Courtesy of SBHCI. The COAPT showed transcatheter repair of the mitral valve using the MitraClip resulted in reduced mortality and hospitalization for cardiac failure and improved quality of life, compared against optimal medical treatment in patients with cardiac failure and moderate to severe functional mitral regurgitation. The cost-effectiveness of this procedure has not been analyzed...
Latin American Session at TCT 2019
Yesterday, Wednesday 25th September 2019, took place the session entitled The Best Intervention from Latin América at TCT 2019, one of the most relevant interventional cardiologist events in the world. In this occasion, before a packed room, prestigious Latin American professionals, most SOLACI members, discussed structural interventions, TAVR, MitraClip, CTO, complex cases, and plenty more. This...
STEMI in Coronary Dissections. When Should We Do It and What Are Its Outcomes?
Courtesy of Dr. Carlos Fava. Generally, coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is not very frequent in young women and presents better evolution with medical treatment. However, it is occasionally associated with ST segment elevation. In this scenario, PCI with stent implantation is quite challenging. The study looked at 4298 STEMI patients; 53 presented SCAD (1.23%). STEMI-SCAD...
ESC 2019 | AFIRE: Monotherapy with Rivaroxaban in Atrial Fibrillation and Stable CAD
In patients with atrial fibrillation and stable coronary artery disease who have not had revascularization procedures in the last 12 months, monotherapy with rivaroxaban seems the best treatment strategy compared to rivaroxaban plus antiplatelet antiaggregation. This is what resulted from the AFIRE study, presented during the ESC 2019 in Paris and published in NEJM. Monotherapy...
ESC 2019 | COMPLETE: Definitive Evidence for Infarction with Multivessel Disease
For patients with ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction and multivessel disease beyond the culprit artery, complete revascularization is superior to culprit-only treatment as regards the final endpoint, a composite of cardiovascular death, infarction, and ischemia-driven revascularization over a mean follow-up of 3 years. This information derives from long-awaited randomized study COMPLETE, finally presented at the...
ESC 2019 | POPULAR AGE: Good Old Clopidogrel Still Valid
According to this study, presented during the ESC 2019 scientific sessions, non-ST acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS) patients treated with ticagrelor presented a significantly higher risk of bleeding than patients treated with clopidogrel, with no counterbalance by higher benefit in thrombotic events. Researchers suggest clopidogrel might be the gold standard for this elderly NSTE-ACS population, though...
Physiological and Clinical Changes After Tricuspid Repair
After the recent announcement by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) green-lighting transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in patients across the whole spectrum, and given the advancements regarding devices already in the market (such as MitraClip) and a variety of pulmonary valves, there is only one territory left to conquer: the long forgotten tricuspid...
EuroPCR 2019 | TRILUMINATE: Tricuspid Repair with Clip Improves Regurgitation and Quality of Life
Transcatheter therapy offers a promise for a largely forgotten valve given the lack of therapeutic options. Percutaneous edge-to-edge repair with clip seems to offer some hope to patients with tricuspid regurgitation according to the TRILUMINATE. At 30 days, transcatheter repair with clip significantly reduced tricuspid regurgitation at least in one grade in most patients, which...
EuroPCR 2019 | COAPT: Mitral Valve Reduction is Associated to Lower Hospitalization and Death
This new analysis shows the mechanism behind the benefit of using MitraClip and the necessary degree of residual mitral regurgitation (MR) to have an impact. Regardless the intervention type, patients with cardiac failure and secondary mitral regurgitation present lower hospitalization for cardiac failure, all-cause mortality and improved quality of life the lower the MR. MitraClip...
Is Alcohol Good, Bad, or Neutral for Cardiovascular Health?
In the 2018 Guidelines on Hypertension, commandment no. 6 states that we should make lifestyle interventions such as sodium restriction, healthy eating, regular exercise, weight control, and smoking cessation, and also alcohol moderation. It is clear that heavy alcohol consumption induces hypertension and may probably be one of the main causes of secondary hypertension, but...