These guidelines basically remind us that we should focus on life style changes to best prevent heart disease, heart failure and atrial fibrillation. These changes, of course, should be permanent. It is estimated that life style changes translate into 80% risk reduction of heart disease. These recommendations are based on 9 topics: risk estimation,...
Courtesy of Dr. Carlos Fava. One of the characteristics of chronic total occlusion (CTO) is the use of two access routes: femoral and radial. The radial approach is safer, but it has not been thoroughly analyzed in this type of PCI. The study looked at 3709 patients undergoing left main percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for...
The number of centers that are starting endovascular stroke therapy (EST) to treat acute stroke is growing fast, with a significant increase of cases in low volume centers. Interventional neurologists are not able to cover the high demand and interventional cardiologists are always ready to learn something new. Is this right? Should interventional cardiologists treat...
The benefits offered to patients by attempting the rechanneling of a chronic total occlusion are still unclear. Additionally, sometimes the procedural risks are somewhat undetermined. Taking into account these controversies, this work sought to prove whether successful rechanneling of a chronic total occlusion improves ventricular function. This is not a soft endpoint; it has been...
This analysis shows that baseline right bundle branch block and increased PR length after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) are independent predictors of advanced conduction disturbances requiring late pacemaker implantation. A simple electrocardiography can detect these potentially fatal conduction disturbances that might happen more than 48 hours after TAVR. Data from consecutive TAVR patients from...
Compared against conventional predilation with balloon, rotational atherectomy is associated with higher procedural success rate in severely classified lesions. Balloons capable of modifying plaque such as the Flextome Cutting Balloon or the AngioSculpt Scoring Balloon -among others- could reach similar results to that of rotational atherectomy, though this has not been tested so far. 200...
Read articles on the main presentations of the first day of SOLACI-SOCIME 2018 Congress. See the presentation by Dr. Bradley Strauss, entitled “Appropriateness and Indications for CTO PCI”. We are interested in your opinion. Please, leave your comments, thoughts, questions, etc., below. They will be most welcome.
Read articles on the main presentations of the first day of SOLACI-SOCIME 2018 Congress. See the presentation by Dr. Christopher White, entitled “ How to Choose Between Carotid Stenting and Carotid Endarterectomy for Stroke Prevention”. We are interested in your opinion. Please, leave your comments, thoughts, questions, etc., below. They will be most welcome.f
Courtesy of Dr. Carlos Fava. The presence of CTO hovers around 15, 20% in coronary angiographies of patients with chronic stable angina, but only 5% receive percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). One of the obstacles to percutaneous revascularization is the lack of relevant studies justifying it, though we do have different comparative studies that improve symptoms, ventricular...
This observational study included 231 patients from 6 sites who presented chronic total occlusions and underwent rechanneling procedures using currently available techniques, which were successful in 90% of all cases (210 patients). All patients who underwent successful rechanneling received a SYNERGY stent and most of them underwent intravascular ultrasound (90.5%). There was only 1 patient lost to clinical follow-up...