Position paper of French Interventional Group (GACI) for TAVI in France in 2018.

Aortic stenosis is a frequent disease in the elderly. Its prevalence is 0.4% with a sharp increase after the age of 65, and its outcome is very poor when the patient becomes symptomatic. The interventional procedure known as TAVI (trans-catheter aortic valve implantation), which was developed in France and carried out for the first time in Rouen by Prof. Alain Cribier and his team in 2002, has proven to be a valid alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement. At first, this technique was shown to be efficient in patients with contra-indications to surgical treatment or deemed to be at high surgical risk. Given the very promising outcomes achieved as a result of close heart team collaboration, appropriate patient selection, simplified procedures and reduced complication rates, transfemoral (TF) TAVI is now preferred in symptomatic intermediate risk patients>75 years old according to the latest ESC guidelines. In 2017, in France, TAVI is currently performed in 50 centers with on-site cardiac surgery. The 2016 TAVI outcomes recorded in the French national TAVI registry (France TAVI) are very encouraging and show that for 7133 patients treated (age 83.4±7 years, logistic Euroscore 14%), 87% of whom via the TF approach, cross-over to surgery was very low (0.5%) with a 3.0% in-hospital mortality rate. The substantial increase in TAVI indications and the improvement of its outcomes may in the near future call for a reconsideration of the number of high volume centers authorized to carry out this technique.

Femoropopliteal In-stent Restenosis Repair: Midterm Outcomes After Paclitaxel Eluting Balloon Use (PLAISIR Trial).

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to assess 18 month outcomes of the paclitaxel eluting balloon (PEB) in patients with femoropopliteal (FP) in-stent restenosis (ISR). METHODS: In a national prospective and multicentre cohort study, symptomatic patients with femoropopliteal in-stent restenosis were included from January 2012 to June 2013. Patients were treated by paclitaxel eluting balloon angioplasty (In Pact Admiral, Medtronic, Santa Rosa, CA, USA). Clinical and duplex scan follow-up evaluations were performed at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 18 months. The primary endpoint was freedom from target lesion revascularisation (TLR) at 12 months. Secondary endpoints were major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), Target extremity revascularisation (TER), primary and secondary sustained clinical improvement, recurrent restenosis rate, primary and secondary patency, quality of life assessed by EQ-5D questionnaire, technical success, clinical success, and length of stay RESULTS: A total of 53 patients were enrolled. After a blinded review, 10 patients were defined as protocol violation because restenosis occurred more than 2 years after stent implantation. Procedures were performed in 55 limbs, 48 (87%) for claudication and 7 (13%) for critical limb ischaemia. The mean diameter and length of PEB were 6 ± 0.57 mm and 86 mm ± 32 mm, follow-up was 17 months (range 1-19). At 1 year, the survival rate was 96 ± 2.7% and freedom from TLR and TER were 90.2 ± 4.2% and 85 ± 5%, respectively. Sustained primary and secondary clinical improvements were 78.6 ± 5.7% and 92.0 ± 3.8%, respectively. At 1 year, the primary patency rate was 83.7 ± 5.0%. Prior to the procedure, the mean EQ-5D score was 66 ± 14 and 74 ± 16 at 1 year (p = .10). Two patients died during follow-up; one patient died 33 days after the procedure because of limb ischaemia. CONCLUSION: PEB for the treatment of FP ISR is associated with a low rate of re-interventions and restenosis. Clinical improvement is maintained at 18 months.

[Role of angioplasty in the treatment of renal artery stenosis]. / Place de l'angioplastie des artères rénales.

Atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis is frequent and is associated with a high incidence of morbidity and mortality, with a strong correlation with coronary artery disease, (Kalra et al., 2005; Cheung et al., 2002; Guo et al., 2007 [1-3]). The atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis is an independent predictive factor of death (Conlon et al., 1998 [4]). The treatment of this lesion does not have strong evidence. A lot of studies in this area suggest the angioplasty is superior in a big majority between surgery, and angioplasty with stent is superior between balloon angioplasty, but some studies fail to prove the superiority of angioplasty versus medical treatment. These studies have sadly a lot of mistakes and nowadays we don't know what is the treatment for our patients in a lot of cases. The angioplasty is indicated when there is a failure of antihypertensive medications for control of blood pressure, when it is associated with a renal insufficiency quickly progressive or when there is a lesion on each renal artery. Other studies must be organized for prove the superiority of angioplasty when there is a real stenosis, maybe with the use of fractional flow reserve.

