Corresponding Author
This has been another very creative and innovative year for JACC: Case Reports. In this Editor’s Page, we wish to express our gratitude to our editorial board members, from the Deputy and Associate editors, to our Guest Editors and Editorial Consultants, and to all of the reviewers who have contributed to the journal’s success. Through our everyday interaction, the Editorial Board members prove that we are a strong family within the JACC portfolio of journals, and the success of this journal is the outcome of hard work and a high level of team collaboration. For that, we thank our readers and authors for your dedication and support.
We are very proud to present to you with the best papers for the year 2022.
The most read paper for JACC: Case Reports in 2022 focused on the diagnosis of acute myocarditis in a 31-year-old male patient with confirmed monkeypox infection, after the eruption of skin lesions. Cardiac magnetic resonance study confirmed myocardial inflammation. The patient was treated with supportive care and had full clinical recovery. This clinical case became the topic of discussion in several media outlets.
The second most read paper belongs to our new initiative, the Educational Clinical Case series. This article type elaborates on a series of clinical cases that present the tips and tricks on how to handle a clinical problem with advice from the experts. The “Confirmation of Aortic Stenosis Severity in Case of Discordance Between Aortic Valve Area and Gradient,” written by Dr Iria Silva and colleagues, describes different flow-gradient patterns of aortic stenosis associated with discordant grading of stenosis severity at transthoracic echocardiography.1 In a similar fashion, the Educational Clinical Case Series by Dr Nadeen Faza and colleagues titled “An Integrative, Multiparametric Approach to Mitral Regurgitation Evaluation: A Case-Based Illustration” was amongst the top papers within the last year.2 The authors presented a case series that illustrated the importance of integrating multiple parameters in the evaluation of mitral regurgitation and the role of multimodality imaging.
Dr Akihisa Kataoka presents an innovative approach to assess the patent foramen ovale.3 The party balloon inflation maneuver during saline contrast transthoracic echocardiography is easy to explain to patients and objectively assesses the performance of provocative maneuvers by a clinician by watching balloon inflation.
As the fourth best paper, I am really proud to present the first paper under the one of the newest educational initiatives of the JACC journals: JACC Patient Care Pathways. This article type is based on the acute presentation of a patient and is accompanied by an interactive tool with a video of an expert discussion, a step-by-step/web-based diagnostic pathway, and the respective review paper, which is simultaneously published in the main Journal of the American College of Cardiology and JACC: Case Reports. In the first paper under JACC Patient Care Pathways, the authors described a young female patient who had Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis and underwent mitral and tricuspid repair <48 hours after her presentation.4 If you have a clinical case that you feel would be ideal for this initiative, please feel free to e-mail the Editorial Office (jacccr@acc.org) with your proposal.
The Guest Editor’s page by Dr Luca Paolucci that was published in January 2022 compared the European and American guidelines on heart failure,5 and it is the most successful Guest Editor’s Page for 2022. We congratulate the authors for this wonderful contribution to the journal. Do not forget to listen to the respective podcast.
In September 2022, we published a Sports Cardiology Focus Issue that was welcomed with great interest. Out of that, one of the top cases for last year was written by Dr Bradley S. Lander on a collegiate athlete who experienced sudden cardiac arrest initially attributed to commotio cordis, but in whom further history and work-up revealed anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery.6 The issue also featured a great Guest Editor’s Page written by Dr Mustafa Husaini and colleagues, who discussed issues ranging from prevention to management in the field of sports cardiology.7
Then, we worked together with the ACC guidelines dissemination committee to invite clinical cases that elaborated on the new guidelines. One of these examples is the case by Dr Tiffany Dong on the 2021 AHA/ACC/ASE/CHEST/SAEM/SCCT/SCMR Chest Pain Guidelines.8 A 76-year-old woman with no known coronary disease presented to the emergency department with acute chest pain and an intermediate probability of acute coronary syndrome. Her work-up per the guidelines involved rapid electrocardiogram, high-sensitivity troponins, nuclear stress testing, and eventually, coronary invasive angiography
Another interesting Heart Care Team/Multidisciplinary Team Live case report discusses a 57-year-old woman with no previous medical history, who presented to the emergency department following a 7-hour history of chest pain and severe shortness of breath. Dr Juan P. Bachini and colleagues elaborate on postinfarction ventricular septal defect and the different options in management.9 We really hope you are aware that these article types (one being published every month) are associated with a continuing medical education activity on ACC.org. Check them out.
The last paper for 2022 in the countdown of our top 10 is titled “Case Series of Percutaneous Aspiration of Mitral Valve Endocarditis.”10 This paper combines innovation, education, and an engaging discussion of which circumstances warrant application of this method. Dr Yasir N. Akhtar and colleagues report 3 cases of refractory infective endocarditis involving the mitral valve that were treated with percutaneous mechanical aspiration with an embolic protection system.
To conclude this countdown, JACC: Case Reports is a mixture of novel and educational individual cases and series that discuss current guidelines or feature tips and tricks on how to manage a patient from the perspective of experts in the field. The Editorial Board members learn from each other at a daily basis, and we are grateful our audience’s ongoing feedback. You make us better and stronger, so please continue to share your thoughts via the Editorial Office (jacccr@acc.org). See the full list of most read papers in 2022 from the JACC family of journals here, and stay tuned for an even better 2023 with the best cases in clinical cardiology.
References
- 1.Silva I., Salaun E., Côté N., Pibarot P. Confirmation of aortic stenosis severity in case of discordance between aortic valve area and gradient. J Am Coll Cardiol Case Rep. 2022;4(3):170–177. doi: 10.1016/j.jaccas.2021.11.009. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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