Circumflex distortion following mitral valve repair.

Mitral valve repair or replacement poses a potential risk of injury to the left circumflex coronary artery (LCx). Such injuries can arise from either direct LCx injury caused by encircling or transfixing stitches, or indirect occlusion resulting from the distortion of adjacent tissues. We provide and illustrate a representative image depicting LCx distortion. Additionally, we offer guidance to aid angiographers in comprehending the angiographic appearance and the underlying mechanism of occlusion.

Mechanical circulatory support versus vasopressors alone in patients with acute myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have compared Impella use to intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) use in patients with acute myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock (AMI-CS) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Our objective was to compare clinical outcomes in patients with AMI-CS undergoing PCI who received Impella (percutaneous left ventricular assist device) without vasopressors, IABP without vasopressors, and vasopressors without mechanical circulatory support (MCS). METHODS: We queried the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) using ICD-10 codes (2015-2018) to identify patients with AMI-CS undergoing PCI. We created three propensity-matched cohorts to examine clinical outcomes in patients receiving Impella versus IABP, Impella versus vasopressors without MCS, and IABP versus vasopressors without MCS. RESULTS: Among 17,762 patients, Impella use was associated with significantly higher in-hospital major bleeding (31.4% vs. 13.6%; p < 0.001) and hospital charges (p < 0.001) compared to IABP use, with no benefit in mortality (34.1% vs. 26.9%; p = 0.06). Impella use was associated with significantly higher mortality (42.3% vs. 35.7%; p = 0.02), major bleeding (33.9% vs. 22.7%; p = 0.001), and hospital charges (p < 0.001), when compared to the use of vasopressors without MCS. There were no significant differences in clinical outcomes between IABP use and the use of vasopressor without MCS. CONCLUSIONS: In this analysis of retrospective data of patients with AMI-CS undergoing PCI, Impella use was associated with higher mortality, major bleeding, and in-hospital charges when compared to vasopressor therapy without MCS. When compared to IABP use, Impella was associated with no mortality benefit, along with higher major bleeding events and in-hospital charges. A vasopressor-only strategy suggested no difference in clinical outcomes when compared to IABP. This study uses the NIS for the first time to highlight outcomes in AMI-CS patients undergoing PCI when treated with vasopressor support without MCS, compared to Impella and IABP use.

Intravascular ultrasound-guided STAR 2.0: A new technique for chronic total occlusion recanalization.

The use of the subintimal space has allowed a massive advancement in the field of chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The STAR technique is the first of subintimal techniques. Despite a high acute success rate, follow-up results showed unfavorable outcomes with half of the treated patients showing restenosis/reocclusion at 6 months. We present three cases in which a modification of the STAR technique guided by intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), namely the STAR 2.0, was used as a bailout for successful PCI of chronic total occlusions.

Management of severe aortic stenosis in the presence of an 8 mm right coronary stent protrusion.

Management of a protruding coronary stent into the aortic root in patients undergoing evaluation for transcatheter aortic valve replacement can be challenging. We describe a patient treated with stent trimming and surgical aortic valve replacement, highlighting the importance of a multidisciplinary evaluation and selection process in this complex scenario.

Cardiovascular outcomes of complex bifurcation lesions following double kissing crush or nano-crush techniques: The multicenter EVOLUTE-CRUSH V study.

BACKGROUND: Double kissing crush (DKC) and nano-crush (NC) techniques are frequently used, but the comparison for both techniques is still lacking. The goal of this multicenter study was to retrospectively assess the midterm clinical results of DKC and NC stenting in patients with complex bifurcation lesions (CBLs). METHODS: A total of 324 consecutive patients [male: 245 (75.6%), mean age: 60.73 ± 10.21 years] who underwent bifurcation percutaneous coronary intervention between January 2019 and May 2023 were included. The primary endpoint defined as the major cardiovascular events (MACE) included cardiac death, target vessel myocardial infarction (TVMI), or clinically driven target lesion revascularization (TLR). Inverse probability weighting (IPW) was performed to reduce treatment selection bias. This is the first report comparing the clinical outcomes of DKC and NC stenting in patients with CBL. RESULTS: The initial revascularization strategy was DKC in 216 (66.7%) cases and NC in 108 (33.3%) patients. SYNTAX scores [25.5 ± 6.73 vs. 23.32 ± 6.22, p = 0.005] were notably higher in the NC group than the DKC group. The procedure time (76.98 ± 25.1 vs. 57.5 ± 22.99 min, p = 0.001) was notably higher in the DKC group. The incidence of MACE (18.5 vs. 9.7%, p = 0.025), clinically driven TLR (14.8 vs. 6%, p = 0.009), and TVMI (10.2 vs. 4.2%, p = 0.048) were notably higher in the NC group than in the DKC group. The midterm MACE rate in the overall population notably differed between the NC group and the DKC group (adjusted HR (IPW): 2.712, [95% CI: 1.407-5.228], p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: In patients with CBLs, applying the DKC technique for bifurcation treatment had better ischemia-driven outcomes than the NC technique.

Electrocautery-assisted re-entry to resolve bilateral aorto-ostial chronic total occlusions due to leaflet obstruction following transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

Coronary artery obstruction is a rare but life-threatening complication of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). While urgent percutaneous coronary intervention has been described in cases of acute occlusion, little is known about the interventional management of obstruction once it has occurred in the chronic setting. We describe a case in which electrocautery-assisted re-entry was successfully utilized to manage the right coronary artery and left main chronic total occlusion due to leaflet-induced coronary artery obstruction after TAVR.

