Trends in the Detection, Management and 30-Day Outcomes of Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection: A Six-Year, New Zealand Centre Experience.

Background: Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an important but under-recognised cause of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), particularly in younger women. We assessed trends in the detection, management and outcomes of all patients with SCAD over 6 consecutive years.

Methods: All patients with first diagnosis of SCAD at Christchurch Public Hospital, New Zealand, between January 2014 and January 2020 were included.

A myeloperoxidase precursor, pro-myeloperoxidase, is present in human plasma and elevated in cardiovascular disease patients.

Myeloperoxidase (MPO)-derived oxidants have emerged as a key contributor to tissue damage in inflammatory conditions such as cardiovascular disease. Pro-myeloperoxidase (pro-MPO), an enzymatically active precursor of myeloperoxidase (MPO), is known to be secreted from cultured bone marrow and promyelocytic leukemia cells, but evidence for the presence of pro-MPO in circulation is lacking. In the present study, we used a LC-MS/MS in addition to immunoblot analyses to show that pro-MPO is present in human blood plasma.

Serial Assessment of Tissue Precursors and Progression of Coronary Calcification Analyzed by Fusion of IVUS and OCT: 5-Year Follow-Up of Scaffolded and Nonscaffolded Arteries.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess calcium growth with fused grayscale intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), IVUS-virtual histology, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) from baseline to 5-year follow-up in patients treated with bioresorbable vascular scaffolds.

Background: IVUS and OCT have individual strengths in assessing plaque composition and volume. Fusion of images obtained using these methods could potentially aid in coronary plaque assessment.

Differences in neointimal thickness between the adluminal and the abluminal sides of malapposed and side-branch struts in a polylactide bioresorbable scaffold: evidence in vivo about the abluminal healing process.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to describe the neointimal healing on the abluminal side (ABL) of malapposed (ISA) struts and nonapposed side-branch (NASB) struts in terms of coverage by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and in comparison with the adluminal side (ADL).

Background: The neointimal healing on the ABL of ISA and NASB struts has never to our knowledge been explored in vivo and could be involved in the correction of acute malapposition. The bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS) is made of a translucent polymer that enables imaging of the ABL with OCT.

3-Dimensional optical coherence tomography assessment of jailed side branches by bioresorbable vascular scaffolds: a proposal for classification.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess jailing of side branches (SB) by the everolimus-eluting, bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS) with 3-dimensional (3D) optical coherence tomography (OCT) reconstruction.

Background: Because BVS struts at the SB orifice are suspected of being bioresorbed and/or forming a neointimal bridge, OCT has been used to evaluate the struts in detail at that particular site. Our understanding of the 3D relationship of the strut and the SB orifice is limited by the use of 2-dimensional OCT images.

Factors influencing local and systemic levels of plasma myeloperoxidase in ST-segment elevation acute myocardial infarction.

Myeloperoxidase (MPO) is associated with risk in acute coronary syndromes. However, the precise role it plays in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remains unclear. In this study we tested the hypothesis that levels of MPO in plasma after a myocardial infarction are affected by its ability to bind to the endothelium and there is local release of the enzyme at the culprit lesion.

One-year clinical outcome of various doses and pharmacokinetic release formulations of paclitaxel eluted from an erodable polymer - Insight in the Paclitaxel In-Stent Controlled Elution Study (PISCES).

Aims: The one year clinical benefit of various doses and release durations of paclitaxel eluted from an erodable polymer has not been evaluated so far.

Methods And Results: Conor paclitaxel-eluting stents have intra-stent wells in which drug and polymer are deposited. Stents with six different release formulations (dose: 10 microg or 30 microg, duration: 5, 10 or 30 days, direction: mural or bidirectional) were implanted in 6 patient cohorts.

Detection of enterovirus capsid protein VP1 in myocardium from cases of myocarditis or dilated cardiomyopathy by immunohistochemistry: further evidence of enterovirus persistence in myocytes.

The association of enteroviruses with myocardial disease has been investigated extensively by molecular biological techniques to detect viral RNA, but remains controversial. This retrospective study investigated the involvement of enterovirus in myocarditis or dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) by detection of viral antigens in myocardial samples from a new patient series using an optimized immunohistochemical technique. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded biopsy, autopsy or explanted myocardial tissue samples were obtained from 136 subjects.

Vasopeptidase inhibition with omapatrilat in chronic heart failure: acute and long-term hemodynamic and neurohumoral effects.

Objectives: We investigated the acute and long-term hemodynamic and neurohumoral effects of the vasopeptidase inhibitor omapatrilat in human heart failure.

Background: Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition constitutes a major advance in the treatment of chronic heart failure (CHF). Simultaneous inhibition of both neutral endopeptidase and ACE with omapatrilat may represent a new treatment strategy in CHF.