Transcatheter aortic-valve implantation with or without on-site cardiac surgery: The TRACS trial.

Background: Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has emerged as an effective and safe treatment for patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis. The indication to TAVI should be agreed upon by a Heart Team, and the procedure should be performed in centers with on-site cardiac surgery. However, TAVI complications requiring emergent cardiac surgery (ECS) have become very rare.

Management of Acute Coronary Syndrome in Elderly Patients: A Narrative Review through Decisional Crossroads.

Diagnosis and treatment of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) pose particular challenges in elderly patients. When high troponin levels are detected, the distinction between non-ischemic myocardial injury (NIMI), type 1, and type 2 myocardial infarction (MI) is the necessary first step to guide further care. However, the assessment of signs of ischemia is hindered in older patients, and no simple clinical or laboratory tool proved useful in this discrimination task.

[Conduction disorders after transcatheter aortic valve implantation: incidence, characteristics, and clinical management].

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation may be complicated by the development of conduction disturbances, including left bundle branch block and high-grade atrioventricular blocks, especially in patients with predisposing risk factors, such as pre-existing right bundle branch block. Permanent pacemaker implantation is a procedure with potential short- and long-term complications, and it should be reserved to patients with appropriate indications. Electrophysiological testing and/or prolonged ambulatory ECG monitoring are valuable tools for stratifying the risk of pacemaker implantation.

Combined use of intra-aortic balloon pump and impella in cardiogenic shock: A systematic review.

Background: Use of Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP) in combination with Impella has been described as an alternative strategy for mechanical circulatory support (MCS) in patients with cardiogenic shock (CS). We provide a systematic review aimed to explore the effectiveness of this paired MCS approach.

Methods: We conducted a comprehensive systematic search in MEDLINE, Scopus, and Cochrane databases to identify all studies that investigated dual MCS with IABP and Impella.

Efficacy and safety of a minimalistic balloon aortic valvuloplasty strategy in a centre without heart surgery.

Background: Balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) is a palliative tool for patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis (AS) at prohibitive risk for surgery or as a bridge to surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). BAV is traditionally performed in hospitals with onsite cardiac surgery due to its potential complications.

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety of BAV procedures performed by trained high-volume operators in a centre without onsite surgery and to assess the effect of a minimalistic approach to reduce periprocedural complications.

"Safe Femoral" Artery Approach in Endovascular Procedures: A Systematic Review of Its Safety and Feasibility.

Femoral access site-related bleeding represent a prognostically impactful issue in interventional cardiology. The impact of a combined use of ultrasound guidance for femoral access and vascular closure device deployment for arteriotomy closure in femoral artery procedures on bleeding complications is still largely unknown. A systematic review was conducted on Pubmed (Medline), Cochrane library and Biomed Central databases between March and April 2023.

Percutaneous artErial closure devices and ultrasound-guided Trans-femoRal puncture ObservatioNal InvestigatiOn: Insights from the PETRONIO registry.

Objective: To evaluate the safety of a single and combined use of ultrasound-guided femoral puncture (U) and percutaneous arterial closure devices (P) in femoral artery procedures (FAP) compared to fluoroscopic guidance (F) and manual compression (M) in a large radial-focused interventional centre.

Background: U and P, taken individually, have improved safety in femoral arterial access procedures compared to traditional techniques.

Methods: All FAP performed between July 2017 and December 2018 in our centre were divided into three phases: (a) control period with F and M mainly performed; (b) phase out period where U and P were introduced; (c) intervention period where a 6-month expertise on the novel techniques was acquired.

[Relation between cardiology and cardiosurgery in a center without cardiosurgery: an organizational proposal in the coronary syndromes].

A modern cardiology department has very frequent relations with a heart surgery center for the management of stable and unstable patients with coronary artery disease. Therefore, these relations need to be formally defined. This impelling necessity stems from the clinical evidence that a high number of unstable patients need a timely revascularization as well as from the economical pressure to correctly allocate the limited surgical resources available.