Cholesterol Crystal Embolism in a Patient with Spontaneous Ruptured Aortic Plaques Identified by Non-Obstructive General Angioscopy.

Cholesterol crystal (CC) embolism is a disease in which CCs from atherosclerotic lesions embolize peripheral arteries, causing organ dysfunction. In this case, a patient with spontaneously ruptured aortic plaques (SRAPs) identified by non-obstructive general angioscopy (NOGA) may have developed a CC embolism. This is the first report of a CC embolism in a patient with SRAPs identified using NOGA, which further supports the previously speculated pathogenesis of CC embolism due to SRAPs.

Impact of baseline yellow plaque assessed by coronary angioscopy on vascular response after stent implantation.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between baseline yellow plaque (YP) and vascular response after stent implantation has not been fully investigated. METHODS: This was a sub-analysis of the Collaboration-1 study (multicenter, retrospective, observational study). A total of 88 lesions from 80 patients with chronic coronary syndrome who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention were analyzed. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and coronary angioscopy (CAS) were serially performed immediately and 11 months after stent implantation. YP was defined as the stented segment with yellow or intensive yellow color assessed by CAS. Neoatherosclerosis was defined as a lipid or calcified neointima assessed by OCT. OCT and CAS findings at 11 months were compared between lesions with baseline YP (YP group) and lesions without baseline YP (Non-YP group). RESULTS: Baseline YP was detected in 37 lesions (42 %). OCT findings at 11 months showed that the incidence of neoatherosclerosis was significantly higher in the YP group (11 % versus 0 %, p = 0.028) and mean neointimal thickness tended to be lower (104 ±â€¯43 µm versus 120 ±â€¯48 µm, p = 0.098). CAS findings at 11 months demonstrated that the dominant and minimum neointimal coverage grades were significantly lower (p = 0.049 and P = 0.026) and maximum yellow color grade was significantly higher (p < 0.001) in the YP group. CONCLUSIONS: Baseline YP affected the incidence of neoatherosclerosis as well as poor neointimal coverage at 11 months after stent implantation.

Association Between Aortic Wall Parameters on Multidetector Computed Tomography and Ruptured Plaques By Nonobstructive General Angioscopy.

BACKGROUND: Nonobstructive general angioscopy (NOGA) can identify vulnerable plaques in the aortic lumen that serve as potential risk factors for cardiovascular events such as embolism. However, the association between computed tomography (CT) images and vulnerable plaques detected on NOGA remains unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: We investigated 101 patients (67±11 years; women, 13.8%) who underwent NOGA and contrast-enhanced CT before or after 90 days in our hospital. On CT images, the aortic wall thickness, aortic wall area (AWA), and AWA in the vascular area were measured at the thickest point from the 6th to the 12th thoracic vertebral levels. Furthermore, the association between these measurements and the presence or absence of NOGA-derived aortic plaque ruptures (PRs) at the same vertebral level was assessed. NOGA detected aortic PRs in the aortic lumens at 145 (22.1%) of the 656 vertebral levels. The presence of PRs was significantly associated with greater aortic wall thickness (3.3±1.7 mm versus 2.1±1.2 mm), AWA (1.33±0.68 cm2 versus 0.89±0.49 cm2), and AWA in the vascular area (23.2%±9.3% versus 17.2%±7.6%) (P<0.001 for all) on the CT scans compared with the absence of PRs. The frequency of PRs significantly increased as the aortic wall thickness increased. Notably, a few NOGA-derived PRs were detected on CT in near-normal intima. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of NOGA-derived PRs was strongly associated with increased aortic wall thickness, AWA, and AWA in the vascular area, measured using CT. NOGA can detect PRs in the intima that appear almost normal on CT scans.

Coronary Angioscopy Findings before and after Excimer Laser Coronary Angioplasty for Bare-Metal Stent In-Stent Restenosis

No abstract available.