Stingray CART (K14 technique): A novel antegrade dissection reentry strategy.

A novel device based CART technique (K14 technique) has been described with 2 case examples to illustrate the same. This CART has been performed after ADR and Reverse-CART were unsuccessful.

Risk of coronary stenosis after adjuvant radiotherapy for breast cancer.

PURPOSE: Adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) for breast cancer is associated with an increased risk of ischemic heart disease. We examined the risk of coronary artery stenosis in a large cohort of women with breast cancer receiving adjuvant RT. METHODS: A cohort of women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1992 and 2012 in three Swedish health care regions (n = 57,066) were linked to the Swedish Coronary Angiography and Angioplasty Registry (SCAAR) to identify women receiving RT who subsequently underwent a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) due to coronary stenosis. Cox regression analyses were performed to examine risk of a coronary intervention and competing risk analyses were performed to calculate cumulative incidence. RESULTS: A total of 649 women with left-sided breast cancer and 494 women with right-sided breast cancer underwent a PCI. Women who received left-sided RT had a significantly higher risk of a PCI in the left anterior descending artery (LAD) compared to women who received right-sided RT, hazard ratio (HR) 1.44 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.21-1.77, p < 0.001). For the proximal, mid, and distal LAD, the HRs were 1.60 (95% CI 1.22-2.10), 1.38 (95% CI 1.07-1.78), and 2.43 (95% CI 1.33-4.41), respectively. The cumulative incidence of coronary events at 25 years from breast cancer diagnosis were 7.0% in women receiving left-sided RT and 4.4% in women receiving right-sided RT. CONCLUSION: Implementing and further developing techniques that lower cardiac doses is important in order to reduce the risk of long-term side effects of adjuvant RT for breast cancer.

Minimalistic hybrid approach for the percutaneous treatment of chronic coronary total occlusions: An in-depth analysis of the whole algorithm.

INTRODUCTION: The minimalistic hybrid approach (MHA) is an algorithm to perform chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The current study aims to evaluate the distribution of patients among the five different treatment strategies, the different techniques used in each strategy, the overall procedural success, and the safety of the MHA algorithm. METHODS: Data from a consecutive series of patients with a CTO who underwent elective PCI between February 2019 and July 2021 were prospectively collected and retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: One hundred and forty-three CTOPCI in 135 patients were approached according to the MHA algorithm: 134 CTO (93.7%) were successfully recanalized and 9 procedures failed. About half of the procedures (48.3%) were approached using strategy A: antegrade "blind wiring" with contralateral retrograde options, making this the most popular strategy. A total of 89 procedures (62.2%) were completed with a single guiding catheter; in 86 (96.6%) a forearm approach was used. The remaining 54 cases were performed with dual access; in the majority of these patients (90.7%), a bilateral forearm approach was used. The only reason to use the femoral access was inadequate forearm access. One hundred and fifty-four out of 197 (78.2%) access sites were 6 French sheaths. CONCLUSION: MHA is a stepwise approach focused on the forearm approach to reduce the number of access sites and catheter size used in CTOPCI while maintaining proficiency and safety. Operators should be warned that this approach should be adopted only by experienced CTO operators who master all the strategies of the classic hybrid algorithm and the forearm approach.

Polymer-free Biolimus-A9 coated thin strut stents for patients at high bleeding risk 1-year results from the LEADERS FREE III study.

BACKGROUND: In patients at high bleeding risk (HBR), the LEADERS FREE (LF) trial established the safety and efficacy of a polymer-free drug coated (Biolimus-A9) stainless steel stent (SS-DCS) with 30 days of dual antiplatelet treatment (DAPT). In LEADERS FREE III, we studied a new cobalt-chromium thin-strut stent (CoCr-DCS) in HBR patients. METHODS: The CoCr-DCS shares all of the design features of the SS-DCS but has a CoCr stent platform with strut thickness of 84-88 µm. The primary safety endpoint was a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), and definite/probable stent thrombosis. The primary efficacy endpoint was clinically indicated target lesion revascularization. Outcomes were compared to those of LF (non-inferiority to SS-DCS for safety and superiority to SS-BMS for efficacy). Additional propensity-matched comparisons were performed to account for baseline differences. RESULTS: We recruited 401 HBR patients using identical criteria to the LF trial. At 1 year, the primary safety endpoint was reached by 31/401 (8.0%) of patients treated with the CoCr-DCS versus 35/401 (8.9%) for the propensity-matched cohort (HR: 0.89, [0.55-1.44], p < 0.001 for non-inferiority, 0.62 for superiority). The efficacy endpoint was reached by 16/401 (4.2%) of CoCr-DCS patients versus 41/401 (10.6%) in the propensity-matched cohort (HR: 0.4 [0.2:0.7]) (p = 0.007 for superiority). There was no statistical difference between CoCr-DCS and SS-DCS in terms of efficacy (HR: 1.46 [0.68-3.15], p = 0.33). CONCLUSIONS: The new thin-strut CoCr-DCS proved non-inferior to the SS-DCS for safety, and superior to the BMS for efficacy in HBR patients treated with 30 days of DAPT.