1- What to Do with Blood Pressure Levels Between 130/80 and 139/89 mmHg The decision to be made with a treatment-free patient with systolic blood pressure over 160 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure over 100 mmHg is an easy one. All guidelines agree: treatment should be started immediately alongside lifestyle changes. Read more 2-…
New Device for More Protection in Carotid Artery Stenting
This new “Paladin” system for post-dilation during carotid artery stenting was safe and may effectively reduce the number of particles that reach the brain, with a subsequent decreased risk for peri-procedural stroke. This study evaluated the safety and efficacy of the Paladin System, a novel post-dilation balloon with an integrated distal protection filter designed to…
¿Metformin to Treat Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms?
Currently, there are no drugs to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) outside those indicated as secondary prevention drugs. What this study shows is that diabetic patients treated with metformin had lower AAA incidence than diabetic patients treated without metformin, and even lower incidence than non- diabetic patients, as if metformin per se were a…
Drug-Eluting Stents vs. Balloons While Paclitaxel Is in the Eye of the Storm
Even after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an alert on paclitaxel devices in patients with femoropopliteal artery disease, which caused the interruption of a few ongoing studies, reality indicates that the efficacy of these devices has been proven and that they are still used. The increased mortality observed in the meta-analysis that…
Descending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms: Is There a New Plan A?
The last available evidence suggests that open surgery should be the preferred treatment for intact descending thoracic aortic aneurysms. However, this study recently published in J Am Coll Cardiol, seems to have steered the wheel. In this study, open surgery was associated to increased early mortality and lower late mortality. Despite this long-term benefit, mean…
Surveillance after EVAR: When and How Long
It has been suggested that surveillance after endovascular abdominal aorta aneurysm repair (EVAR) should be for life, seeing as on one hand we are not sure how long these devices last (and they keep coming out), and on the other hand, there could be late complications, such as type 2 leaks. This is why the…
Paladin: New Carotid Protection System with Good Results
Courtesy of Dr. Carlos Fava. Carotid artery stenting (CAS) with a cerebral protection system has emerged as an alternative to surgery, particularly for patients with high surgical risk. Nowadays, there are a considerable number of cerebral protection systems, but these may sometimes fail due to anatomical issues, the diameter of embolized particles, or placement difficulties (among…
FDA Alert on Drug-Coated Balloons and Stents in Femoropopliteal Artery Disease
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an alert on the potential long-term risk of paclitaxel-coated balloons and paclitaxel-eluting stents in patients with femoropopliteal artery disease. This agency is evaluating signals of increased long-term deaths among patients with femoral or popliteal artery disease treated with paclitaxel-coated devices in a recent study. In…
Pulmonary Artery Denervation Starts to Show Results
Pulmonary artery denervation is associated with significant hemodynamics improvement, as well as improved clinical outcomes in patients with both post and precapillary pulmonary hypertension. Even though there are several studies on this technique, they included few patients (with different criteria and different devices), which is why we need more randomized studies. This prospective, randomized, study…
The 10 Most Read Articles of January
1- These Were the Most Relevant Article of 2018 in the Field of Coronary Diseases Read the best articles on coronary heart disease from 2018 at solaci website. Read more 2- The 10 Commandments of ESC’s New STEMI Guidelines The authors have given an entertaining account of the most relevant points and differences between…
Safety in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Surveillance Programs
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) rupture rate in the UK justifies the current surveillance programs and bring ease to some physicians that at some point have cast a shadow on their efficacy. This study also endorses reference thresholds to intervene patients. In 2009, the UK National Health Service (NHS) implemented a AAA national surveillance scheme where…