Advances in Intravascular Imaging: New Insights into the Vulnerable Plaque from Imaging Studies

The term “vulnerable plaque” denotes the plaque characteristics that are susceptible to coronary thrombosis. Previous post-mortem studies proposed 3 major mechanisms of coronary thrombosis: plaque rupture, plaque erosion, and calcified nodules. Of those, characteristics of rupture-prone plaque have been extensively studied. Pathology studies have identified the features of rupture-prone plaque including thin fibrous cap, large necrotic core, expansive vessel remodeling, inflammation, and neovascularization. Intravascular imaging modalities have emerged as adjunctive tools of angiography to identify vulnerable plaques. Multiple devices have been introduced to catheterization laboratories to date, including intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), virtual-histology IVUS, optical coherence tomography (OCT), coronary angioscopy, and near-infrared spectroscopy. With the use of these modalities, our understanding of vulnerable plaque has rapidly grown over the past several decades. One of the goals of intravascular imaging is to better predict and prevent future coronary events, for which prospective observational data is still lacking. OCT delineates microstructures of plaques, whereas IVUS visualizes macroscopic vascular structures. Specifically, plaque erosion, which has been underestimated in clinical practice, is gaining an interest due to the potential of OCT to make an in vivo diagnosis. Another potential future avenue for intravascular imaging is its use to guide treatment. Feasibility of tailored therapy for acute coronary syndromes (ACS) guided by OCT is under investigation. If it is proven to be effective, it may potentially lead to major shift in the management of millions of patients with ACS every year.

Practical Application of Coronary Imaging Devices in Cardiovascular Intervention

The significant morbidity and mortality associated with coronary artery disease has spurred the development of intravascular imaging devices to optimize the detection and assessment of coronary lesions and percutaneous coronary interventions. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) uses reflected ultrasound waves to quantitatively and qualitatively assess lesions; integrated backscatter and virtual histology IVUS more precisely characterizes plaque composition; angioscopy directly visualize thrombus and plaque; optical coherence tomography using near-infrared (NIR) light with very high spatial resolution provides more accurate images; and the recently introduced NIR spectroscopy identifies chemical components in coronary artery plaques based on differential light absorption in the NIR spectrum. This article reviews usefulness of these devices and hybrids thereof.

Treatment for chronic venous ulceration of the leg by subfascial endoscopic perforator vein surgery / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To observe the effect of subfascial endoscopic perforator vein surgery (SEPS) in the treatment of chronic venous ulceration of the legs.@*METHODS@#Chronic venous ulceration for 91 patients with 102 limbs was treated by SEPS from January 2005 to July 2008. The effect of SEPS on chronic venous ulceration of the leg, the symptoms during and after the operation, and the durations of hospital treatment were analyzed.@*RESULTS@#The symptoms of the 102 legs conducted by SEPS operation, except the pigmentation, were obviously improved (P<0.01). Its cicatrisation rate, the recrudesce rate, and the cut infection rate were 93.1%, 1.96%, and 1.0%, respectively. The time of the operation was short and the hemorrhage was small during the surgery. The durations of hospitalization and the cicatrisation time of ulceration were (6.5+/-3.4) d and (12.2+/-13.7) d, respectively.@*CONCLUSION@#SEPS is simple and effective in treating chronic venous ulceration of the leg, and particularly effective for patients classified into C5 and C6 in clinical-etiological-anatomical-pathophysiology (CEAP).

Utilidad del tratamiento quirúrgico de la epistaxis grave mediante abordaje endoscópico de las arterias esfenopalatina y etmoidal anterior / Utility of the surgical treatment for severe epistaxis by endoscopic approach of sphenopalatine and ethmoidal arteries

Introducción: Presentamos un estudio de intervención (prospectivo-retrospectivo) para valorar la eficacia y relación coste-beneficio de distintos tratamientos para el control de la epistaxis posterior grave, y en especial para determinar si la cirugía de ligadura/cauterización de las arterias esfenopalatina (SP) y etmoidal anterior (EA) puede emplearse como alternativa a los medios convencionales. Pacientes y métodos: 184 pacientes consecutivos ingresados en nuestro servicio por epistaxis posterior fueron incluidos en el estudio entre los años 1997 y 2005, y asignados a uno de los tres grupos en función del último tratamiento que recibieron para el control de su sangrado: TA.- taponamiento anterior (98 pacientes); TP.- taponamiento posterior (66 pacientes); CE.- cirugía de ligadura/cauterización de las arterias SP y EA (20 pacientes). Resultados: Se encontraron diferencias altamente significativas entre los distintos tratamientos tanto en la eficacia (90% de la cirugía comparada con un 41,3% del taponamiento anterior y un 63,1% del posterior), tanto en lo que se refiere a la estancia media postratamiento (TA.-4,92 días; TP.- 6,3 días; CE.- 2,15 días). Discusión y conclusiones: La necesidad de repetición de los tratamientos en el control de la epistaxis posterior grave y el aumento de los factores de riesgo que la condicionan, junto con el avance de las técnicas endoscópicas y anestésicas, hacen posible la aplicación de una solución quirúrgica que demuestra una mayor eficacia y un acortamiento evidente de la estancia hospitalaria de estos pacientes. Los resultados de este estudio demuestran la viabilidad de estas técnicas como alternativa a los tratamientos convencionales, e incluso su conveniencia ética y económica como sustitutivas del taponamiento posterior

