Treatment of left main coronary artery lesion after late thoracic radiotherapy.

Prevention of late cardiovascular complications after radiation therapy (RT) for treatment of a malignant tumor is challenging. We report the case of a young male patient with Hodgkin's lymphoma treated with RT, who developed ischemic heart disease during follow-up, although he had no cardiovascular risk factors. We conclude that patients undergoing RT who experience chest pain should be fully investigated for coronary artery disease.

Prognostic heterogeneity among patients with chronic stable coronary disease: determinants of long-term mortality after treatment with percutaneous intervention.

Aims: To evaluate the risk and predictors of death in a large population of patients with stable coronary disease treated with percutaneous intervention.

Methods And Results: The study population comprised 1,276 patients with chronic angina or silent ischaemia who underwent elective coronary angioplasty. Baseline and in-hospital mortality data were prospectively collected for all patients during the index hospitalisation.

Myocardial bridging causing transmural ischemia. Successful coronary artery bypass surgery.

Myocardial bridging is a common and usually benign inborn coronary anomaly. We report on a 51-year-old man who presented with recent angina on minimum physical effort. Cineangiography showed myocardial bridging of the mid-left anterior descending artery (LAD), and intracoronary ultrasonography excluded atherosclerotic disease.

Angiographic segment size in patients referred for coronary intervention is influenced by constitutional, anatomical, and clinical features.

Background: Factors influencing the size of target vessels of patients referred for coronary intervention are poorly defined. We aimed to investigate in a large series of patients undergoing percutaneous intervention the relation of constitutional, anatomical, and clinical features with the reference diameter of coronary vessels treated with stenting.

Methods: A total of 4,850 de novo coronary lesions, non-ostial and non-bifurcational, located in native vessels were analyzed.

Stenting vs. balloon angioplasty with provisional stenting for the treatment of vessels with small reference diameter.

A consecutive series of interventions in vessels with reference diameter < or = 2.75 mm was retrospectively analyzed according to preprocedure strategy: balloon angioplasty with provisional stenting (PTCA group, 73 patients) and primary stenting (PS group, 122 patients). In the PS group, there were more patients with single-vessel disease (54.