Courtesy of the SBHCI. About 50% of patients admitted with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction also present lesions in another vessel. Whether to treat these or not, and the optimal moment to treat non-culprit infarction-related vessels are still controversial issues. The COMPARE-ACUTE study was recently published and showed that fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided complete...
AIDA: bioresorbable scaffold thrombosis still a concern in studies
Courtesy of the SBHCI. This study presented at PCR and simultaneously published by NEJM still challenges the safety of bioresorbable scaffolds. This was a multicenter noninferiority work carried out in the Netherlands, comparing 1:1 everolimus-eluting bioresorbable scaffold ABSORB and permanent-polymer everolimus-eluting stent Xience. The primary endpoint was target-vessel failure (a composite of cardiac...
Second-Generation DES Present Lower Mortality Rates for Vein Grafts
Courtesy of Dr. Carlos Fava. The treatment of vein graft lesions has always been difficult in relation to angioplasty, due to their characteristics. While drug-eluting stents (DES) have proven to be superior to bare-metal stents (BMS) for coronary arteries, such superiority is unclear as regards vein grafts. Several studies with first-generation DES (DES1) have even reported...
TOPIC: Benefits of Switching Dual Antiplatelet Therapy in Patients with ACS
Newer P2Y12 blockers are the front-line treatment and dual antiplatelet therapy is indicated for 1 year after acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Both prasugrel and ticagrelor offer more ischemic benefit than clopidogrel during the initial phase; however, bleeding complications could increase in the long term. The objective of this study was to assess the safety and efficacy...
Promising Outcomes of Overlapping Stents in Patients Undergoing Bioresorbable Scaffold (BRS) Implantation
Courtesy of Dr. Guillermo Migliaro. In regular clinical practice, overlapping stents are reported in up to 30% of patients undergoing coronary angioplasty, especially due to very long lesions requiring implantation of multiple stents or dissection after the implantation of a first stent. In bare metal stent era, overlapping was associated with unfavorable clinical outcomes...
Primary angioplasty and multivessel lesions: how should we proceed?
Courtesy of Dr Carlos Fava. The association of primary angioplasty with multivessel lesions is not infrequent and has been analyzed in various studies and meta-analyses. However, the proper course of action remains unclear. According to this study, fractional flow reserve (FFR) could better define the ischemic impact of lesions and help with the identification of...
TAVR in Intermediate-Risk Patients: Is It as Effective as Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement?
Courtesy of Dr. Carlos Fava. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has proven to be beneficial for extreme- and high-risk patients. It is also increasingly used in intermediate-risk patients, and it has been hinted at for low-risk patients. However, different sectors in the medical community still challenge the existence of real TAVR benefit. This assessment consisted...
Is Impella an option in high-risk angioplasty?
Courtesy of Dr. Carlos Fava. Provitional ventricular assist devices are increasingly used in high-risk angioplasties, particularly those involving unprotected left main coronary artery (LMCA) with defective ventricular functioning. However, so far its true role has not been well-studied. This study analyzed 127 consecutive patients in the USpella registry from 2008 to 2015. These subjects underwent high-risk...
Tricuspid valve repair with the MitraClip technique
Current surgical and medical treatment options for severe tricuspid regurgitation are extremely limited. However, this historically forgotten valve seems to have the option of transcatheter repair, nowadays. This observational study assessed the safety and feasibility of the MitraClip system for patients with severe chronic tricuspid regurgitation. All patients presented severe tricuspid regurgitation and...
Peripheral artery disease associated to ischemic and bleeding events after DES implantation
Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) have higher rates of cardiovascular events after DES implantation, which could be explained partly by higher platelet reactivity. The present work studies the relationship between platelet reactivity and clinical events after PCI in patients with and without a history of peripheral artery disease. The ADAPT-DES study (Assessment of...