Comparison of efficacy and safety of intracoronary sodium nitroprusside and intravenous adenosine for assessing fractional flow reserve.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of intracoronary (IC) nitroprusside and intravenous adenosine (IVA) for assessing fractional flow reserve (FFR).

Background: IV infusion of adenosine is a standard method to achieve a coronary hyperemia for FFR measurement. However, adenosine is expensive, causes multiple side effects, and is contraindicated in patients with reactive airway disease.

The functional SYNTAX score - a huge step forward or research in motion?

In a recent manuscript in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the newly introduced "functional SYNTAX score" (FSS) was found to be a better tool to assess the extent and severity of coronary artery disease than the SYNTAX score (SS) and has reclassified 1/3 of the studied cohort into lower-risk categories. Besides being more invasive, costly, and time consuming, FSS still suffers from inherent deficiencies of its own. Like SS, FSS does not incorporate clinical risk predictors and consequently is a suboptimal tool for predicting PCI risk.

Recurrent strokes in a young patient with papillary fibroelastoma: a case report and literature review.

Since the introduction of echocardiography the diagnosis of papillary fibroelastomas (PFEs) in living patients has increased. They are second most common after myxomas representing 10% of cardiac tumors. The present case is of a patient with recurrent cerebrovascular accidents and documented protein S deficiency who continued to stroke despite adequate anticoagulation.

Ablation of atrial-ventricular junction tissues via the coronary sinus using cryo balloon technology.

Introduction: The coronary sinus (CS) can provide access to targets across and within the atrioventricular (AV) junction.

Methods: In 12 dogs (32 +/- 3 Kg), cryo balloons (10-19 mm) were applied to regions of the AV junction for 3 minutes at a temperature of -75.9( composite function) +/- 9(composite function)C (ranging -57 to -83).