[The indispensable instrument for rotational atherectomy]. / Le Rotablator: un outil d'angioplastie indispensable.

Rotational atherectomy is the treatment of choice for calcified coronary lesions. It should not be used routinely but only in some appropriate cases, especially when the successful deployment of a stent may be uncertain. Complications are rare but serious. Several cases of "off label" use, however, have been reported in the literature without additional complications.

[Successes and complications of angioplasty in chronic occlusive coronary disease]. / Succès et complications de l'angioplastie des occlusions coronaires chroniques.

In the hands of experienced operators, the rate of success of percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion lesion is about 85%. Major cardiac events rate is about 2%. A length of the occluded site more than 20mm, severe calcifications, major tortuosity, blunt stump and a previous attempt by anterograde approach are predictors of procedural failure, previous CABG, distal vessel disease, occlusion duration have been involved too. Operator's experience is one of the major success component, especially his ability to perform retrograde approach. According to EuroCTO club recommendations, performing a minimum number of case to maintain competency seems to be very important.

[An evaluation of the effectiveness of applying 16-slice computed tomography (CT) to coronary arteries in preoperative aortic valve replacement]. / Evaluation du scanner 16 coupes des artères coronaires dans le bilan préopératoire du rétrécissement valvulaire aortique.

UNLABELLED: An evaluation of the effectiveness of applying 16-slice Computed Tomography (CT) to coronary arteries in preoperative aortic valve replacement. PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of using 16-slice CT to diagnose a significant stenosis in coronary arteries in patients with severe aortic valve stenosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 50 patients were included in the study. After a medium contrast injection, CT images of the arteries were taken using 0.75 mm slices. We paired the images with an ECG. Segments smaller than 1.5 mm were discarded, and the results were compared to those from the coronary angiography. RESULTS: A satisfactory visualization of the coronary network was obtained for 80% (40/50) of the patients. For these 40 patients, 23 of the 29 patients without coronary stenosis were correctly classified but 4 of the 11 patients with coronary lesions were not recognized. The sensitivity of the multi-slice CT in detecting a least one significant coronary stenosis is 63.6%, the specificity 79.3%, positive predictive value 53.8% and negative predictive value 85.2%. CONCLUSION: the 16-slice CT is a relatively effective and minimally invasive tool to highlight before valve replacement significant coronary stenosis in arteries greater than 1.5 mm in diameter in patients with severe aortic valvular stenosis. CT technology is currently insufficient for diagnosis, but we hope that with advances in multi-slice CT engineering, its use will help patients avoid invasive coronary angiographies.

[MR imaging and arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD)]. / IRM et dysplasie arythmogène du ventricule droit (DAVD).

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD) is a cardiomyopathy of unknown etiology responsible for 20% of cases of sudden death in young adults secondary to arrhythmia. It is characterized histologically by fatty or fibro-fatty infiltration of the right ventricular myocardium. Diagnostic criteria have been proposed for diagnosing ARVD. Imaging, especially MRI, plays an important role. MR imaging must be performed using cardiac gating, and should include both cine-MR sequences for evaluation of segmental and global right ventricular function or any morphological change of the right ventricular shape, and anatomic sequences to detect fatty or fibro-fatty infiltration of the right ventricular myocardium.

Intravascular ultrasound assessment of pulmonary vascular disease in patients with pulmonary hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Measurements of pulmonary pressure and resistance are still considered to be the "gold standard" in the evaluation of pulmonary hypertension (PH), despite their limitations in predicting irreversible disease. Hemodynamic assessment also only provides a global evaluation of the pulmonary vascular bed, whereas PH is an inhomogeneous disease of the vessel wall. METHODS AND RESULTS: We assessed the value of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in 30 patients with suspected PH and correlated the structural changes in distal pulmonary arteries found on IVUS with conventional hemodynamic data. Plasma endothelin (ET)-1 levels and pulmonary ET-1 extraction also were measured as markers of the severity of PH. The anatomic abnormalities revealed by IVUS were more severe in the lower lobes than in the upper lobes, as evidenced by the greater percentage of wall thickness (WT), the smaller lumen diameter/WT and lumen area/total vessel area (p < 0.05 for each). IVUS anatomic indexes correlated directly with hemodynamic data (eg, with pulmonary arterial systolic pressure; r = 0.56; p < 0.001) and ET-1 levels but inversely with pulmonary ET-1 extraction. CONCLUSION: Patients with PH have greater pulmonary arterial WT that is more severe in the lower lobes than in the upper lobes. The severity of structural abnormalities found on IVUS is directly correlated with hemodynamic findings and ET-1 levels. IVUS may provide useful additional information in the assessment of patients with PH.