Endovascular procedures for below the knee arteries in diabetics.

Patients with below the knee (BTK) lesions may present either with intermittent claudication (IC) or with critical limb ischemia (CLI). Generally, these patients with a high incidence of diabetes have a high rate of myocardial infarction and mortality. So, even if, the surgery is potentially a very good technique with excellent results when the best conduit as a vein graft is used, the ratio benefice/risk seems too low for the IC patients. On another hand for the CLI patients a lot of reasons contraindicate or are unfair to the surgical option: lack of conduit, bad or unclear run-off or distal outflow site, bad local cutaneous conditions. Endovascular option by specialists with experience of coronary devices should be the treatment of choice. We review the different techniques and their recent upgrades in order to improve the percutaneous endovascular treatment of BTK lesions.

Clinical and angiographic performance of a new-generation modular stent design for treatment of de novo coronary lesions.

The objectives of the Race Car study were to assess the safety and efficacy of the Medtronic AVE S670 stent, a new-generation stent with a modular design consisting of interconnected sinusoidal rings allowing improved flexibility with good conformability and scaffolding. A total of 285 stents were implanted in 267 patients with (un)stable angina pectoris who underwent angioplasty of a single de novo lesion in a native coronary artery with a diameter between 3.0 and 4.0 mm. Available stent lengths were 9, 12, and 15 mm. The primary endpoint was the 6-month restenosis rate. Secondary endpoints were device and procedural success and major adverse cardiac event (MACE)-free survival at 1 and 6 months. All patients received the study stents and no other stents were used (angiographic success: 100%). Eight patients experienced a MACE during hospital admission (Q-wave MI in 2, non-Q-wave MI in 4, TLR in 2). A procedural success was obtained in 97% of the patients. There were no additional events at 1 month. The clinical endpoints encountered at 6 months were Q-wave MI in 1, bypass surgery in 3, and repeat angioplasty in 25 (MACE-free survival: 86.5%). Quantitative angiographic results were the minimum lumen diameter increased from 1.05 +/- 0.32 before to 2.73 +/- 0.39 mm after stent implantation. At follow-up, the loss in diameter was 0.74 +/- 0.50 mm. The loss index was 0.45 +/- 0.31 and restenosis rate was 13.4%. This study has demonstrated that the S670 stent in patients with (un)stable angina pectoris requiring intervention of a single lesion has a low acute and 6-month major event rate and a low angiographic restenosis rate.

Emergency coronary artery bypass surgery following coronary angioplasty and stenting: results of a French multicenter registry.

This study investigates the influence of coronary stenting on the risk of emergency bypass surgery performed within 24 hr of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) with particular concern for incidence and indication. Since 1995, coronary stenting has been increasingly performed in France during angioplasty procedures, altering significantly the role of emergency bypass surgery. The outcome of elective stenting and widespread use of coronary stenting and its influence on emergency surgery have not been evaluated so far. Through a retrospective (1995) and prospective (1996) registry, we analyzed the incidence, indication and results of emergency bypass surgery performed within 24 hr of PTCA in 68 and 57 centers, respectively, accounting for nearly half of all angioplasty procedures in France. Data were collected through questionnaires consisting of separate forms for every case report that were sent to every center. Over the two years, 26,885 and 27,497 procedures were investigated with a stenting rate of 46% and 64%, respectively. The observed need for emergency surgery was constantly low throughout this period (0.38% and 0.32%, respectively). Indications for surgery included complications directly due to stent in 37% of cases in the 2-year period. Outcome remained poor, with in-hospital mortality in 10% and 17% and myocardial infarction in 27% and 25% of cases, respectively. A comparison of the results in centers with and without surgical facilities showed no differences in outcome, despite a longer time to surgery (359 min +/- 406 min vs. 170 min +/- 205 min, P = 0.0001) and a lower incidence of emergency surgery (0.25% vs. 0.44%, P = 0.0001) in centers without on-site surgery backup. The French multicenter registry reveals an increase in the use of stents together with a dramatic decrease in the incidence of emergency bypass surgery (below 0.5%) following PTCA. There has been a significant evolution in the indication, and stent implantation now accounts for a third of the indications for emergency bypass surgery.

Coronary-to-bronchial artery communication: report of two patients successfully treated by embolization.

We report two cases of coronary-to-bronchial artery communication responsible for coronary steal. In both cases the anastomosis originated from the proximal circumflex artery and developed because of bronchiectasis. In both cases closure of the anastomosis was achieved successfully by embolization. To date, the patients remained free from symptoms.

