Patients with aortic stenosis and extreme surgical risk have extremely high mortality due to known comorbidities. The short-term benefit of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with self-expanding valve is clear, and it warrants the procedure in this challenging population. While elderly patients with comorbidities who are at extreme surgical risk might be eligible for TAVR,...
Aspirin monotherapy (ASA) reduced the combined risk of thrombotic and bleeding events compared against dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) in patients receiving transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). This meta-analysis has only reproduced smaller randomize study outcomes and does not include the OCEAN-TAVI registry, the only one that has shown something different so far. Even though ASA...
Paclitaxel-eluting stent Eluvia showed promising results after two years with a revascularization freedom rate of 80% despite the fact that these were complex femoropopliteal lesions. As the safety of paclitaxel-eluting devices becomes more consistent, more studies on its efficacy are being published. Back in 2018, the safety of paclitaxel-eluting balloons and stents was under scrutiny...
Treating the left main coronary artery with provisional stenting was non-inferior to systematic dual stenting in the EBC MAIN trial, presented at EuroPCR 2021 and simultaneously published in the European Heart Journal. The composite primary endpoint of death, infarction, and target-lesion revascularization was 14.7% for provisional stenting vs. 17.7% for systematic dual stenting (hazard ratio:...
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with the Evolut self-expanding valve was non-inferior to surgery in patients with low surgical risk. After two years, the primary endpoint of death or disabling stroke was similar between both strategies. This presentation at EuroPCR 2021 reinforces the results presented during the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2019 Congress and...
Treating total occlusions, complex bifurcations, grossly calcified lesions or left main lesions via transradial approach is associated with significant reduction in access-site bleeding or vascular complications vs transfemoral approach. This kind of procedures have been typically excluded from studies randomizing patients to transradial vs transfemoral approach. The COLOR study used the transradial bore-guiding catheter Glidesheath...
The 1-month outcomes of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) followed by clopidogrel monotherapy were comparable to 12-month DAPT in patients with both simple and complex PCI. There was no significant interaction between DAPT period and procedure difficulty. This is a post hoc study of the STOPDAPT-2 that looked at the complex PCI patient subgroup. It is...
According to the LAAOS III study, presented at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2021 Congress and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), patients with atrial fibrillation who undergo central vascular surgery for any other indication find benefit in appendage closure during said surgery. Using oral anticoagulation agents, patients undergoing appendage closure...
Young or middle-aged patients who have already suffered a heart attack have almost twice as many adverse events when they continue to be under emotional stress after the initial suffering. The association between psychological factors and events is attenuated after making adjustments that include markers of inflammation such as interleukin-6. It follows that inflammation plays...
When an interventional cardiology center, where interventional cardiology specialists work alongside neurologists and radiologists, start a thrombectomy program in acute stroke, results achieved are similar to those at an interventional neurology center. Mechanical thrombectomy has proven to be the best treatment option for acute ischemic stroke. However, it is not widely available, mainly due to...