A reliable fossa ovalis impedance mapping for safer transseptal puncture: A new vision beyond voltage.

Introduction: Transseptal puncture (TSP) is widely used in clinical practice but is negatively affected by a nonneglectable rate of complications and X-ray exposure. To address these problems, we investigated whether or not impedance mapping could correctly identify fossa ovalis (FO) and safely guide TSP.

Methods And Results: Electroanatomic mapping was performed with CARTO 3 system version 7 and a ThermoCool® SmartTouch® mapping catheter was employed.

Drug eluting balloon for the treatment of patients with coronary artery disease: Current perspectives.

Despite the improvement of outcomes after the introduction of bare metal and drug eluting stents for the treatment of CAD, certain type of patients have still an increased risk of stent failure. An alternative is represented by drug-eluting balloons (DEB). This innovation could give potential benefits in particular for the in-stent restenosis (ISR) and the de-novo lesions.

Drug-coated balloon: Long-term outcome from a real world three-center experience.

Objectives: In-stent restenosis (ISR) and diffuse small vessel disease still represent challenging subsets for percutaneous coronary interventions, also in the new-generation DES era. We aim at reporting on the long-term clinical outcome of drug-coated balloons (DCB) in all-comers population.

Methods: Consecutive patients treated with DCB between January 2011 and December 2014 were retrospectively studied in three centers of northern Italy.

Ajmaline Challenge To Unmask Infrahisian Disease In Patients With Recurrent And Unexplained Syncope, Preserved Ejection Fraction, With Or Without Conduction Abnormalities On Surface ECG.

Pharmacological challenge with class I antiarrhythmic drug is a recommended diagnostic test in patients with unexplained syncope only in the presence of bundle branch block, when non-invasive tests have failed to make the diagnosis. Its role in patients with minor or no conduction disturbances on 12-leads ECG has not been evaluated yet. It is also not clear which are the values of His-Ventricular interval to be considered diagnostic.