The MUST Trial: Acute Results and Six-Month Clinical Follow-up.

Coronary stenting is now an established technique which is associated with improved acute and long-term results and prevents restenosis in comparison to balloon angioplasty in selected patients. However, subacute thrombosis and vascular complications associated with conventional anticoagulant therapy (warfarin for one month, with 4Ð5 days of IV heparin) remain of concern. By means of a prospective, multi-center registry, we sought to demonstrate that the use of ticlopidine and aspirin as the sole post-stenting treatment was safe by reducing bleeding complications without increasing the risk of major cardiac events. A total of 260 patients with stable and unstable angina and a short, single de novo lesion were enrolled in this registry. Successful stent deployment without ultrasound guidance was achieved in 259 patients. All patients were treated with aspirin ³ 100 mg daily for 6 months and ticlopidine 250 to 500 mg daily according to body weight for 1 month. The primary endpoint was safety, defined by the occurrence of death, myocardial infarction (MI), coronary bypass surgery (CABG) or repeat angioplasty (PTCA) within 30 days of the procedure, in addition to subacute stent thrombosis and bleeding and vascular complications within 30 days of the intervention. During hospital stay there were no deaths; 8 patients experienced MI, 1 patient underwent urgent CABG and 4 patients had repeat PTCA. Therefore, the clinical success rate was 96.0%. Bleeding complications requiring blood transfusion or vascular repair occurred in 2 patients. Treatment was discontinued in one patient because of mild reversible leucopenia. At 6 months, event-free survival was 90.3%. Major events involved CABG in 4 patients and a second PTCA at the same site in 14 patients. The target vessel revascularization rate at 6 months was 6.2%. This study demonstrates that Palmaz-Schatz stenting of single de novo lesions with length < 15 mm, without ultrasound guidance but with the routine use of high-pressure balloon dilatation, and with ticlopidine and aspirin as the sole treatment post intervention, is feasible and safe both in terms of clinical outcome and hematologic adverse side-effects. This registry demonstrates that six-month event-free survival exceeding 90% can be achieved.

Intracoronary stent implantation without ultrasound guidance and with replacement of conventional anticoagulation by antiplatelet therapy. 30-day clinical outcome of the French Multicenter Registry.

BACKGROUND: Stenting reduces both acute complications of coronary angioplasty and restenosis rates but increases subacute thrombosis rates and hemorrhagic complications when used with coumadin anticoagulation. METHODS AND RESULTS: To simplify postcoronary stenting treatment and to reduce these drawbacks, we evaluated the 1-month outcome of a prospective registry of 2900 patients in whom successful coronary artery stenting was performed without coumadin anticoagulation. Patients received 100 mg/d aspirin and 250 mg/d ticlopidine for 1 month. Low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) treatment was progressively reduced in four consecutive stages, from 1-month treatment to none. Event-free outcome at 1 month was achieved in 2816 patients (97.1%). Major stent-related cardiac events were subacute closure in 51 patients (1.8%), including death in 12 (0.5%), acute myocardial infarction in 17 (0.6%), and coronary artery bypass graft surgery in 9 (0.3%). Stent thrombosis was more frequent with balloon size of < 3.0 mm (< or = 2.5 mm, 10%; 3.0 mm, 2.3%; > or = 3.5 mm, 1.0%; P < .001), bail-out situations (6.67% versus 1.38%, P < .001), and patients with unstable angina or acute myocardial infarction (2.2% versus 1.12%, P = .02). Bleeding complications that required transfusion, surgical repair, or both occurred in 55 patients (1.9%). Bleeding complications were related to female gender (4.0% versus 1.51%, P < .001), duration of LMWH treatment (3.83% in phase II/III versus 0.69% in phase IV/V, P < .001), sheath size (6F, 0.52%; 7F, 1.04%; > or = 8F, 4.23%; P < .001), bail-out situations (4.76% versus 1.67%, P < .01), and saphenous graft stenting (4.38% versus 1.75%, P = .04). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that poststenting treatment by ticlopidine/aspirin is an effective alternative to coumadin anticoagulation, achieving low rates of subacute closure and bleeding complications. LMWH treatment does not improve subacute reocclusion rates but increases bleeding complications. Furthermore, as bleeding complications were independently related to sheath size, we suggest that stenting with 6F guiding catheters may prevent local complications. Furthermore, the ticlopidine/aspirin combination allows a low-cost stenting strategy without ultrasound assessment of stent deployment and permits short inhospital stay.

