Large-field intravascular ultrasound for annular sizing and predicting paravalvular regurgitation during TAVR: comparisons with multidetector computed tomography and transoesophageal echocardiography.

Aims: The use of contrast media with multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) may induce acute kidney injury in patients with renal failure undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). We investigated the role of large-field intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) vs. MDCT and two-dimensional transoesophageal echocardiography (2D-TEE) for annular sizing and predicting paravalvular regurgitation (PVR) during TAVR.

Impact of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement on Surgical Volumes and Outcomes in a Tertiary Academic Cardiac Surgical Practice.

Background: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) was FDA approved for the Sapien valve (Edwards Lifesciences) in the United States in November 2011. We sought to examine the impact of TAVR post-FDA approval on aortic valve surgery at our institution.

Study Design: Prospective data were collected on 573 consecutive patients that underwent surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or TAVR with either the Sapien or Sapien XT from January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2014.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement program in the post-food and drug administration approval era: early outcomes at an academic medical center.

Objective: Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has recently become a suitable alternative for treatment of symptomatic aortic stenosis in patients who are at very high risk for morbidity and mortality with conventional corrective surgery. In the fall of 2011, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of TAVR, allowing for reimbursement at institutions outside of investigative trials. We report the initiation of a TAVR-based program at an academic tertiary care facility that did not participate in the Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves (PARTNER) 1 or PARTNER II trials.

Circulatory support for shock complicating myocardial infarction.

We discuss a patient with acute myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock (AMI-CS) who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention and hemodynamic support with a new short-term percutaneously inserted device, the Impella CP (Abiomed). We also review the evidence for mechanical circulatory support and management strategies in patients with AMI-CS.

Superoxide production and oxygen consumption in endothelium-intact and -denuded artery stimulated by angiotensin II.

Arteries stimulated by angiotensin II (AII) to contract do not display the expected augmentation of O2 consumption seen with other cardiovascular contractile agonists. We tested the hypothesis that superoxide (O2-) or other reactive oxidant species generated by AII played a role in the paradoxical O2 consumption response in porcine carotid artery, with or without an intact endothelium. Endothelium-denuded arteries were incubated with either 1 microM diphenylene iodonium (DPI), an inhibitor of NAD(P)H oxidase, 300 u/ml superoxide dismutase (SOD), a scavenger of O2-, or 20 U/ml catalase, an enzyme which promotes conversion of O2- (scavenged in the form of H2O2) to O2.

Effect of angiotensin II on energetics, glucose metabolism and cytosolic NADH/NAD and NADPH/NADP redox in vascular smooth muscle.

Angiotensin II (AII) is a neurohormone and contractile agonist of vascular smooth muscle that has been shown to be involved in the pathogenesis of vascular disease, which may be partially caused by its effect on oxidant stress. Energy metabolism was examined in pig carotid arteries treated with AII, because the activity of pathways of intermediary metabolism of glucose determines the status of cytosolic NADH/NAD and NADPH/NADP redox, factors which are involved in oxidant stress. Contractile responses to AII were characterized by an increase in isometric force followed by a gradual decline to near-basal levels.