Implementation of ultraportable echocardiography in an adolescent sudden cardiac arrest screening program.

Background: Over a 12-month period, adolescent heart-screening programs were performed for identifying at-risk adolescents for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in our community. Novel to our study, all adolescents received an abbreviated, ultraportable echocardiography (UPE). In this report, we describe the use of UPE in this screening program.

Tracheobronchial Wallstents for degenerated saphenous vein bypass grafts.

The tracheobronchial Wallstent was employed as an endoluminal prosthesis in degenerated saphenous vein bypass grafts in three patients. This Wallstent has unique characteristics that make it potentially useful in patients with vein graft disease.

Incidence and angiographic predictors of side branch occlusion following high-pressure intracoronary stenting.

We evaluated the incidence, angiographic predictors, and clinical outcome of side branch occlusion (SBO) following high-pressure intracoronary stenting in 175 patients. All stent implants during a 7-month period were reviewed for the incidence of major (>1 mm) SBO. Side branches were further characterized based on side branch and index lesion morphology.

Treatment of no-reflow in degenerated saphenous vein graft interventions: comparison of intracoronary verapamil and nitroglycerin.

No-flow has been reported after 10-15% of percutaneous interventions on degenerated saphenous vein grafts. In this prospective study of 36 degenerated saphenous vein graft lesions (32 patients), no-flow (TIMI flow < 3 in the absence of a significant lesion or dissection) occurred in 15/36 (42%) lesions. A total of 32 episodes of no-flow occurred after angioscopy (n = 14), extraction atherectomy (n = 10), balloon angioplasty (n = 2) or stent implantation (n = 6).