Introduction: To evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the treatments used for controlling epistaxis, particularly compared with the surgical endoscopic ligation or cauterization of sphenopalatine (SP) and anterior ethmoid (AE) arteries, a intervention prospective-retrospective study is presented with the aim of assessing the feasibility of these surgical techniques as an alternative to conventional treatments. Patients and methods: 184 consecutive patients admitted in the ENT ward between the years 1997 and 2005 were included in the study, and distributed into three groups depending on the last treatment applied to control their bleeding: AP group.- anterior packing (n=98); PP group.- posterior packing (n=66), and ES group.- endoscopic ligation and/or cauterization of SP or AE (n=20). Results: Highly significant differences were found between the groups, not only regarding the efficacy (90% for surgical treatment compared with 41.3% for AP and 63.1% for PP), but also the length of postreatment hospital stay (AP.- 4.92 days; PP.- 6.3 days; ES.- 2.15 days). Discussion and conclusions: the lack of efficacy of conventional treatment and the increasing risk factors that condition nasal bleeding, together with the advance of endoscopic and anesthesic procedures have brought along the possibility of a surgical solution for these patients. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of these techniques as alternative for nasal packing in the treatment of posterior epistaxis, and even its ethical and economical convenience as a substitutive to posterior packing

Tratamiento endovascular de las lesiones de la aorta torácica: estado actual / Endovascular treatment of thoracic aorta lesions: an update

No disponible

Exploration on the relationship between thrombosis and stability of coronary atherosclerotic plaque in patients with unstable angina pectoris / 中华心血管病杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the correlation between thrombosis and stability of atherosclerotic plaque within criminal vessels in patients with unstable angina pectoris (UAP) by coronary angioscopy, to explore the clinical pathological basis for acute coronary syndromes (ACS).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Sixty-eight patients with UAP were enrolled, the patients with post-infarction angina pectoris and variant angina pectoris were excluded. There were 48 males and 20 females, aged from 40 to 73 (average 62.4 +/- 8.6) years. The criminal vessels of there patients were observed by coronary angioscopy during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) therapy.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There were 68 criminal vessels in 68 patients. Atherosclerotic plaques were observed in all criminal vessels. Among criminal vessels, thrombi and intimae lesions were detected in 63 cases and 46 cases, respectively. Among 68 cases with atherosclerotic plaques, there were 48 cases of yellow plaques (70.5%), 18 cases of light yellow plaques (26.5%) and 2 cases of white plaques (2.94%). Sixty-three thrombi cases were mural and on-occlusive, which included 11 cases of red or mixed thrombi (17.5%) and 52 cases of white or pink thrombi (82.5%). All intimae lesions were accompanied by thrombosis, which included 11 cases of red or mixed thrombi (23.9%) and 35 cases of white or pink thrombi (76.1%).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The study has shown that the rupture of unstable yellow plaque and its thrombosis were the pathological basis of UAP. Therefore, stabilizing yellow plaque before its rupture may play critical role in prevention and treatment of ACS.</p>

Hematoma aórtico intramural (HAI) tipo A con resolución espontánea

No disponible

Clinical Usefulness of Virtual Angioscopy Using 3D MR Angiography DICOM Images / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate of virtual angioscopy was implemented using MR(magnetic resonance) angiography image of carotid artery. METHODS: The endoscopy system provides a 3D volume rendered image as a navigation map and has the multi planar reformation image along the path and a 2D axial image as a reference image. We segmented the common carotid artery and internal, external carotid artery from the MR angiography image. We used the coordinates as a navigation path for virtual camera that were calculated from medial axis transformation. We used the perspective projection and marching cube algorithm to render the surface from volumetric MR angiography image data. RESULTS: The virtual angioscopy is highly recommended as a diagnosis tool with which the specific place of stenosis can be identified and the degree of stenosis can be measured qualitatively. CONCLUSION: Virtual angioscopy is one of the powerful tool for non-invasive carotid artery and many in-vitro, in-vivo studies have shown the artery stenosis detection. Inside of the carotid artery is one of the body region not accessible by real optical endoscopy but can be visualized with virtual endoscopy.

