Why We Need Specialised Centres for Women's Hearts: Changing the Face of Cardiovascular Care for Women.

Although cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in women globally, cardiovascular care for women remains suboptimal, with poorer outcomes than for men. During the past two decades, there has been an incremental increase in research and publications on CVD in women, addressing sex-specific risk factors, symptoms, pathophysiology, treatment, prevention and identification of inequities in care. Nonetheless, once women have manifested CVD, they continue to have increasingly worse outcomes than men.

Sexism experienced by consultant cardiologists in the United Kingdom.

Objectives: The aims were to compare the frequency with which male and female cardiologists experience sexism and to explore the types of sexism experienced in cardiology.

Methods: A validated questionnaire measuring experiences of sexism and sexual harassment was distributed online to 890 UK consultant cardiologists between March and May 2018. χ tests and pairwise comparisons with a Bonferroni correction for multiple analyses compared the experiences of male and female cardiologists.

Cardiac Biomarkers in Emergency Care.

This article critically reviews the latest evidence to guide the use of biomarkers for the diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes in practice. It shows how modern cardiac troponin assays can enable diagnoses to be ruled in or ruled out with a single blood test, with many more diagnoses confirmed or refuted in as little as 1 hour later. Finally, this article appraises the latest evidence for other cardiac biomarkers, such as heart-type fatty acid-binding protein and copeptin.

Forward and back aspiration during ST-elevation myocardial infarction: a feasibility study.

Aims: The inability to optimise stent expansion fully whilst simultaneously preventing distal embolisation during ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remains a clinical conundrum. We aimed to describe a newly devised angiographic strategy of "forward" and "back" aspiration that leads to more complete thrombus removal and prevention of distal embolisation, to allow high-pressure post-dilatation of the implanted stent to be performed.

Methods And Results: Forward aspiration was conducted with a conventional aspiration thrombectomy catheter, with bail-out aspiration thrombectomy for angiographically persistent thrombus utilising the larger bore 6 Fr (0.

Prognostic Significance of Polymer Coatings in Zotarolimus-Eluting Stents.

Polymer coatings on drug-eluting stents (DES) serve as a vehicle for delivery of antirestenotic drugs. Whether they influence outcomes for contemporary DES is unknown. The evolution of polymer coatings for zotarolimus-eluting stents (ZES) provides a natural experiment that facilitates such analysis.

A life-saving case of Dressler's syndrome.

Myocardial rupture is an uncommon and life threatening event which may occur in the setting of acute myocardial infarction. In this case report we describe a rare instance of a patient presenting with signs of ventricular rupture as a late presentation of myocardial infarction. The findings of cardiac computed tomography are demonstrated as well as intra-operative images.

Angiographic right heart hypermobility as a sign of non-cardiac pathology in the setting of ST elevation.

Esophageal perforation (Boerhaave's syndrome) is a severe life-threatening disorder. Diagnosis and treatment are often delayed due to the wide variety of presenting symptoms. This case report details an unusual presentation of Boerhaave's syndrome in a 48-year-old man mimicking an acute anterior myocardial infarction.

Matrix metalloproteinase inhibition protects CyPD knockout mice independently of RISK/mPTP signalling: a parallel pathway to protection.

The mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) is widely accepted as an end-effector mechanism of conditioning protection against injurious ischaemia/reperfusion. However, death can be initiated in cells without pre-requisite mPTP opening, implicating alternate targets for ischaemia/reperfusion injury amelioration. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) are known to activate extrinsic apoptotic cascades and therefore we hypothesised that MMP activity represents an mPTP-independent target for augmented attenuation of ischaemia/reperfusion injury.

Emergency percutaneous coronary intervention to a rare coronary anomaly.

An anomalous single coronary artery is a rare finding, which occurs with a frequency reported to be between 0.024% and 0.066%.

Coronary perforation in the drug-eluting stent era: incidence, risk factors, management and outcome: the UK experience.

Aims: Coronary perforation during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is associated with a high risk of mortality and morbidity. However there has been little data on perforation in the current era despite significant changes in PCI practice. We set out to identify incidence, risk factors and management strategies of coronary perforation in the current era.

Use of the sheathless guide catheter during routine transradial percutaneous coronary intervention: a feasibility study.

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using a 6.5 Fr sheathless guide catheter as a default system in transradial (TRA) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Background: TRA PCI has been shown to reduce mortality rates through a reduction in access site related bleeding complications compared with procedures performed though a femoral approach.

Use of the Heartrail II catheter as a distal stent delivery device; an extended case series.

Aims: The Terumo Heartrail catheter (Terumo Corp., Tokyo, Japan) allows extra deep catheter intubation of coronary vessels and has been shown to be useful in CTO lesions. The aim of this study is to assess the safety and efficacy of using the Heartrail II catheter as a distal stent delivery system in PCI following failure of conventional techniques.

Management of Non-STEMI and suspected Acute Coronary Syndrome.

1. Patients presenting with ACS are at high risk of subsequent events and if ischaemic sounding chest pain is associated with either a raised troponin, dynamic ECG changes or other high risk features, inpatient coronary angiography should be arranged within 72 hours. 2.

Successful percutaneous closure of coronary artery fistula with angiographic follow-up at 6 months.

Congenital coronary artery fistula can present later in life. We describe a case in a 56 year old, who was managed percutaneously with coil embolization leading to complete closure of the fistula, which was confirmed by follow-up angiography at 6 months.