We are well aware of CAD physiopathological disparities and how it manifests differently in men and women. The ISCHEMIA study (International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness with Medical and Invasive Approaches) has revealed that during 3.2 years no differences were seen in the incidence of ischemic events when comparing an invasive strategy (INV) vs a...
The main studies carried out on patients with chronic coronary syndromes (CCS), such as the MASS II, COURAGE, BARI 2D and FAME-2, failed to show benefits in terms of mortality with the invasive approach. The ISCHEMIA, a large randomized study including patients with moderate to severe ischemia, with without left main disease and with acceptable...
Advanced stages of peripheral artery disease cause significant limitations in patients, such as critical limb ischemia (CLI), which manifests with resting pain and gangrene or ulcers of difficult resolution. Uncontrolled progression of this pathology might lead to major amputation, reduced life expectancy and increased healthcare costs. Prior research on infrapopliteal territory have shown contradicting results....
Chronic coronary syndrome (CCS) has been considered another comorbidity in previous studies, and there has been no significant reduction in cardiovascular mortality or myocardial infarction (MI) rates with revascularization through percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or myocardial revascularization surgery (MRS) compared with optimal medical treatment (OMT). One possible reason for the lack of benefit has been...
Chronic stable angina has shown a good response to medical treatment, and the Ischemia study has recently demonstrated the safety of such treatment in stable chronic angina with moderate to severe ischemia. However, this study excluded left main coronary artery (LMCA) lesions. The FAME Study has shown the safety and efficacy of fractional flow reserve...
Results of infrapopliteal territory revascularization in critical limb ischemia. Compared against the general population, patients suffering from critical lower limb ischemia (CLI) not only experience seriously limited quality of life, but also face a significant higher risk of death and amputation. Specifically, the optimal treatment for these patients remains uncertain. This uncertainty was sparked by...
Deep vein Arterialization in patients with critical “non-revascularizable” limb ischemia. We are familiar with the poor quality of life and elevated mortality of patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI). In its last stages (nearly terminal), revascularization (either surgical or endovascular) has been shown to reduce amputation incidence. However, similarly to heart disease and other vascular scenarios,...
Critical lower limb ischemia (CLLI) is associated with a major deterioration in quality of life and a significant increase in morbidity and mortality. Its estimated annual incidence is 220 to 3500 cases per million people, with an expected prevalence of 11% of patients with peripheral arterial disease. CLLI is the “terminal” stage of peripheral artery...
There has been an increase in the diagnosis of patients with proven ischemia who did not present obstructive coronary lesions (defined as the absence of stenosis ≥50%), called ischemia with non-obstructive coronary arteries (INOCA). These patients are at a higher risk for major adverse cardiac events (MACE) compared with the rest of the population. The...
The ISCHEMIA study keeps providing scientific news. This work in patients with stable coronary artery disease had already shown (to our surprise) that ischemic burden does not predict 4-year mortality. Now, this new analysis suggests that anatomic severity can predict events. However (surprisingly, once more), altering this severity through angioplasty does not change the prognosis...