Aspectos hemodinâmicos da ruptura da placa e implicações para o tratamento percutâneo / Hemodynamic aspects of the atherosclerotic plaque ruptureand implications for percutaneous intervention

São abordados os mecanismos que contribuem para a instabilização da placa aterosclerótica, assim como são conceituadas as lesões angiograficamente complexas, as placas particularmente vulneráveis à ruptura e as placas estáveis. As limitações da coronariografia na definição prognóstica dos ateromas são justificadas e, dentre as novas modalidades diagnósticas intravasculares, discutiu- se a importância da angioscopia coronária. Finalmente, do ponto de vista terapêutico, são enfatizadas a aplicabilidade e a eficácia da intervenção coronária percutânea nos quadros relacionados a síndromes isquêmicas miocárdicas instáveis...

The recent study and key technologies of an aided endoscopic surgical robot system / 中国医疗器械杂志

This paper introduces the recent study and development of an aided endoscopic surgical robot system, and discusses its future trends--teleoperative robot system and telesurgery system. In addition, their key technologies are analyzed here in the paper.

Hematuria por fístula arterioureteral. Tratamiento endovascular / Hematuria for arterioureteral fistula. Endovascular treatment

Se presenta el caso clínico de una paciente con hematuria macroscópica anemizante, causada por la presencia de una fístula entre la arteria iliaca externa y el uréter. Tras su diagnóstico, se realizó un tratamiento mediante abordaje endovascular. Las fístulas arterioureterales son una rara entidad, que supone una urgencia vital. Su diagnóstico debe basarse en la sospecha clínica (falta de datos en las exploraciones complementarias). Su tratamiento clásico ha sido la cirugía abierta, pero el abordaje endovascular debe ser valorado dada su menor agresividad (AU)

Derivación aorta torácica descendente bifemoral para salvamento de extremidades inferiores / Descending thoracic aortabifemoral bypass to save lower extremities

Cuando la aorta abdominal no es un sitio con flujo adecuado o es técnicamente inaccesible para derivar el flujo a las extremidades inferiores por representar un alto riesgo secundario a múltiples situaciones complejas, se justifica el recurso de las derivaciones extraanatómicas en pacientes apropiadamente seleccionados con resultados de baja morbilidad y mortalidad, mejor calidad de vida y menores costos en comparación con la amputación de extremidades inferiores.Presentamos el caso de un paciente sometido a derivación aorta torácica descendente bifemoral (DATDB) como una alternativa satisfactoria de manejo diferente a las derivaciones extraanatómicas convencionales utilizadas en nuestro medio, con mayor permeabilidad reportada por tener flujo directo de la aorta y sin incremento de la morbilidad y de la mortalidad.

Clinical Study of Acute Arterial Occlusion of Lower Extremities

PURPOSE: The major source of acute peripheral arterial occlusion has been embolization from the heart. However overall improvement in medical care have increased life spans, resulting in significant increase in the incidence of systemic atherosclerosis and thrombotic occlusion of peripheral vessels. Recently, occlusion from in situ thrombosis has surpassed occlusion from embolization as the major cause of acute arterial occlusion. The introduction of the balloon catheter technique in 1963 dramatically simplified the technical aspect of surgical therapy for acute arterial occlusion and it became the main modality of the therapy. Recently, numerous reports have documented increased identification of intraluminal defects after arterial surgery using angioscopy as compared with those using intraoperative arteriography, and for this reason, the use of intraluminal angioscopy has grown in popularity. METHODS: We analyzed clinical characteristics and treatment results in patients with acute arterial occlusion. The variables studied include location, etiology, time interval from occurrence of occlusion to performance of thromboembolectomy. RESULTS: There were 41 men and 4 women and most prevalent age group was in 7th decades. The causes of acute arterial occlusion were embolism in 21 cases (46.7%), thrombosis in 24 cases (53.3%). The primary source of embolism was heart in 20 cases as a result of ischemic heart disease (n=11, 52.4%) and atrial fibrillation (n=9, 42.9%). Two patients in embolic group died of cardiogenic shock and were in shorter duration group (<24 hours). Iliac arterial occlusion group was associated with highest amputation rate (23.1%). Amputation rates were 12.5% for thromboembolectomy performed within 24 hours of onset of symptoms, and 17.4% when performed after 48 hours. We used angioscopic technique in limited cases of 5 patients to detect residual thrombus, intimal flap and other intraluminal defects. CONCLUSION: To improve outcome, early diagnosis and early treatment are essential. Direct visualization of the arterial lumen with angioscopy during thromboembolectomy procedure would provide a more reliable method of assessing luminal morphologic characteristics than angiography alone.