Inflammatory risk and cardiovascular events in patients without obstructive coronary artery disease: the ORFAN multicentre, longitudinal cohort study.

Background: Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is the first line investigation for chest pain, and it is used to guide revascularisation. However, the widespread adoption of CCTA has revealed a large group of individuals without obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), with unclear prognosis and management. Measurement of coronary inflammation from CCTA using the perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI) Score could enable cardiovascular risk prediction and guide the management of individuals without obstructive CAD.

Coronary artery disease and outcomes following transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

Background: Aortic stenosis is a life-limiting condition for which transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an established therapy. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is frequently found in this patient group and optimal management in these patients remains uncertain.

Objectives: We sought to examine the association of coexistent CAD on mortality and hospital readmission in patients undergoing TAVI.

Arrhythmia and Death Following Percutaneous Revascularization in Ischemic Left Ventricular Dysfunction: Prespecified Analyses From the REVIVED-BCIS2 Trial.

Background: Ventricular arrhythmia is an important cause of mortality in patients with ischemic left ventricular dysfunction. Revascularization with coronary artery bypass graft or percutaneous coronary intervention is often recommended for these patients before implantation of a cardiac defibrillator because it is assumed that this may reduce the incidence of fatal and potentially fatal ventricular arrhythmias, although this premise has not been evaluated in a randomized trial to date.

Methods: Patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction, extensive coronary disease, and viable myocardium were randomly assigned to receive either percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) plus optimal medical and device therapy (OMT) or OMT alone.

Intra-arterial Fractional Flow Reserve Measurements Provide an Objective Assessment of the Functional Significance of Peripheral Arterial Stenoses.

Objective: Peripheral arterial stenoses (PAS) are commonly investigated with duplex ultrasound (DUS) and angiography, but these are not functional tests. Fractional flow reserve (FFR), a pressure based index, functionally assesses the ischaemic potential of coronary stenoses, but its utility in PAS is unknown. FFR in the peripheral vasculature in patients with limb ischaemia was investigated.

Clinical Utility of Novel Fractional Flow Reserve Pullback for Individual Lesion Contribution in Serial Disease.

Objectives: Fractional flow reserve (FFR) pullback is frequently used to assess serially diseased arteries, but has been shown to be inaccurate due to physiological interaction between individual lesions. We evaluated the clinical utility of a novel solution that improves estimation of true FFR contribution of each stenosis in the presence of serial disease.

Methods: Ten interventional cardiologists were presented with tiered information for 18 elective patients with serial coronary disease and submitted revascularization strategies and assessment of lesion significance.

How to select patients requiring coronary revascularisation using coronary physiology.

The coronary angiogram is an indicator of flow limiting coronary artery disease but coronary physiology at the time of angiography is vital in assessing the true functional significance of coronary artery disease. With advances in guidewire technology and the greater use of physiology within the catheter laboratory, there is now a slow evolution of physiological indices in being able to reliably assess the functional significance of individual lesions and also the adequacy of revascularization in a growing range of clinical scenarios. As co-registration of physiology with the angiogram and intravascular imaging will become easier, we will find ourselves increasingly in an era of 'Precision PCI'.

Coronary Microvascular Dysfunction Is Associated With Myocardial Ischemia and Abnormal Coronary Perfusion During Exercise.

Background: Coronary microvascular dysfunction (MVD) is defined by impaired flow augmentation in response to a pharmacological vasodilator in the presence of nonobstructive coronary artery disease. It is unknown whether diminished coronary vasodilator response correlates with abnormal exercise physiology or inducible myocardial ischemia.

Methods: Patients with angina and nonobstructive coronary artery disease had simultaneous coronary pressure and flow velocity measured using a dual sensor-tipped guidewire during rest, supine bicycle exercise, and adenosine-mediated hyperemia.

Comparison of fractional flow reserve, instantaneous wave-free ratio and a novel technique for assessing coronary arteries with serial lesions.

Aims: Physiological indices such as fractional flow reserve (FFR), instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) and resting distal coronary to aortic pressure (Pd/Pa) are increasingly used to guide revascularisation. However, reliable assessment of individual stenoses in serial coronary disease remains an unmet need. This study aimed to compare conventional pressure-based indices, a reference Doppler-based resistance index (hyperaemic stenosis resistance [hSR]) and a recently described mathematical correction model to predict the contribution of individual stenoses in serial disease.

Predicting the Physiological Effect of Revascularization in Serially Diseased Coronary Arteries.

