[Drug-eluting stents in contemporary interventional practice: the STENT PANORAMA project (Part I)].

STENT PANORAMA is a project carried out by the Young Interventional Cardiologists of Triveneto coordinated by the Italian Society of Interventional Cardiology (GISE) Veneto delegation. The project includes two parts: the first, here reported, is aimed at describing in a standardized and easily usable way the main technological characteristics of the latest generation of the drug eluting stents (DES) that are most widely used in the Italian cath-labs. The second, to follow, will aim to summarize the main scientific evidence regarding the performance of individual devices with particular reference to subgroups of clinical interest.

"Cardiac allograft vasculopathy: Pathogenesis, diagnosis and therapy".

Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) is a unique form of accelerated atherosclerosis that represents the main late cause of morbidity and mortality, affecting almost half patients at ten years after heart transplantation (HTx). Unless the pathogenesis of CAV is still not completely understood, it seems to be the result of a complex interplay between immunological and non-immunological factors that induce endothelial injury. Histologically epicardial and intramural vessels present a concentric circumferential intimal thickening caused by smooth muscle cell proliferation, inflammatory cells, and lipid deposition.

Impella-protected PCI: the clinical results achieved so far.

The ability of interventional cardiologists to identify high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) patients, requires the integration of different features belonging to medical history, organ damage, coronary anatomy and the nature of the acute event. The selection of a subgroup of patients that could benefit from mechanical support during interventions is a key feature to success. The introduction of the Impella percutaneous axial pump have added an easy-to-set-up, less invasive and time-consuming active-support device to the interventional toolbox.

Impact of baseline hemorrhagic risk on the benefit of bivalirudin versus unfractionated heparin in patients treated with coronary angioplasty: a meta-regression analysis of randomized trials.

Background: Bivalirudin significantly reduces 30-day major and minor bleeding compared with unfractionated heparin (UFH), while resulting in similar or lower rates of ischemic events in both patients with stable and unstable coronary disease undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. We performed a meta-analysis of randomized trials to evaluate the impact of bivalirudin compared with UFH, with or without glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitors (GPI), on the rates of mortality, myocardial infarction (MI), and major bleeding.

Methods: We searched electronic databases for randomized controlled trials with >100 patients comparing bivalirudin (±provisional GPI) with UFH with either routine or provisional GPI in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.

Development of anthropomorphic hand phantoms for personal dosimetry in 90Y-Zevalin preparation and patient delivering.

Anthropomorphic tissue-equivalent hand phantoms were achieved to measure the extremity dose involved in Zevalin (90)Y-labelling and patient delivering procedure for radioimmunotherapy treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The extremity doses to hands and wrists of operators were measured by using thermoluminescent detectors mounted on the developed phantoms. Measurements of chest- and lens-equivalent doses performed on a Rando phantom are also reported.

A neutron dosemeter for nuclear criticality accidents.

A neutron dosemeter which offers instant read-out has been developed for nuclear criticality accidents. The system is based on gels containing emulsions of superheated dichlorodifluoromethane droplets, which vaporise into bubbles upon neutron irradiation. The expansion of these bubbles displaces an equivalent volume of gel into a graduated pipette, providing an immediate measure of the dose.

Efficacy of a washer-pasteurizer for disinfection of respiratory-care equipment.

We evaluated the efficacy of a commercial washer-pasteurizer. Carriers were inoculated with 10(4) to 10(6) test organisms and pasteurized at 170 degrees F for 30 minutes. Pasteurization eliminated all test organisms with the exception of Bacillus subtilis spores.