Sirolimus-Coated Balloon in an All-Comer Population of Coronary Artery Disease Patients: The EASTBOURNE Prospective Registry.

Background: Drug-coated balloons (DCB) represent 1 of the most promising innovations in interventional cardiology and may represent a valid alternative to drug-eluting stents. Currently, some sirolimus-coated balloons (SCB) are being investigated for several coronary artery disease applications.

Objectives: This study sought to understand the role of a novel SCB for the treatment of coronary artery disease.

Conduction abnormalities after transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

In the last few years, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has become an alternative procedure in patients with severe aortic stenosis and high risk for surgical aortic replacement. Due to the anatomic correlation between aortic valve structure and conduction system of the heart, one of the most common complications after TAVI is conduction system disturbances which including bundle branch block, complete heart block and need for permanent pacemaker implantation. Although these disturbances are usually not lethal, they may have a great influence on patients' state and long term-survival.

Four-year clinical results of transcatheter self-expanding Medtronic CoreValve implantation in high-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis.

Background: transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has emerged as an alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement for patients with severe aortic stenosis considered inoperable or at high operative risk, but the long-term outcome remains unknown.

Hypothesis: we assessed the 4-year clinical and echocardiographic outcomes of patients undergoing TAVI with the self-expanding Medtronic CoreValve prosthesis.

Methods: sixty-three patients (mean age 80 ± 6 years) with severe aortic stenosis (AS) at high risk for surgical aortic valve replacement (Logistic EuroSCORE 28.

Management of Coronary Artery Disease and Conduction Abnormalities in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is an expanding, catheter-based technology that allows the implantation of a prosthetic valve without requiring open heart surgery for the treatment of severe aortic stenosis (AS). The frequency of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients (pts) with severe AS undergoing surgical treatment ranges from 30 to 50 %. This tends to be higher in pts undergoing TAVR with a prevalence of 49-76 % and is more prevalent with older age and the fact that TAVR is commonly performed in high-risk groups with more advanced cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance and computed tomography in the evaluation of aneurysmal coronary-cameral fistula.

Coronary artery fistulas represent abnormal communications between a coronary artery and a major vessel like venae cavae, pulmonary arteries or veins, the coronary sinus, or a cardiac chamber. The latter is called coronary cameral fistula is a rare condition and is most of the times congenital but can be also post traumatic or post surgical, especially after cardiovascular interventional procedures. Most patients are asymptomatic and coronary-cameral fistulae are discovered incidentally during angiographic evaluation for coronary vascular disorders, while other patients have a clinical presentation ranging from angina pectoris to heart failure.

The role of TNF-α, Fas/Fas ligand system and NT-proBNP in the early detection of asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction in cancer patients treated with anthracyclines.

Background: Anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity typically presents as congestive heart failure (CHF). As immuno-inflammatory activation and apoptosis are important mechanisms in the process of heart failure, the use of biomarkers that could detect cardiovascular toxicity before the clinical presentation is of great importance. We studied whether sTNF-a, sTNF-RI, sTNF-RII, Fas/FasLigand system and NT-proBNP associate with early cardiac dysfunction in patients receiving cardiotoxic drugs.

Anesthetic management of patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

Objective: To compare 2 anesthetic techniques, general anesthesia or monitored anesthesia care, performed by the same cardiac anesthesiologists for transcatheter aortic valve implantation in the authors' institution.

Design: A retrospective study.

Setting: A single specialized cardiac surgery center.

Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension in a young patient with the Cohen syndrome.

We admitted a 16-year-old boy with the Cohen syndrome to our institution for increasing dyspnoea. Investigations revealed idiopathic pulmonary hypertension. He was commenced on bosentan and oral anticoagulation and was followed up for nearly 7 years, during which he was readmitted for dynamic measurements of pulmonary artery pressure.

Unprotected left main distal bifurcation lesion.