Aortopulmonary fistula: an uncommon complication in dystrophic aortic aneurysm.

Wall dissection is a typical complication in the evolution of Marfan aortic aneurysm and usually is associated with valve regurgitation. Formation of a fistula with adjacent structures is very uncommon. We report the case of a 32-year-old man who presented with the typical features of Marfan's syndrome, with chronic aneurysm of the ascending aorta and acute aortopulmonary fistula. Diagnosis was made preoperatively by aortography; operation was performed successfully. A review of the literature only shows a few cases of aortopulmonary fistula in atherosclerotic, syphilitic, or postendocarditis disease.

[Cardiac sarcoidosis responsible for localized left ventricular ectasia and refractory ventricular tachycardia. Anatomoclinical study]. / Sarcoïdose cardiaque responsable d'une ectasie ventriculaire gauche localisée et de tachycardies ventriculaires réfractaires. Etude anatomo-clinique.

The authors report the case of a 63 year old woman admitted to hospital for recurrent refractory ventricular tachycardia. Echocardiography and cardiac scintigraphy showed global left ventricular function. Ventriculography confirmed the left ventricular dysfunction and also showed a localised aneurysm of the anterior left ventricular wall. Surgical resection of the aneurysm and an encircling endocardial ventriculotomy were performed but the patient died of a low output syndrome. Pathological examination of the excised tissue showed granulomatous lesions associated with fibrosis interrupting the striated myocardial bundles. The granulomata consisted in a large number of epithelioid histiocytes and very large giant cells with many nuclei. The diagnosis made retrospectively was that of cardiac sarcoidosis causing a ventricular aneurysm and global left ventricular dysfunction. The diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis is difficult in the absence of systemic extracardiac involvement because the clinical manifestations and complementary investigations are non specific. The diagnosis may be made by endomyocardial biopsy in 25 per cent of cases, thereby leading to specific treatment with steroids which is sometimes effective.

[Dilatation of the mitral and aortic valves. Current trends]. / Les dilatations valvulaires mitrales et aortiques. Tendances actuelles.

Following percutaneous endoluminal dilatation of the coronary arteries, new techniques developed in 1984 and 1986 respectively with the purpose of treating percutaneously adult mitral and aortic stenosis. Results of mitral valvuloplasty are excellent from an haemodynamic standpoint as well as an electrocardiographic and clinical standpoint. Anatomical lesions, especially commissural fissure, give a good explanation of these results. But this is a complex procedure, relatively rarely indicated today in France, because of the almost total disappearance of acute rheumatoid arthritis. Degenerative aortic stenosis is the most frequent valvulopathy in France. It occurs in elderly patients, after weak, in whom surgery is always a major risk. Dilatation seemed an interesting alternative to surgery. Unfortunately the results of aortic valvuloplasty are poor and most of the time temporary. However, improvement of the symptoms is observed in one out of two cases. These poor results are due to the nature of the anatomical lesion which respond poorly to valvuloplasty.

[Infectious endocarditis on native valves. Report of a series of 142 surgically treated cases]. / L'endocardite infectieuse sur valves natives. A propos d'une série de 142 cas opérés.

The results obtained in a series of 142 patients operated upon, between December 1978 and December 1987, for infective endocarditis on native valve are reported. 61 patients (group 1) had acute progressive endocarditis and 81 patients (group 2) had subacute old-standing endocarditis. In group 1 patients, hospital mortality (i.e. occurring during the first 30 post-operative days) was 11.5 p. 100. During a mean follow-up period of 37.6 months (1.5 to 104.5 months), the survival rates were 52 p. 100 at 72 months and 37.4 p. 100 at 104.5 months. Mechanical desinsertion without persistence or relapse of the infective process, and recurrent endocarditis accounted for 27.8 p. 100 of deaths of known cause. Prognosis was better in group 2 patients. Hospital mortality was 4.9 p. 100, and during a mean follow-up period of 58 months (2 to 124 months) the survival rates were 84 p. 100 at 72 months and 73.4 p. 100 at 124 months. 60 p. 100 of late deaths of known cause were due to heart failure. In native valve infective endocarditis the post-operative diagnosis depends upon the pre-operative haemodynamic status, and the assessment of this status (notably with echocardiography) is a crucial element in the decision to operate.

Post-radiotherapeutic left main coronary ostial stenosis: clinical and histological study.

