Original title: Fractional Flow Reserve–Guided PCI for Stable Coronary Artery Disease. The FAME 2 Trial Investigators. Reference: Bernard De Bruyne et al. N Engl J Med 2014;371:1208-17. The FAME 2 and the COURAGE studies tested similar hypothesis, only in the first study PCI was guided by fractional flow reserve (FFR) in addition to an angiography. The study hypothesis...
Original title: Impact of diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome on acute and chronic on-clopidogrel platelet reactivity in patients with stable coronary artery disease undergoing drug-eluting stent placement. Reference: Feldman L. et al. Am Heart J. 2014; Epub ahead of print. Diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) or metabolic syndrome patients undergoing drug eluting stent implantation have 3 to 4...
This study is a retrospective analysis of 2,243,209 PCI stenting procedures in the USA between 2005 and 2009. During this period, a reduction in the number of PCI procedures was observed (also observed globally) from 53 in previous years to 33 procedures per operator per year, and from 1,024 to 693 per hospital per year....
Original title: Bivalirudin versus heparin in patients treated with percutaneous coronary Intervention: a meta-analysis of randomised trials. Reference: Salvatore Cassese et al. EuroIntervention 2014;10-online publish-ahead-of-print August 2014. Current recommendations for the use of bivalirudin in PCI patients are mostly based on studies comparing bivalirudin vs. heparin combined with glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors. Whether bivalirudin is superior to heparin alone...
Original title: Percutaneous coronary intervention with everolimus-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffolds in routine clinical practice: early and midterm outcomes from the European multicentre GHOST-EU registry. Reference: Capodanno D et al. EuroIntervention. 2014 Jul 18. Epub ahead of print The GHOST-EU registry, that included 1189 patients from 10 European centers between 2011 and 2014, is now the largest registry...
Original title: Stent thrombosis in new-generation drug-eluting stents in patients with STEMI undergoing primary PCI: a report from SCAAR. Reference: Sarno G et al. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2014;Epub ahead of print. This study evaluated 34147 consecutive patients suffering acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation included in the SCAAR registry (Swedish Coronary Angiography and Angioplasty Registry) undergoing primary...
Original title: Coronary artery bypass grafting vs. percutaneous coronary intervention for patients with three-vessel disease: final five-year follow-up of the SYNTAX trial. Reference: Eur Heart J. 2014 May 21. pii: ehu213. (Epub ahead of print). The SYNTAX study was one of the largest randomized clinical studies comparing long-term results of angioplasty versus surgery in multivessel disease and /or...
Original title: Meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials comparing short term -vs- long term dual antiplatelet therapy following drug eluting stents. Reference: El-Hayek G et al. Am J Cardiol. 2014; Epub ahead of print. This meta-analysis examined the data of four randomized and controlled studies (EXCELLENT, PRODIGY, RESET y OPTIMIZE) including 8157 patients receiving sirolimus, paclitaxel, everolimus or zotarolimus...
Original title: Five-year outcomes in patients with left main disease treated with either percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass grafting in the synergy between percutaneous coronary intervention with taxus and cardiac surgery trial. Reference: Morice MC et al. Circulation. 2014 Jun 10;129(23):2388-94. Current guidelines recommend CABG as the strategy of choice for treating lesions of...
Original title: 1-Year Clinical Outcomes of Diabetic Patients Treated With Everolimus-Eluting Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffolds A Pooled Analysis of the ABSORB and the SPIRIT Trials. Reference: Muramatsu T et al. JACC CardiovascInterv. 2014 May;7(5):482-93. This study included ABSORB, ABSORB Extend and SPIRIT patients. A total of 136 diabetic patients and 415 non diabetic receiving everolimus-eluting bioresorbable scaffolds (Absorb) and...