Background: Fractional flow reserve (FFR) is commonly used to assess the functional significance of coronary artery disease but is theoretically limited in evaluating individual stenoses in serially diseased vessels. We sought to characterize the accuracy of assessing individual stenoses in serial disease using invasive FFR pullback and the noninvasive equivalent, fractional flow reserve by computed tomography (FFR). We subsequently describe and test the accuracy of a novel noninvasive FFR-derived percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) planning tool (FFR) in predicting the true significance of individual stenoses.

Revisiting the Optimal Fractional Flow Reserve and Instantaneous Wave-Free Ratio Thresholds for Predicting the Physiological Significance of Coronary Artery Disease.

Background: There has been a gradual upward creep of revascularization thresholds for both fractional flow reserve (FFR) and instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR), before the clinical outcome trials for both indices. The increase in revascularization that has potentially resulted is at odds with increasing evidence questioning the benefits of revascularizing stable coronary disease. Using an independent invasive reference standard, this study primarily aimed to define optimal thresholds for FFR and iFR and also aimed to compare the performance of iFR, FFR, and resting distal coronary pressure (Pd)/central aortic pressure (Pa).

Resting Coronary Flow Varies With Normal Cardiac Catheter Laboratory Stimuli.

Background: Growing evidence supports physiology-guided revascularization, with Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) the most commonly used invasive measure of coronary blood flow impairment at the time of diagnostic angiography. Recently, there has been growing interest in stenosis severity indices measured at rest, such as Instantaneous Wave Free Ratio (iFR) and the ratio of distal coronary to aortic pressure at rest (resting Pd/Pa). Their reliability may, theoretically, be more susceptible to changes in microvascular tone and coronary flow.

Optimal Application of Fractional Flow Reserve to Assess Serial Coronary Artery Disease: A 3D-Printed Experimental Study With Clinical Validation.

Background Assessing the physiological significance of stenoses with coexistent serial disease is prone to error. We aimed to use 3-dimensional-printing to characterize serial stenosis interplay and to derive and validate a mathematical solution to predict true stenosis significance in serial disease. Methods and Results Fifty-two 3-dimensional-printed serial disease phantoms were physiologically assessed by pressure-wire pullback (Δ FFR ) and compared with phantoms with the stenosis in isolation (Δ FFR ).

Physiology-Guided Management of Serial Coronary Artery Disease: A Review.

Importance: Ischemia-guided revascularization is the cornerstone of contemporary management of coronary artery disease and has evolved from noninvasive functional evaluation to real-time assessment with invasive physiological indices during diagnostic catheterization. However, serial/diffuse disease is common, and revascularization decisions often need to be made about individual lesions within the same vessel. It is unclear whether current physiological techniques, such as fractional flow reserve, can be reliably used to discern the individual contribution of lesions within a serially diseased vessel with erroneous measurements, potentially leading to suboptimal revascularization decisions.

Is heart rate response a reliable marker of adenosine-induced coronary hyperemia?

Introduction Growing evidence supports ischemia-guided management of chest pain, with invasive and non-invasive tests reliant upon achieving adenosine-induced coronary hyperemia (defined as increased blood flow to an organ's perfusion bed). In the non-invasive setting, surrogate markers of hyperemia, such as increases in heart rate, are often used, despite not being formally validated. We tested whether heart rate and other non-invasive indices are reliable markers of coronary hyperemia.

Physiological assessment of left main coronary artery disease.

The left main coronary artery (LMCA) is responsible for supplying the majority of the left ventricular myocardium. Visual estimation of stenosis severity on angiography has major limitations and methods to assess functional significance, such as fractional flow reserve (FFR), have been shown to yield better outcomes; however, to date, major trials examining the use of such physiological indices have excluded LMCA disease. Furthermore, LMCA disease commonly co-exists with downstream disease, which complicates the interpretation of coronary physiological data.

Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Online: What Patients Find when Searching the World Wide Web.

Background: To objectively assess the quality of information available on the World Wide Web on cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). Patients frequently search the internet regarding their healthcare issues. It has been shown that patients seeking information can help or hinder their healthcare outcomes depending on the quality of information consulted.

The failing heart: a bad case of the 'flu'.

A 24-year-old Nepali man presented to hospital with a short history of feeling unwell with a flu-like illness. He subsequently went into acute renal failure requiring several sessions of renal replacement therapy by haemofiltration. The underlying aetiology of his renal failure was unclear.

Coronary angioplasty and the internet: what can patients searching online expect to find?

Objectives: This study set out to assess the quality of online information available on coronary angioplasty.

Background: Patients searching for healthcare information frequently use the Internet. However the lay reader may not be able to discern the robustness of evidence presented.