Pericardial abnormalities remain the most common manifestation of radiation-induced cardiac disease, but coronary artery lesions are not rare. In this report we describe a left coronary ostial stenosis which appeared five years after mediastinal irradiation for breast carcinoma in a 50-year-old woman. The patient underwent coronary angiography. A pressure drop was observed as the left catheter tip engaged the left coronary ostium; so, only nonselective coronary opacifications were performed showing an isolated, marked narrowing of the left coronary ostia. During surgery, a circumferential aortotomy allowed the examination of the left coronary ostium which appeared severely stenosed. The coronary tree was otherwise normal. A termino-terminal saphenous vein graft was anastomosed on the left stem and its proximal part was implanted on the ascending aorta. The coronary ostium and the proximal part of the left main stem were excised and the macroscopic examination of the proximal part of the left coronary artery confirmed the diagnosis of severe ostial stenosis. Microscopic examination of the coronary ostium showed a severe intimal thickening without any evident lesion of the media. This intimal thickening consisted of fibrous tissue without extracellular lipid deposit. Microscopic examination of the aorta near the coronary ostium also demonstrated an intimal thickening without any lesion of the media. Coronary ostial stenosis appears to be a rare lesion; its incidence has varied between 0.13 and 2.7% in angiographic studies and there is co-existing disease in multiple coronary vessels in the majority of cases.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Short-term clinical and haemodynamic assessment of balloon aortic valvuloplasty in 30 elderly patients. Discrepancy between immediate and eighth-day haemodynamic values.

Recently, percutaneous aortic valvuloplasty has been considered as a possible palliative procedure in elderly patients with critical valvular stenosis in whom valve replacement is deferred or contra-indicated because of high operative risk. However, the demonstration of the efficacy of such a procedure is based on immediate post dilatation haemodynamic data and clinical improvement. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the haemodynamic consequences of this procedure on the eighth day after a post procedure haemodynamic control. Thirty consecutive patients (mean age 75 +/- 8.4 years) with long-standing aortic stenosis were treated at the time of cardiac catheterization with balloon dilatation. Of these 30 patients, 24 (mean age 76 +/- 8) underwent haemodynamic evaluation eight days after the procedure. Prevalvuloplasty examination revealed a mean aortic valve gradient (MAVG) of 82 +/- 19.9 mmHg, a mean thermodilution calculated cardiac output (CO) of 3.6 +/- 0.9 l min-1 and a mean aortic valve area (VA) of 0.37 +/- 0.14 cm2. Immediate postvalvuloplasty control showed a fall in MAVG to 44.5 +/- 16.7 mmHg (P less than or equal to 0.001), a decrease in CO to 3.3 +/- 1.4 l min-1 (NS) and an increase in VA to 0.60 +/- 0.35 cm2 (P less than or equal to 0.01). Eighth-day haemodynamic control revealed an increase in MAVG to 71 +/- 18.8 mmHg (P less than or equal to 0.001), an increase in CO to 4.1 +/- 1.3 l min-1 (P less than or equal to 0.001) and a decrease in VA down to 0.47 +/- 0.10 cm2 (P less than or equal to 0.03).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Percutaneous balloon dilatation of calcific aortic valve stenosis: anatomical and haemodynamic evaluation.

Two groups of elderly patients with calcified aortic stenosis were treated by balloon dilatation. In group 1, the valve was dilated just before surgical replacement of the valve. The valvar and annular changes occurring during dilatation were examined visually. In 20 of the 26 patients in this group there was no change. In the six remaining patients mobilisation of friable calcific deposits (1 case), slight tearing of the commissure (4 cases), or tearing of the aortic ring (1 case) were seen. Dilatation did not appear to alter valvar rigidity. In 14 patients (group 2) the haemodynamic gradient across the aortic valve was measured before and immediately after dilatation and one week after the procedure. Dilatation produced an immediate significant decrease of the aortic mean gradient and a significant increase of the aortic valve area. Eight days later the mean gradient had increased and the aortic valve area had decreased. Nevertheless there was a significant difference between the initial gradient and the gradient eight days after dilatation. The initial aortic valve area was also significantly larger than the area eight days after dilatation. The aortic valve gradient rose significantly in the eight days after dilatation and at follow up the gradients were those of severe aortic stenosis.

[Isolated ostial stenosis: a peculiar anatomic form of coronary insufficiency in women]. / Les sténoses ostiales isolées: une forme anatomique particulière d'insuffisance coronaire de la femme.

