Is the Obesity Epidemic Putting Patients’ and Physicians’ Health at Risk? In addition to the obvious negative effect on patients, obesity can also affect Interventional Cardiologists’ health, seeing as it involves increased exposure to radiation. Operators are clearly and increasingly exposed to radiation as patient body mass index (BMI) increases. Radiation exposure might be…
Left Main PCI Technique Could Change DAPT Duration
Up to 20% of patients undergoing left main PCI require a 2-stent technique, and this number should most likely grow after the DKCRUSH-V outcomes. However, this study contradicts the DKCRUSH-V and brings us back to “the simpler the better”, since patients undergoing 1 stent left main PCI presented less revascularization and less target vessel failure…
The 10 most consulted articles at SOLACI during 2018
1- New High Blood Pressure Guidelines The wait is finally over: the high blood pressure guidelines that have been in the works for the past 3 years saw the light of day at the American Heart Association (AHA) 2017 Scientific Sessions. Read more 2- The 10 Commandments of ESC’s New STEMI Guidelines The authors…
What is the best antiplatelet in PCI to vein grafts?
Courtesy of Dr. Carlos Fava. PCI to saphenous vein grafts is one the greatest challenges these days because, as opposed to native arteries, they present important thrombolytic material, diffuse and long lesions, and abundant macrophage and inflammatory cells, which makes the procedure more complex. At present, we have not yet agreed on the best antiplatelet…
The 10 Most Read Articles of December
1- Everolimus-Eluting Stents Finally Have a Rival and Not Just a “Non-Inferior” Stent In this large randomized trial, there were significant differences as regards both target-lesion failure and target-vessel-related infarction, which persisted through a 2-year follow-up and favored treatment with an ultrathin-strut bioresorbable-polymer sirolimus-eluting stent (Orsiro) compared with the gold standard, a durable-polymer everolimus-eluting stent…
E-Cigarettes: No Definitive Evidence on Their Potential Cardiovascular Effect, but Some Suggest Caution
E-cigarettes may bring about cardiac risk according to a new literature review soon to be published in J Am Coll Cardiol. The evidence on potential harm is not definitive, but some experts suggest caution in their use until there is more solid evidence. E-cigarettes have been advertised as a healthy alternative to traditional cigarettes and…
Can We Discontinue Betablockers after AMI?
Betablockers (BB) were the first drugs shown to effectively reduce events after acute MI. However, reperfusion and other secondary prevention drugs that came along after that have cast a shadow on betablockers’ original benefit. This study looked at betablocker discontinuation after acute MI in patients with no cardiac failure optimally treated with all recommended medication.…
Strategies to Reduce Acute Kidney Injury in Angioplasty
The title of this article leads us to think that we will find a list of things that we can do to reduce kidney injury. However, (unfortunately) sodium bicarbonate showed no benefit over saline and n-acetylcysteine showed no benefit over a placebo for the reduction of kidney damage after coronary angioplasty. Among the protective measures…
Aspirin, Bleeding and Cardiovascular Events in Healthy Elderly
The ASCEND and ARRIVE trials -presented at the European Cardiology Congress and published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and The Lancet respectively- have put against the ropes the indication of aspirin in the context of primary prevention. The ASPREE trial, recently published in the NEJM, appears to have definitely overthrown aspirin, since…
AHA 2018 | PIONEER-HF: Sacubitril/Valsartan in Acute Decompensated Heart Failure
Treating acute decompensated heart failure patients with an angiotensin receptor inhibitor plus a neprilysin receptor inhibitor significantly reduces N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) concentrations and clinical events, according to the PIONEER-HF study presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) Congress Scientific Sessions and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The study…
AHA 2018 | New Dyslipidemia Guidelines Support Non-Statin Therapy and Coronary Artery Calcium Screening
While the guidelines do not recommend a specific treatment target, they suggest additional therapy in high-risk patients with LDL 70 mg/dL or higher. These new guidelines from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) start recommending ezetimibe or PCSK9 inhibition in select high-risk patients and proposing noninvasive coronary artery calcium screening…