Secondary Open Aortic Procedure Following Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair: Meta-Analytic State of the Art.

Background: Thoracic endovascular aortic repair is characterized by a substantial need for reintervention. Secondary open aortic procedure becomes necessary when further endoluminal options are exhausted. This synopsis and quantitative analysis of available evidence aims to overcome the limitations of institutional cohort reports on secondary open aortic procedure.

Unwarranted Variation in the Quality of Care for Patients With Diseases of the Thoracic Aorta.

Background: Thoracic aortic disease has a high mortality. We sought to establish the contribution of unwarranted variation in care to regional differences in outcomes observed in patients with thoracic aortic disease in England.

Methods And Results: Data from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and the National Adult Cardiac Surgery Audit (NACSA) were extracted.

Development and Validation of Elective and Nonelective Risk Prediction Models for In-Hospital Mortality in Proximal Aortic Surgery Using the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) Database.

Background: To facilitate patient choice and the risk adjustment of consultant outcomes in aortic operations, reliable predictive tools are required. Our objective was to develop a risk prediction model for in-hospital mortality after operation on the proximal aorta.

Methods: Data for 8641 consecutive UK patients undergoing proximal aortic operation from the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research database from April 2007 to March 2013 were analyzed.

Construction and validation of a plaque discrimination score from the anatomical and histological differences in coronary atherosclerosis: the Liverpool IVUS-V-HEART (Intra Vascular UltraSound-Virtual-Histology Evaluation of Atherosclerosis Requiring Treatment) study.

Aims: New markers to help stratify coronary atherosclerosis are needed. Although attempts have been made to differentiate active lesions from those that are stable, none of these has ever been formalised into a discriminatory score. The aim of this study was to analyse the differences between culprit ACS lesions and culprit stable angina lesions with intravascular ultrasound-derived virtual histology and to construct and validate a plaque score.

Impact of periprocedural creatine kinase-MB isoenzyme release on long-term mortality in contemporary percutaneous coronary intervention.

Objective: To evaluate the incidence of periprocedural creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) release and its impact on longterm mortality in contemporary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at a tertiary referral center.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 4,958 patients undergoing PCI with deployment of at least 1 stent at our center between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2005. Patients admitted with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction or cardiogenic shock (n = 617), and patients with no available CK-MB levels (n = 477) were excluded, leaving 3,864 patients for analysis.