We report 5 cases of isolated ostial stenosis of the left main coronary vessel. Isolated ostial stenosis occurs preferentially in young or middle aged women for whom coronary insufficiency is usually not a serious threat. Patients with this type of lesion have characteristically severe angina of relatively recent onset. The condition may be difficult to diagnose at angiography, but a fall in pressure when the tip of the catheter enters the coronary lumen beyond the stenosis, a lack of reflux of the contrast medium into the sinus of Valsalva during intracoronary injection and its persistence in the coronary vessel should alert the investigator. A pathological study of 3 cases revealed typical atheromatous lesions in 2 patients (with extension of an aortic plaque to the left coronary ostium in one, and atheroma localized on the ostium in the other) and a purely fibrous lesions in a patient who had undergone thoracic radiotherapy 5 years previously. Although relatively rare, stenosis must be diagnosed in view of its sombre spontaneous prognosis (one patient died 3 days after coronary arteriography), of the risk of underestimating its frequency, and of the hazards of selective coronary catheterization in such patients (one of our patients died 15 minutes after coronary exploration).

[Cardiac involvement in 2 cases of malignant non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Course of cardiac involvement under chemotherapy]. / Atteinte cardiaque dans deux cas de lymphomes malins non hodgkiniens. Evolution de l'atteinte cardiaque sous chimiothérapie.

In a recently published post-mortem series the incidence of cardiac lesions in malignant lymphoma was estimated at about 8.7%. These lesions rarely produce specific cardiac symptoms; they usually are late manifestations of a disease with multiple secondary lesions or are discovered at autopsy. In most patients the lesions are not limited to the heart but represent the extension to that organ of a malignant lymphoma. We observed two cases of cardiac lesions secondary to malignant non-Hodgkin lymphoma and we were able to evaluate their response to chemotherapy. In the first patient the cardiac symptoms revealed the lymphoma; in the second patient the cardiac involvement was discovered 4 years after the lymphoma was diagnosed. In both cases the cardiac lesions were detected by two-dimensional echocardiography. They presented as polypoid masses filling the right atrium and associated with periaortic thickening in the first case, and as a large heterogeneous mass including a tricuspid valve leaflet and extending to the free wall of the right ventricle in the second case. Pericardial effusion was present in the two patients. These echocardiographic findings were confirmed computerized tomography and catheterization. In the first case, followed up for one year, the echocardiographic images reverted to normality after chemotherapy. The second patient, unfortunately, did not respond to chemotherapy and deteriorated rapidly.

Anterograde percutaneous transseptal valvuloplasty in a case of severe calcific aortic stenosis.

The retrograde catheterization and percutaneous dilatation of calcific stenotic aortic valves is not always possible in elderly patients. We report the case of a 76-year old woman admitted with severe aortic stenosis in whom it was impossible to reach the left ventricle retrogradely. This led us to attempt percutaneous aortic valvuloplasty using a transseptal anterograde approach. The Mullins transseptal sheath catheter was advanced into the left ventricle and a 7 F catheter containing a long guide wire (400 cm) passed through the sheath. The flexible end of the guide wire was advanced through the aortic valve anterogradely and an angled wireloop retriever used to catch the flexible end of the guide wire and to draw it out of the body through the left femoral artery. A 7 F balloon catheter was introduced percutaneously over the long guide wire and allowed dilatation of the interatrial septum and femoral vein. A 8 F Schneider-Grüntzig catheter (80 mm) length, 19 mm diameter when inflated) was inserted anterogradely through the aortic valve over the guide wire without difficulty and the balloon catheter was inflated to a pressure of 6 atmospheres with a 30 seconds inflation-deflation cycle. Before the procedure the mean aortic valvular gradient was 114 mmHg and the aortic valve area was 0.30 cm2. After the procedure the mean aortic gradient had fallen to 60 mm Hg and the valve area had risen to 0.90 cm2. These results are comparable to those expected using the more usual retrograde balloon dilatation of the aortic valve.

[Heart involvement in carcinoid syndrome]. / Les atteintes cardiaques du syndrome carcinoïdien.

In about 50% of the cases, the carcinoid syndrome is complicated with cardiac lesions. These predominate in the right heart and consist of tricuspid and/or pulmonary valve disease, and endocarditis of the right atrium or ventricle. Two-dimensional echocardiography provides and early and accurate diagnosis of these lesions, so that surgical correction, if possible, can be performed before right cardiac failure with its high mortality rate develops.