Left main coronary artery disease is a high-risk condition with significant mortality. Currently, bypass surgery is considered the gold-standard treatment for unprotected left main disease. The introduction of drugeluting stents for the treatment of coronary artery disease has proved to reduce the rates of restenosis and, consequently, the need for repeat revascularisation; therefore, recently, percutaneous coronary intervention in the unprotected left main using drug-eluting stents has been considered another therapeutic option for patients at high risk for bypass surgery, or for patients who simply refuse bypass surgery.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation: restoring the qualities of life in old age.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a tremendous therapeutic advance for patients with severe aortic stenosis and high-surgical risk. Since TAVI-treated patients are elderly with multiple co-existing conditions, limited life expectancy and disproportionate health-care expenditures, the aspect of the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) benefits becomes of fundamental importance. Based on recent evidence, TAVI appears to improve significantly HRQoL measures compared with optimal standard care, which are restored to age-adjusted population norms over time.

Long-term quality of life improvement after transcatheter aortic valve implantation.

Background: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a novel therapeutic option for severe aortic stenosis in old patients with high surgical risk. The aim of this study was to assess changes in quality of life (QoL) along with functional status and late survival after this procedure.

Methods: Thirty-six consecutive patients (80.

Cytokine gene polymorphisms are associated with markers of disease severity and prognosis in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

Aims: To identify potential genetic associations of five cytokine gene polymorphisms with disease severity and prognosis in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).

Methods And Results: Eighty patients with DCM were genotyped for transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-β1)+869 T/C (codon10 Leu→Pro), TGF-β1 +915 G/C (codon25 Arg→Pro), interleukin (IL)-6 -174G/C, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) -308A/G, interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) +874T/A, IL-10 -1082A/G, IL-10 -819T/C and IL-10 -592A/C gene polymorphisms. In homozygous TT patients for TGF-β1 +869 T/C polymorphism mean VO(2) max was significantly higher than in CC homozygous patients (25.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation, patient selection process and procedure: two centres' experience of the intervention without general anaesthesia.

Introduction: transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an emerging technique for the treatment of aortic stenosis. With the advent of percutaneous suture devices for the access point and prosthesis delivery systems of smaller diameter, TAVI has become a truly percutaneous procedure: percutaneous aortic valve replacement (PAVR). Thus, PAVR may be conducted without general anaesthesia (GA).

Short and long term anti-inflammatory effects of bosentan therapy in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension: relation to clinical and hemodynamic responses.

Objective: We sought to investigate the short- and long- term effects of bosentan therapy on endothelial, inflammatory and fibrotic markers in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and the relation to clinical and hemodynamic responses.

Methods: We studied 16 patients with moderate-severe idiopathic PAH, in WHO functional class II-IV, despite conventional treatment. Patients received additional treatment with bosentan, 62.

Percutaneous aortic valve implantation of the Medtronic CoreValve self-expanding valve prosthesis via left subclavian artery access: the first case report in Greece.

This case report describes a percutaneous aortic valve implantation with the Medtronic CoreValve selfexpanding valve prosthesis in a patient with severe aortic stenosis. The approach was made via the left subclavian artery because of the lack of femoral vessel access. The patient was a 78-year-old female with breathlessness on minimal effort, a recent hospitalisation due to pulmonary oedema, and frequent episodes of pre-syncope; surgical valve replacement had been ruled out.

Ischaemia-modified albumin in pulmonary hypertension.

Background: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) may be associated with subendocardial ischaemia. We investigated whether ischaemia-modified albumin (IMA), an established marker of ischaemia, is elevated in stable patients with PH.

Methods: We studied 32 patients with PH and an equal number of age-matched normal volunteers.

Transfemoral percutaneous removal of a knotted Swan-Ganz catheter.

Intracardiac knotting of balloon-tipped flow-directed catheters during a heart catheterization procedure represents a rare but serious complication. In case that such an event occurs, leading to inability to remove the catheter, various different methods have been described to solve the problem, varying from the least invasive to open heart surgery. The formation of large knots requires surgical removal in the vast majority of cases.

Coronary artery perforation in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: a single-centre report.

The present study reports the incidence, management and clinical outcome of coronary perforations in 5 of 2991 patients (0.1%) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, with non-debulking (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and stent) techniques. There was 1 type I, 1 type II and 3 type III perforations.