Successful Retrieval of Entrapped Guide Extension Catheter in the Right Coronary Artery with Heavy Calcifications.

Usage of an optimal guide extension catheter often helps successful outcomes in complex percutaneous coronary intervention. Here, we report a case of successfully retrieving a guide extension catheter entrapped by a coronary stent in the middle RCA. The guide extension catheter was retrieved by anchoring with the stent delivery balloon.

Controlled antegrade intimal tracking with subintimal balloon inflation as a novel bailout technique for chronic total occlusion after failed intravascular ultrasound-guided parallel wire technique.

Failure to cross with a guidewire is the most common reason for failure of chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). In cases of CTO PCI with no interventional collaterals, an intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided parallel wire technique is usually the last-resort procedure. Failure of this technique sometimes causes enlarged subintimal space, resulting in procedure failure.

Clinical outcome in patients with paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation receiving bepridil.

Background: It is unknown whether bepridil improves cardiovascular events in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, so this study evaluated the clinical outcome in paroxysmal or persistent AF patients receiving bepridil.

Methods And Results: We conducted a cohort study of 284 consecutive patients who received bepridil for AF (25% female, 5913 years) with a median follow-up period of 17 months (4-157 months). A total of 135 (48%) patients had structural heart disease, and 231 patients (81%) had previously received class I or class III antiarrhythmic drugs.

Amiodarone decreases plasma brain natriuretic peptide level in patients with heart failure and ventricular tachyarrhythmia.

Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a powerful neurohormonal marker of left ventricular function and prognosis. Amiodarone either has no effect or improves the haemodynamics in patients with left ventricular dysfunction, but its effect on BNP is unknown. This study evaluated the effect of amiodarone on plasma BNP level in patients with heart failure and ventricular tachyarrhythmia.

Amiodarone distribution in human tissues after long-term therapy: a case of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.

The tissue distribution of amiodarone and desethylamiodarone, its active metabolite, was examined in an autopsied case, an 85-year-old man, with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) who had been receiving amiodarone for 4 years. High concentrations of amiodarone, a very highly lipophilic compound, were found in adipose and bone marrow tissues. Despite a low dose (100 mg daily), the concentrations of amiodarone were higher in the epicardial fat (570.

Effect of low-dose amiodarone on atrial fibrillation or flutter in Japanese patients with heart failure.

The efficacy and safety of amiodarone in the management of atrial fibrillation (AF) or flutter in 108 Japanese patients with heart failure was retrospectively examined. Thirty-four (41%) of the 82 patients who were in sinus rhythm after 1 month of amiodarone administration had their first recurrence, 70% of cases occurring within 1 year of initiation. The cumulative rates of maintenance of sinus rhythm were 0.