Self-Apposing Stents in Coronary Chronic Total Occlusions: A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVES: This pilot study assessed the 12-month angiographic and clinical outcomes of self-apposing (SA) stents in patients undergoing chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). BACKGROUND: Self-apposing (SA) stents may decrease incomplete strut apposition and stent strut coverage that are common after CTO PCI. METHODS: We compared 20 patients who underwent CTO PCI using SA drug-eluting stents (DESs) with 20 matched control patients who underwent CTO PCI using balloon-expandable (BE)-DESs. All patients were followed up clinically for 12 months and had coronary angiography with optical coherence tomography at the end of the follow-up period. The primary end points were stent strut malapposition and strut coverage. The secondary end point was composite major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) at 12 months. RESULTS: Both groups had high prevalence of diabetes mellitus, and most of the treated lesions were complex, with 62% having a J-CTO score of ≥3. All CTO PCI techniques were allowed for recanalisation, and 75% of the procedures were guided by intravascular ultrasound. At 12 months, the SA-DES group had fewer malapposed struts (0% [interquartile range (IQR) 0%-0%] vs 4.5% [IQR 0%-20%]; p<0.001) and uncovered struts (0.08% [IQR 0%-1.6%] vs 8.2% [IQR 0%-16%]; p<0.001). However, they showed significantly higher rates of MACEs due to clinically-driven target lesion revascularisation (45% vs 15%; p=0.038). CONCLUSIONS: In this pilot study, compared with conventional BE-DESs, SA-DESs used in CTO PCI were associated with fewer malapposed and uncovered stent struts but also with significantly higher rates of in-stent restenosis and MACEs, mainly caused by clinically driven target lesion revascularisation.

Contrast-Induced Sialadenitis: A Forgotten Complication of Coronary Angiography.

Contrast-induced sialadenitis is an adverse reaction following iodine-based investigations, including coronary angioplasty. Unfamiliarity with this adverse reaction may explain its underreporting. We herein describe a case series of 4 patients to help increase awareness of this condition among interventionists. (Level of Difficulty: Advanced.).

The utility of 3D printed models in complex percutaneous paravalvular leak interventions.

Paravalvular leaks (PVL) are seen in 5-17% of patients after surgical mitral and aortic valve replacement. This is usually well-tolerated in the majority of patients; however, up to 5% will require re-intervention due to either hemodynamically significant regurgitation or hemolysis requiring repeated blood transfusion. Transcatheter closure of PVLs is becoming the treatment of choice in many patients owing to the high risk of redo surgery, high rates of recurrence with the surgical approach, and substantial improvements in device technology and growing expertise in structural heart disease interventions. Careful selection of the appropriate candidates by the Heart Team with in-depth analysis of clinical and multimodality imaging data is critical to ensuring good short- and long-term outcomes1. The defect is usually oval/crescentic and often serpiginous in nature, which poses significant challenges in choosing the optimal size and number of devices to implant - especially with large size defects. Generally, defects involving more than 25-30% of the sewing ring are deemed unsuitable for percutaneous closure. While the Amplatzer family of vascular plugs (e.g. AVP3 and AVP2) is commonly used for percutaneous closure of PVLs, there are currently no approved dedicated devices for this indication, except the paravalvular leak device (Occlutech) which is not universally available. Small and relatively circular defects can usually be closed using a single plug, conventionally utilizing a size that is 25-30% larger than the mean diameter of the defect. Larger and crescentic defects on the other hand frequently require more than one plug and can be quite challenging in terms of choosing the appropriate size(s)2. We report two cases with very large defects with irregular shape in which 3D printed modeling was extremely useful for bench testing to optimize the number and sizes of devices to be implanted.

Journey to the center of the heart: Bilateral absent superior vena cava with heart block.

Bilaterally absent superior vena cava (SVC) is extremely rare anomaly with a few case reports in the literature. Without associated congenital cardiac disease, these anomalies are asymptomatic. This report describes an adult patient with bilaterally absent SVC presenting with Mobitz type II heart block and a structurally normal heart.