This summary discusses the early invasive strategy and the risk of mortality in non-ST-elevation AMI. Over the past 2 decades, mortality and complications rates have seen a significant reduction thanks to technological and pharmaceutical development, and the increasing experience of health teams. This is especially true when we look at the use of coronary angiography…
Hybrid Coronary Revascularization: A Valid Option?
In this article, we will examine the use of hybrid coronary revascularization to treat multivessel coronary artery disease. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in the western world. The presence of multivessel CAD is associated to high short and midterm mortality and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is…
We Should Treat Significant Stable CAD in Patients Undergoing TAVR
Aortic stenosis is associated to significant coronary artery disease (CAD) in nearly 50% of cases. When we decide to treat aortic disease using surgery, it has been established we should also treat heart disease. However, when using transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), this is still unclear, given that in many occasions we see stable lesions…
Combined Calcified Lesion Preparation Strategy
Stent sub-expansion in coronary territory has been identified as one of the major predictors of stent failure at followup, which is why improving stent expansion will improve clinical and imaging outcomes. In percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) of severely calcified lesions, calcified lesions present a major challenge since they impede stent delivery, causing stent under-expansion or…
Is Clopidogrel Monotherapy Safe After a Month of Dual Antiplatelet Therapy in Diabetic Patients?
Currently, many randomized studies have suggested that short-term dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) followed by monotherapy reduces bleeding without increasing major cardiovascular events after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). A meta-analysis of six randomized studies has shown this benefit using ticagrelor monotherapy after short DAPT. However, there is no data on the results of clopidogrel monotherapy. Researchers…
A Meta Analysis of Distal Transradial Access vs. Conventional Transradial
Transradial access is currently the preferred access for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. However, about 7% of patients experience radial artery occlusion (RAO), which is not expressed by clinical symptoms. However, RAO is a limit for future interventions; it reduces the potential use of that artery as a conduit for aorto-coronary bypass and for the creation…
P2Y12 Inhibitor Monotherapy vs Aspirin: Results of a Network Meta-Analysis
Revascularization and antiaggregation guidelines have typically recommended aspirin (AAS) as first choice for secondary prevention of cardiovascular events after DES stenting. However, these past few years this strategy has been called into question, seeing as studies have shown the superiority of P2Y12 inhibitor monotherapy (IP2Y12) with clopidogrel or ticagrelor. There is little data comparing both…
Post PCI FFR
Much research has been done on the usefulness of functional testing such as fractional Flow reserve (FFR) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), resulting in the correlation of pathological FFR values with major adverse events at 6 months, as shown by Pijls, et al. The impact of post PCI FFR on prognosis has not been studied…
Trans-Stent Gradient as a Predictor of Adverse Events at Followup
Stenting a coronary lesion should not present a drop in pressure when measuring the treated segment with fractional flow reserve (FFR). FFR based trans-stent gradient should involve a segment of the sub-expanded vessel or instent obstruction as plaque prolapse or thrombus. The link between post-stenting physiology and long-term outcomes have been looked at in several…
Patients with INOCA in the ISCHEMIA Trial
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…
Devices to Prepare Severely Calcified Lesions: Is There a Difference When Assessed by Intravascular Imaging?
Severely calcified coronary lesions are found in 25% of patients undergoing PCI, and their presence has a negative impact in long term outcomes. These lesions difficult stent expansion and increase device failure rate, even when using the latest generation of drug eluting stents (DES). This is why there is an interest in lesion preparation strategies…