A study compared pooled data of claudication and critical ischemia patients treated with stenting vs. by-pass surgery in femoropopliteal disease. The main objective of revascularization in femoropopliteal disease is to improve the quality of life and functional capacity of claudication patients who did not respond to medical treatment, and to save the affected limb in...
Can Drug Coated Balloon Be a Valid Option for Small Vessels?
One of the challenges of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) are <2.5 mm vessels, since complications and restenosis complications rate are higher than with >3.0 mm vessels. Drug Coated Balloons (DCB) can be a useful tool, but their efficacy and safety [vs. plain old balloon angioplasty] remains unclear. PEPCAD China SVD is a prospective and multicenter...
What Is the Best Strategy for Moderately Complex Femoropopliteal Lesions?
At present, PCI is the preferred treatment for femoropopliteal lesions and drug coated balloons (DCB) have shown good performance. However, they have not yet been shown superior to bare-metal stents (BMS). This study compared randomized trials IN.PACT SFA I/II and IN.PACT JAPAN including 288 patients vs. the prospective Complete SE and DURABILITY II with 483...
TAVR and New Onset LBBB
The safety and efficacy of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is already established. However, it still poses a challenge for conduction disturbances, such as the need for pacemaker or new onset left bundle branch block (LBBB). The current rate for the latter ranges from approximately 11% to 19%. In most cases, 50% of LBBB reverses...
IN.PACT Study | Should We Start Using DCBs More Frequently in Cases of Femoropopliteal Disease?
With the new devices (drug-eluting balloons [DEB], drug-eluting stents [DES], and atherotomes) percutaneous treatment is becoming the first line of approach for femoropopliteal disease, especially when dealing with not very long total occlusions. Randomized studies and registries on the use of drug-coated balloons (DCB) in femoropopliteal disease are currently available, but their evolution beyond 2...
POKI: A New Bifurcations Strategy
This scientific article we briefly discuss the POKI technique, a new stent optimization strategy for bifurcation lesions. Coronary bifurcations represent 20 to 25% of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) and continue to be a real challenge at present; the different available treatment strategies are used to correct bifurcation carina after stenting seeing as incomplete strut apposition...
Resistant Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Myomectomy or Septal Ablation?
Approximately 70% of hypertrophic cardiomyopathies (HCM) are associated to a left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction and mitral valve failure leading to dyspnea and cardiac failure in a high number of patients. Even though at present there are effective drug treatments combined with pacemaker implantation, surgery (septal myomectomy (SM) continues to be the first choice...
Long-Term Evolution of Hybrid Coronary Revascularization
Currently, myocardial revascularization surgery (MRS) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are the available strategies for multivessel coronary artery disease. However, an alternative strategy has long been developed, called hybrid coronary revascularization (HCR), where the anterior descending artery is bypassed with a graft from the mammary artery and the rest of the lesions are treated by...
Non-ST Elevation MI: How Long Do We Have for A Coronary Angiography?
This summary discusses the early invasive strategy and the risk of mortality in non-ST-elevation AMI. Over the past 2 decades, mortality and complications rates have seen a significant reduction thanks to technological and pharmaceutical development, and the increasing experience of health teams. This is especially true when we look at the use of coronary angiography...
Is it Possible to Reduce DAPT Time in Diabetic Patients?
Short-duration dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with DES is growing steadily, especially for chronic coronary syndromes. There is also some evidence regarding its use in acute coronary syndrome. However, diabetes is a well-known risk factor for both restenosis and thrombosis, since it involves more complex and longer lesions in vessels that...