective endocarditis (IE), a life-threatening cardiac infection, can present atypically, complicating diagnosis. We present a case of a 45-year-old male patient with schizophrenia and intravenous drug use (IVDU) who presented with suicidal ideation. Though afebrile, he exhibited tachycardia, bilateral pedal edema, bronchial breath sounds, and a diastolic murmur. Echocardiography identified an extensive aortic valve vegetation and a reduced ejection fraction. Despite negative resected valve cultures and Gram staining, emergency aortic valve replacement and left atrial appendage clipping were performed, followed by a six-week antibiotic course. This case underscores the diagnostic challenge of afebrile, culture-negative IE, likely due to prior antibiotics or fastidious organisms, particularly in high-risk populations like those with IVDU. Psychiatric presentations may obscure typical IE symptoms, necessitating heightened clinical suspicion and comprehensive evaluation, including echocardiography, even without classic signs like fever or leukocytosis. Timely intervention and individualized diagnostics are critical to improving outcomes in such complex cases.

Barriers to Access to Cardiac Surgery: Canadian Situation and Global Context

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Cardiovascular care spans primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention and care, whereby tertiary care is particularly prone to disparities in care. Challenges in access to care especially affect low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), however, multiple barriers also exist and persist across high-income countries. Canada is lauded for its universal health coverage but is faced with health care system challenges and substantial geographic barriers. Canada possesses 203 active cardiac surgeons, or 5.02 per million population, ranging from 3.70 per million in Newfoundland and Labrador to 7.48 in Nova Scotia. As such, Canada possesses fewer cardiac surgeons per million population than the average among high-income countries (7.15 per million), albeit more than the global average (1.64 per million) and far higher than the low-income country average (0.04 per million). In Canada, adult cardiac surgeons are active across 32 cardiac centres, representing 0.79 cardiac centres per million population, which is just above the global average (0.73 per million). In addition to centre and workforce variations, barriers to care exist in the form of waiting times, sociodemographic characteristics, insufficient virtual care infrastructure and electronic health record interoperability, and health care governance fragmentation. Meanwhile, Canada has highly favourable surgical outcomes, well established postacute cardiac care infrastructure, considerable spending on health, robust health administrative data, and effective health technology assessment agencies, which provides a foundation for continued improvements in care. In this narrative review, we describe successes and challenges surrounding access to cardiac surgery in Canada and globally.

A multicomponent holistic care pathway for people who use drugs in Tayside, Scotland

BACKGROUND

People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) are at high risk of non-fatal overdose and other drug-related harms. The United Kingdom drugs policy landscape makes it challenging to support those at risk. Tayside, in East Scotland, has a sizeable population at risk of drug-related harms. In 2021, the National Health Service implemented a care pathway for PWUD to provide multidimensional healthcare interventions. We aimed to quantify drug-related harms; assess wider health and well-being; and understand substance use trends and behaviours, among those engaged in the pathway.

METHODS

Existing community-embedded blood-borne virus pathways were adapted to provide multiple healthcare assessments over three visits. We undertook an observational cohort study to analyse uptake and outcomes for the initial cohort of PWUD engaged at appointment one.

RESULTS

From August 2021-September 2022, 150 PWUD engaged with the pathway. Median age was 39 (34-42) years, 108 (72%) were male, and 124 (83%) lived in deprived areas. Seventy (47%) had been disengaged from healthcare for over a year. Polysubstance use was reported by 124 (83%), 42 (28%) disclosed injecting daily, and 54 (36%) shared equipment. Fifty-four (36%) experienced recent non-fatal overdose, and there were six overdose fatalities (4.1 [1.5-9.0] per 100PY). The offer of take-home naloxone was accepted by 108 (72%). Fourteen (9%) were diagnosed with Hepatitis C and two (1%) with HIV. Renal, hepatological, and endocrine impairment were observed among 30 (20%), 23 (15%), and 11 (7%), people respectively. Ninety-six (65%) had high risk of clinical depression. Forty-eight (32%) declined Covid-19 vaccination.

CONCLUSION

The pathway engaged PWUD with high exposure to recent non-fatal overdose and other drug-related harms, alongside co-morbid health issues. Our results suggest multi-dimensional health assessments coupled with harm reduction in community settings, with appropriate linkage to care, are warranted for PWUD. Service commissioners should seek to integrate these assessments where possible.