Effect of the ratio of coronary arterial lumen volume to left ventricle myocardial mass derived from coronary CT angiography on fractional flow reserve.

Background: We hypothesize that in patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD), lower values of the ratio of total epicardial coronary arterial lumen volume to left ventricular myocardial mass (V/M) result in lower fractional flow reserve (FFR).

Methods: V/M was computed in 238 patients from the NXT trial who underwent coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA), quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) and FFR measurement in 438 vessels. Nitroglycerin was administered prior to CT, QCA and FFR acquisition.

Mitral repair with the Evalve MitraClip device: histopathologic findings in the porcine model.

Introduction: Percutaneous mitral repair with the MitraClip device ("clip") is currently being evaluated in a Phase II clinical trial (EVEREST II). This device was evaluated in an animal model prior to use in humans.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-one excised clips with accompanying leaflet tissue from pigs were examined at 4, 12, 17, 24, and 52 weeks.

Percutaneous treatment of valvular heart disease: catheter-based aortic valve replacement and mitral valve repair therapies.

Until recently, percutaneous catheter therapy for valvular heart disease was limited to catheter balloon valvuloplasty for aortic, mitral, or pulmonic stenosis. A number of new approaches to percutaneous valve therapy are now developing rapidly, including methods for catheter-based valve replacement and repair. Stent-mounted valve prostheses have been successfully implanted in the pulmonic and aortic positions.

Percutaneous mitral valve repair using the edge-to-edge technique: six-month results of the EVEREST Phase I Clinical Trial.

Objectives: This study sought to evaluate the clinical results of a percutaneous approach to mitral valve repair for mitral regurgitation (MR).

Background: A surgical technique approximating the middle scallops of the mitral leaflets to create a double orifice with improved leaflet coaptation was introduced in the early 1990s. Recently, a percutaneous method to create the same type of repair was developed.