Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is now the standard of care for patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis who are at extreme, high, or intermediate risk for surgery. This multicenter, prospective study (Feasibility of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement in Low-Risk Patients With Symptomatic, Severe Aortic Stenosis) included low-risk patients and was approved by the United...
What Should We Use for the Functional Assessment of Coronary Lesions in Severe Aortic Stenosis?
This systematic analysis measured intracoronary pressure in different phases of the cardiac cycle and flow velocity in patients with severe aortic stenosis and coronary artery disease, who were scheduled for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). The aim was to determine the impact of aortic stenosis on: 1) flow, at different phases; 2) hyperemic coronary flow;...
2018 Peru Sessions | Nurses and Technicians Session
As a prologue to Peru 2018 Sessions, Nurses and Technicians Sessions will be held on October 24, 2018. The event will take place at the Main Arena of the National Cardiovascular Institute (INCOR), in Lima. These sessions will be about several topics, among others, radioprotection in the cath lab, valve disease procedures, TAVR, mitral valve,...
TCT 2018 | Mismatch After TAVR According to the TVT Registry
Prosthesis-patient mismatch (i.e. a difference between the size of the implanted prosthetic valve and the patient body size) in patients who undergo surgery is associated with worse outcomes. This may also apply to percutaneous prostheses, although that has not been well-studied yet. This work, presented at TCT 2018 and published simultaneously in JACC, analyzes this problem...
TCT 2018 | MAIN COMPARE: Angioplasty vs. Surgery for Left Main Coronary Artery Disease at 10 Years
Several studies (some of them recent, some of them not so much so) have compared left main coronary artery angioplasty and myocardial revascularization surgery. Combined, these works compose a large corpus of evidence, but follow-up has not gone beyond 5 years in any case. The main aim of this study (presented at TCT 2018 and published simultaneously...
TCT 2018 | TriValve: Mitraclip for the Tricuspid Valve
The TriValve is a multicenter, international and retrospective study of multiple devices for percutaneous intervention to treat cardiac failure. This is a sub-analysis of patients receiving the most conventional of these devices: the MitraClip. The main points assessed by this study were all cause mortality, unplanned hospitalizations, functional class, the presence of peripheral edema, and...
Ten Commandments of the European Hypertension Guidelines: Several “Sins Allowed” Compared with American Guidelines
These new hypertension guidelines (which were as long-awaited as the American ones, back then) finally emerged in Barcelona, at the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) Congress. The document was issued jointly with the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). These guidelines provide recommendations for physicians to diagnose hypertension, evaluate risk, and determine when and how to...
See the presentations of the 9th José Gabay Fellow Course
We are deeply thankful to all interventional physicians who, motivated by their great scientific and educational vocation, presented their works at the “José Gabay” Course. Read the presentations below: Module I: Fundamentals and Basic Elements. Leiva Pons, José Luis. “Vascular Closure Devices. Step by Step.” (Spanish version) García García, Hector. “Current Status of Coronary Intervention:...
Frailty: What Happens When We Are Too Late in Critical Lower Limb Ischemia
This condition, now “trending” among patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), has expanded to almost all patients we treat, always with the same outcome: the prognosis is bad, so bad that it might warrant making the difficult decision of not going forward. The association between frailty and bad prognosis is easy to see and...
HIV and Peripheral Artery Disease: Acknowledging the Association
The role of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the development of vascular disease (specifically peripheral artery disease) remains unclear. Is the virus per se the direct cause of this disease or is it a consequence of dyslipidemia, one of the adverse effects of antiretrovirals? This study looked into the effect of HIV infection on peripheral...