Socioeconomic Status and Prognosis of Patients With ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Managed by the Emergency-Intervention "Codi IAM" Network.

Background: Despite the spread of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) emergency intervention networks, inequalities in healthcare access still have a negative impact on cardiovascular prognosis. The Family Income Ratio of Barcelona (FIRB) is a socioeconomic status (SES) indicator that is annually calculated. Our aim was to evaluate whether SES had an effect on mortality and complications in patients managed by the "Codi IAM" network in Barcelona. Methods: This is a cohort study with 3,322 consecutive patients with STEMI treated in Barcelona from 2010 to 2016. Collected data include treatment delays, clinical and risk factor characteristics, and SES. The patients were assigned to three SES groups according to FIRB score. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to estimate the adjusted effect of SES on 30-day mortality, 30-day composite cardiovascular end point, and 1-year mortality. Results: The mean age of the patients was 65 ± 13% years, 25% were women, and 21% had diabetes mellitus. Patients with low SES were younger, more often hypertensive, diabetic, dyslipidemic (p < 0.003), had longer reperfusion delays (p < 0.03) compared to participants with higher SES. Low SES was not independently associated with 30-day mortality (OR: 0.95;9 5% CI: 0.7-1.3), 30-day cardiovascular composite end point (OR: 1.03; 95% CI: 0.84-1.26), or 1-year all-cause mortality (HR: 1.09; 95% CI: 0.76-1.56). Conclusion: Although the low-SES patients with STEMI in Barcelona city were younger, had worse clinical profiles, and had longer revascularization delays, their 30-day and 1-year outcomes were comparable to those of the higher-SES patients.

Two-year outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention with drug-eluting stents or bare-metal stents in elderly patients with coronary artery disease.

OBJECTIVES: Report the results at 2 years of the patients included in the SENIOR trial. BACKGROUND: Patients above 75 years of age represent a fast-growing population in the cathlab. In the SENIOR trial, patients treated by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug eluting stent (DES) and a short duration of P2Y12 inhibitor (1 and 6 months for stable and unstable coronary syndromes, respectively) compared with bare metal stents (BMS) was associated with a 29% reduction in the rate of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and ischaemia-driven target lesion revascularization (ID-TLR) at 1 year. The results at 2 years are reported here. METHODS AND RESULTS: We randomly assigned 1,200 patients (596[50%] to the DES group and 604[50%] to the BMS group). At 2 years, the composite endpoint of all-cause mortality, MI, stroke and ID-TLR had occurred in 116 (20%) patients in the DES group and 131 (22%) patients in the BMS group (RR 0.90 [95%CI 0.72-1.13], p = .37). IDTLR occurred in 14 (2%) patients in the DES group and 41 (7%) patients in the BMS group (RR 0.35 [95%CI 0.16-0.60], p = .0002). Major bleedings (BARC 3-5) occurred in 27(5%) patients in both groups (RR 1.00, [95%CI 0.58-1.75], p = .99). Stent thrombosis rates were low and similar between DES and BMS (0.8 vs 1.3%, (RR 0.52 [95%CI 0.01-1.95], p = .27). CONCLUSION: Among elderly PCI patients, a strategy combining a DES together with a short duration of DAPT is associated with a reduction in revascularization up to 2 years compared with BMS with very few late events and without any increased in bleeding complications or stent thrombosis.

EAPCI Position Statement on Invasive Management of Acute Coronary Syndromes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses an unprecedented challenge to healthcare worldwide. The infection can be life threatening and require intensive care treatment. The transmission of the disease poses a risk to both patients and healthcare workers. The number of patients requiring hospital admission and intensive care may overwhelm health systems and negatively affect standard care for patients presenting with conditions needing emergency interventions. This position statements aims to assist cardiologists in the invasive management of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. To that end, we assembled a panel of interventional cardiologists and acute cardiac care specialists appointed by the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI) and from the Acute Cardiovascular Care Association (ACVC) and included the experience from the first and worst affected areas in Europe. Modified diagnostic and treatment algorithms are proposed to adapt evidence-based protocols for this unprecedented challenge. Various clinical scenarios, as well as management algorithms for patients with a diagnosed or suspected COVID-19 infection, presenting with ST- and non-ST-segment elevation ACS are described. In addition, we address the need for re-organization of ACS networks, with redistribution of hub and spoke hospitals, as well as for in-hospital reorganization of emergency rooms and cardiac units, with examples coming from multiple European countries. Furthermore, we provide a guidance to reorganization of catheterization laboratories and, importantly, measures for protection of healthcare providers involved with invasive procedures.

A randomized multicenter trial comparing the XIENCE everolimus eluting stent with the CYPHER sirolimus eluting stent in the treatment of female patients with de novo coronary artery lesions: The SPIRIT WOMEN study.

BACKGROUND: The comparative performance of different drug-eluting stents (DES) among female patients has not been assessed in a randomized manner. OBJECTIVES: The SPIRIT Women Clinical Evaluation trial compared the durable polymer everolimus-eluting XIENCE stent (DP-EES) with the durable polymer sirolimus-eluting Cypher stent (DP-SES) in women undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS: A total of 455 female patients with stable CAD were randomly assigned to receive DP-EES (n = 304) or DP-SES (n = 151). The powered angiographic outcome of the trial was in-stent late lumen loss (LLL) at 9 months after the index procedure. Secondary angiographic end points included in-segment LLL, in-stent and in-segment binary restenosis and percent diameter stenosis. The primary clinical outcome was a composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction (MI) or target vessel revascularization (TVR). RESULTS: At 9-month follow-up, in-stent LLL was 0.19±0.38 mm and 0.11±0.37 mm in patients assigned to DP-EES and DP-SES, respectively. The one-sided upper 95% CI of the difference in in-stent LLL between the groups of 0.08 mm was 0.15 and therefore within the pre-specified non-inferiority margin of 0.17 mm (p for non-inferiority = 0.013). However, the test for superiority showed a borderline significant difference in terms of LLL between DP-EES and DP-SES (p for superiority = 0.044). There were no significant differences in binary restenosis (2.0% vs. 0.72%, p = 0.44) and percent diameter stenosis (14.97±12.17 vs. 13.36±10.82, p = 0.19). The rate of definite stent thrombosis at 12 months was lower in patients treated with DP-EES (0% vs. 2.0%, p = 0.036). CONCLUSIONS: Among women undergoing PCI, DP-EES was associated with a small but probably clinically relevant increase in in-stent LLL at 9 months as compared to DP-SES and with a lower risk of definite stent thrombosis at 12 months. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01182428. https://clinicaltrials.gov/.

Robust image-based IVUS pullbacks gating.

Intracoronary UltraSound (IVUS) imaging allows to obtain high resolution images of internal part of coronary arteries. This tool is unique in the possibility to explore internal vessel structures of the coronary wall, being a powerful tool for diagnosis. Since the coronary vessel is moving due to the periodical contraction and expansion of heart muscles, the acquired images present different artifacts. One of the most severe problems is the longitudinal oscillation of the IVUS catheter inside the vessel. To alleviate this problem, ECG-gating has been proposed. The goal of gating is to have subsequent frames that represent the internal vessel section in "stable" position and avoid the repetition of frames; that is to generate an image sequence in which the artifacts due to the heart beat have been removed while, possible translation due to vessel tortuosity can still be present. This paper presents a simple and efficient model of catheter longitudinal movement together with a fast and robust image based gating algorithm. Experimental results on 9 sequences from 7 patients, plus a comparison with ECG gating are presented.