1- What Antiplatelet Therapy Should We Use in Patients with Stroke/TIA? Interesting Results for the POINT Trial The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) recently published an article about the POINT trial (simultaneously presented at the European Stroke Organisation Conference), a long-awaited randomized clinical trial to assess the efficacy and safety of dual antiplatelet therapy...
1- New High Blood Pressure Guidelines The wait is finally over: the high blood pressure guidelines that have been in the works for the past 3 years saw the light of day at the American Heart Association (AHA) 2017 Scientific Sessions. Read more 2- New European Hypertension Guidelines Contrast with American Recommendations The European...
Is the Obesity Epidemic Putting Patients’ and Physicians’ Health at Risk? In addition to the obvious negative effect on patients, obesity can also affect Interventional Cardiologists’ health, seeing as it involves increased exposure to radiation. Operators are clearly and increasingly exposed to radiation as patient body mass index (BMI) increases. Radiation exposure might be...
1- The CULPRIT-SHOCK Study Is Finally Published in NEJM and It Is Bound to Change Guidelines During SOLACI’s coverage of the TCT 2017 Congress in Denver, Colorado, we already mentioned some of the outcomes of this study that has arrived to revolutionize clinical practice, given the differences between its results and those of the classic...
This work showed that percutaneous septal ablation in patients with symptomatic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is safe (and improves patient symptoms) and results in excellent long-term survival. Alcohol-induced infarction for treatment of symptomatic hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy is controversial because, while it may relieve acute symptoms, it might also increase long-term mortality. This study sought to report...
Courtesy of Dr. Carlos Fava. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has emerged as a successful alternative for inoperable patients and a non-inferior alternative for high- and intermediate-risk patients. While its evolution depending on site experience has been analyzed, there is currently very little information regarding the impact of operator individual experience. This study analyzed 8771 procedures performed...
In diabetic patients with multivessel disease, anatomical complexity assessed by SYNTAX score is an independent predictor of combined events only por PCI patients, and has absolutely no consequence for surgery. The score should not be used to decide on a revascularization strategy. If the patient is diabetic and has multivessel disease, they simply ought to...
1- Everolimus-Eluting Stents Finally Have a Rival and Not Just a “Non-Inferior” Stent In this large randomized trial, there were significant differences as regards both target-lesion failure and target-vessel-related infarction, which persisted through a 2-year follow-up and favored treatment with an ultrathin-strut bioresorbable-polymer sirolimus-eluting stent (Orsiro) compared with the gold standard, a durable-polymer everolimus-eluting stent...
Coronary angioplasty or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) reduces angina and improves quality of life in patients with stable ischemic cardiomyopathy, though the ORBITA study has shed new light on this. Meanwhile, we will assume this is indeed the case, until new studies either confirm or refute the above mentioned, controversial study. Either way, it is...
Within the 55th Chilean Congress of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery, which is taking place in Concepción, Chile, SOLACI held a Joint Session with SOCHICAR on Structural Heart Disease. The moderators for this session were Dr. Mario Araya (Chile), Dr. Eugenio Marchant (Chile), and Dr. Hugo Londero (Argentina). Among the participating lecturers, the presentations by Marcio Montenegro (Percutaneous Treatment of Functional...