Left atrial appendage occlusion in patients suffering from advanced chronic kidney disease (stage 4 and 5). Long-term follow-up.

Introduction And Objectives: Advanced chronic kidney disease (A-CKD) combined with atrial fibrillation increases the risk of both thrombogenic and bleeding events. Left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) may be an alternative to oral anticoagulation to prevent thromboembolic events. We aimed to evaluate the outcomes of LAAO in patients with A-CKD.

Complex Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion Using the Novel Amplatzer Steerable Delivery Sheath.

Left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion has emerged as an al- ternative to oral anticoagulation in non-valvular atrial fibril- lation. The success rate is high, but we are still facing some challenging LAA anatomies that may increase the risk of sub- optimal results. These images show that the Amplatzer steer- able sheath is useful for LAA occlusion, especially in cases with challenging anatomies.

Efficacy and safety of percutaneous patent foramen ovale closure in patients with a hypercoagulable disorder.

Background: Transcatheter closure of patent foramen ovale (PFO) in patients with cryptogenic stroke reduces the rate of recurrent events. Although presence of thrombophilia increases the risk for paradoxical emboli through a PFO, such patients were excluded from large randomized trials.

Objectives: We compared the safety and efficacy of percutaneous PFO closure in patients with and without a hypercoagulable state.

Two-year clinical outcome from the Iberian registry patients after left atrial appendage closure.

Aims: The aim of this study was to observe the percentage of thromboembolic and haemorrhagic events over a 2-year follow-up in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) undergoing closure of the left atrial appendage (LAA) with an occlusion device. Observed events and CHADS2 (congestive heart failure, hypertension, age, diabetes, stroke history), CHA2DS2-VASc (also adding: vascular disease and sex) and HAS-BLED (hypertension, abnormal liver/renal function, stroke history, bleeding predisposition, labile international normalised ratios, elderly, drugs/alcohol use)-predicted events were compared.

Methods: LAA closure with an occlusion device was performed in 167 NVAF patients contraindicated for oral anticoagulants and recruited from 12 hospitals between 2009 and 2013.

Optical coherence tomography: its value in intravascular diagnosis today.

Optical coherence tomography is a recently developed high-resolution intravascular diagnostic technique. Initially, it was mainly used for characterizing atherosclerotic plaque because it served a number of functions, from identifying plaque with high lipid content to detecting macrophage accumulation, both of which are associated with plaque instability. Currently, there is growing interest in the value of optical coherence tomography in the area of coronary intervention, where the technique offers significant advantages over more widespread intravascular diagnostic techniques such as intravascular ultrasound: its higher resolution means that the vessel lumen diameter can be measured more precisely, periprocedural complications such microdissection of the coronary artery can be detected, stent apposition relative to the vessel wall can be optimized, neointimal hyperplasia can be detected after stent implantation, and neointimal thickness can be measured.

Comparison of procedural and in-hospital outcomes of percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty in patients >80 years versus patients < or =80 years.

Percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty (PBAV) is a procedure used for palliation, bridging to surgery, and as an integral step in the procedure for percutaneous aortic valve replacement. Older patients with severe aortic stenosis are thought to have greater risk for adverse perioperative events than younger patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of patients aged >80 years and those aged < or =80 years who underwent PBAV to identify factors associated with adverse clinical outcomes.

Impact of rapid ventricular pacing during percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty in patients with critical aortic stenosis: should we be using it?

Background: Rapid ventricular pacing (RP) during percutaneous balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) facilitates balloon positioning by preventing the "watermelon seeding" effect during balloon inflation. The clinical consequences of RP BAV have never been compared with standard BAV in which rapid pacing in not used. We evaluated the immediate results and in-hospital adverse events of patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) undergoing BAV with and without RP.