Diagnostic criteria for Buerger's disease: International Consensus of VAS - European Independent Foundation in Angiology/Vascular Medicine.

Buerger's disease (BD) remains a debilitating condition and early diagnosis is paramount for its effective management. Despite many published diagnostic criteria for BD, selective criteria have been utilized in different vascular centers to manage patients with BD worldwide. A recent international Delphi Consensus Study on the diagnostic criteria of BD showed that none of these published diagnostic criteria have been universally accepted as a gold standard. Apart from the presence of smoking, these published diagnostic criteria have distinct differences between them, rendering the direct comparison of patient outcomes difficult. Hence, the expert committees from the Working Group of the VAS-European Independent Foundation in Angiology/Vascular Medicine critically reviewed the findings from the Delphi study and provided practical recommendations on the diagnostic criteria for BD, facilitating its universal use. We recommend that the 'definitive' diagnosis of BD must require the presence of three features (history of smoking, typical angiographic features and typical histopathological features) and the use of a combination of major and minor criteria for the 'suspected' diagnosis of BD. The major criterion is the history of active tobacco smoking. The five minor criteria are disease onset at age less than 45 years, ischemic involvement of the lower limbs, ischemic involvement of one or both of the upper limbs, thrombophlebitis migrans and red-blue shade of purple discoloration on edematous toes or fingers. We recommend that a 'suspected' diagnosis of BD is confirmed in the presence of a major criterion plus four or more minor criteria. In the absence of the major criterion or in cases of fewer than four minor criteria, imaging and laboratory data could facilitate the diagnosis. Validation studies on the use of these major and minor criteria are underway.

Recurrent coronary stent thromboses and myocardial infarctions.

Although stent thrombosis is a recognized complication of coronary intervention, recurrent stent thrombosis is rarely reported. We present a patient who suffered 3 ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctions associated with repeated stent thromboses within a month and a half. Although a potentially mechanical cause of thrombosis was identified in the only baremetal stent implanted in this case, no predisposing factors were seen for the 2 drug-eluting stents (DES). While recent worrisome data have suggested a slight increase in the incidence of late angiographic stent thrombosis (defined as occurring beyond 30 days) with drug-eluting stents (DES), their risk of subacute thrombosis (from 1 to 30 days) is reported to be equivalent to that of BMS. Therefore, this rare occurrence serves as a sobering reminder of the risks of subacute thrombosis with both BMS and DES. Marked neointimal inhibition, allergic reactions, as well as thienopyridine resistance, may all contribute to the pathophysiology of DES thrombosis. The Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has concluded that when these devices are used for "on-label" indications, the counterbalance of dramatic target lesion revascularization reduction versus rare incidence of late angiographic stent thrombosis results in no overall increase in DES myocardial infarction or mortality risk. Furthermore, a minimum of 1 year of dual antiplatelet therapy is recommended for all recipients of DES at low risk of bleeding.

Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography with a special focus on a patient undergoing advanced robotic-assisted procedures.

Intraoperative echocardiography (IOE) has earned a major role in surgical decision-making and helps the cardiac surgeon decide and proceed with appropriate intervention based on the visualized pathology. With the advent of minimally invasive surgical techniques and robotic-assisted operations, more emphasis and dependence has been placed on IOE. We describe our experience with IOE during mitral valve repair at our center, which is one of the pioneer centers for these telemanipulation techniques.