The rationale behind the decision to not add another layer of metal to the artery sounded attractive and this was what paved the way for drug coated balloons as an alternative strategy to treat in-stent restenosis. “We’ve already got a stent in place, we only have to dilate and leave the drug” is what we...
Courtesy of Dr. Carlos Fava. One of the characteristics of chronic total occlusion (CTO) is the use of two access routes: femoral and radial. The radial approach is safer, but it has not been thoroughly analyzed in this type of PCI. The study looked at 3709 patients undergoing left main percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for...
We need more evidence to guide us in the management of silent ischemia. Confirmed asymptomatic coronary artery disease is a problem for cardiologists, who lack enough evidence to guide a risk-benefit assessment that justifies revascularization. Revascularizing the outcome of a functional assessment may reduce the rates of death and infarction, or it may just be...
This large cohort of patients treated with the dual therapy COMBO stent has showed excellent outcomes after one year (MASCOT Post Marketing Registry). Long term follow up is still ongoing. The COMBO stent is a new device with an abluminal sirolimus biodegradable polymer and a luminal layer of antibodies that promotes endothelial healing (anti CD34+)...
Prior economic analyses had shown that transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is cost-effective (which does not mean that it saves money) in high-risk patients compared with surgical replacement. In intermediate-risk patients, this equation was mere speculation until this work recently published in Circulation came along. Physicians started wondering about costs and durability after PARTNER 2 showed...
Pulmonary artery denervation is associated with significant hemodynamics improvement, as well as improved clinical outcomes in patients with both post and precapillary pulmonary hypertension. Even though there are several studies on this technique, they included few patients (with different criteria and different devices), which is why we need more randomized studies. This prospective, randomized, study...
1- These Were the Most Relevant Article of 2018 in the Field of Coronary Diseases Read the best articles on coronary heart disease from 2018 at solaci website. Read more 2- The 10 Commandments of ESC’s New STEMI Guidelines The authors have given an entertaining account of the most relevant points and differences between...
iFR is a safe alternative for lesion deferral even when it comes to the left anterior descending artery (LAD). What is more, patients deferred with iFR showed significantly fewer events than patients deferred using FFR. Neither clinical cardiologists nor interventionists feel comfortable deferring LAD treatment, because it is often perceived as high risk. If functional...
1- What’s New in the European Guidelines on Peripheral Arterial Disease Since the last version of the European guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of peripheral arterial disease in 2011, there have been many trials and registries that warrant guideline adjustments in many aspects. The first novelty is the teamwork that gave way to these...
The beneficial effect of low dose drug coated balloons with paclitaxel is sustained in time according to this randomized study. In a nutshell, this study has shown a significant statistical difference in favor of paclitaxel coated balloons vs. conventional PCI at 2 years. The safety and efficacy of new generation low dose drug coated balloons...