Optimizing Anesthetic Selection in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement: Striking a Delicate Balance between Efficacy and Minimal Intervention.

Patients with severe calcific native aortic valve stenosis (AS) who require valve replacement have two options, surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). TAVR was approved in late 2011 for extremely high-risk patients and was subsequently approved for high-risk (2012), intermediate-risk (2016), and low-risk (2019) patients. In 2019, TAVR procedures surpassed SAVR procedures for the first time in the United States.

Risk Factors for 30-day Hospital Readmissions After Peripheral Vascular Interventions in Peripheral Artery Disease Patients at the US-Mexico Border.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is associated with high rates of readmission following endovascular interventions and contributes to a significant hospital readmission burden. Quality metrics like hospital readmissions affect hospital performance, but must adjust to local trends. Our primary goal was to evaluate risk factors and readmission rates post-percutaneous peripheral intervention in a US-Mexico border city, at a single tertiary university hospital.

Role of Sex in Atherosclerosis: Does Sex Matter?

Purpose Of Review: Atherosclerosis is the largest cause of death in the western world with the role of sex yet to be determined. The purpose of this review is to investigate the role sex may play in the development of atherosclerosis.

Recent Findings: Differences in plaque burden play a role in atherosclerotic outcome.

Acute Myopericarditis After First Dose of mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine in a Young Adult.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has brought the global community to a halt. A return to normalcy is dependent on effective reopening strategies that encourage herd immunity through the implementation of vaccines. Cardiopulmonary inflammation has been reported in SARS-CoV-2 infection, independent of the severity, mainly amongst the juvenile population.

Atherosclerosis and Atrial Fibrillation: Double Trouble.

Purpose Of Review: This review aims to evaluate the major cardiovascular adverse events (MACE) and antithrombotic approaches in concomitant atrial fibrillation (AF) and atherosclerosis.

Recent Findings: MACE in concomitant AF and atherosclerosis has been evaluated in recent studies. A recent retrospective study of 2670 patients with AF revealed that atherosclerosis burden with AF can be a marker of adverse vascular outcomes with extracranial atherosclerosis as a potent predictor of MACE.

Slither Into the Heart: Salmonella Endocarditis Following Rattlesnake Meat Ingestion.

Salmonellae foodborne infections are a well described and documented entity, however cardiac complications of Salmonellae foodborne infections including infective endocarditis (IE) are rare. Here we present a case of infective endocarditis as a result of bacteremia caused by multiple species of . The patient initially presented with chest pain, fever and altered mental status.

Reno-protection of Urine-derived Stem Cells in A Chronic Kidney Disease Rat Model Induced by Renal Ischemia and Nephrotoxicity.

Drug-induced nephrotoxicity can occur in patients with pre-existing renal dysfunction or renal ischemia, potentially leading to chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Prompt treatment of CKD and the related side effects is critical in preventing progression to ESRD. The goal of this study was to demonstrate the therapeutic potential of urine-derived stem cells (USC) to treat chronic kidney disease-induced by nephrotoxic drugs and renal ischemia.

Effect of Human Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells on Kidney Function in a Model of Chronic Kidney Disease.

Kidney disease is a major medical problem globally. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive loss of kidney function. It causes accumulation of waste and fluid in the body, eventually resulting in kidney failure as well as damaging other organs.

Comparative analysis of two porcine kidney decellularization methods for maintenance of functional vascular architectures.

Unlabelled: Kidney transplantation is currently the only definitive solution for the treatment of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), however transplantation is severely limited by the shortage of available donor kidneys. Recent progress in whole organ engineering based on decellularization/recellularization techniques has enabled pre-clinical in vivo studies using small animal models; however, these in vivo studies have been limited to short-term assessments. We previously developed a decellularization system that effectively removes cellular components from porcine kidneys.

White Coat Hypertension and Cardiovascular Diseases: Innocent or Guilty.

Purpose Of Review: This review aims to clarify the cardiovascular risk of white coat hypertension (WCH).

Recent Findings: Cardiovascular risk of WCH has been evaluated in multiple meta-analyses and population-based studies. International Database on Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring in Relation to Cardiovascular Outcomes study evaluated the cardiovascular risk in 653 patients with WCH and 5137 normotensive patients.

Double right coronary artery and its clinical significance: Review of the literature.

Double right coronary artery is a very rare anomaly that is usually discovered incidentally during conventional coronary angiography. Double right coronary artery may have clinical implications in symptomatic patients requiring percutaneous coronary intervention and may be associated with other congenital abnormalities, myocardial ischemia and ventricular fibrillation in the absence of atherosclerosis. Here the reported cases in the literature are reviewed and a case of double right coronary artery with ischemia in inferior left ventricular wall is presented.

Electrospun vascular scaffold for cellularized small diameter blood vessels: A preclinical large animal study.

Unlabelled: The strategy of vascular tissue engineering is to create a vascular substitute by combining autologous vascular cells with a tubular-shaped biodegradable scaffold. We have previously developed a novel electrospun bilayered vascular scaffold that provides proper biological and biomechanical properties as well as structural configuration. In this study, we investigated the clinical feasibility of a cellularized vascular scaffold in a preclinical large animal model.

Polypharmacy in Cardiovascular Medicine: Problems and Promises!

Background: Polypharmacy is now a frequent aspect and reality of current medicine practice, driven by managing multiple comorbidities, especially in older adults. However and unfortunately, polypharmacy can expose patients to adverse drug reactions, and drug-drug or drug-disease interactions. On the other hand, clinicians are often hesitant to add new drugs to complex regimens even when recommended by evidence-based medicine and guidelines.

Potential Use of Autologous Renal Cells from Diseased Kidneys for the Treatment of Renal Failure.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) occurs when certain conditions cause the kidneys to gradually lose function. For patients with CKD, renal transplantation is the only treatment option that restores kidney function. In this study, we evaluated primary renal cells obtained from diseased kidneys to determine whether their normal phenotypic and functional characteristics are retained, and could be used for cell therapy.

Repopulation of porcine kidney scaffold using porcine primary renal cells.

Unlabelled: The only definitive treatment for end stage renal disease is renal transplantation, however the current shortage of organ donors has resulted in a long list of patients awaiting transplant. Whole organ engineering based on decellularization/recellularization techniques has provided the possibility of creating engineered kidney constructs as an alternative to donor organ transplantation. Previous studies have demonstrated that small units of engineered kidney are able to maintain function in vivo.

Assessment of angiogenic factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, serum and urine level changes in superficial bladder tumor immunotherapy by intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin.

Background And Aim: Bladder tumor is one of the most common genitourinary tumors. Management of non-muscle invasive (NMI) bladder tumors is primarily by transurethral resection (TURBT) followed by intravesical immunotherapy or chemotherapy. Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is the most effective adjuvant therapy in NMI bladder tumor.

Comparison of open and laparoscopic varicocelectomies in terms of operative time, sperm parameters, and complications.

Introduction: Varicocele is one of the most common causes of infertility. In this study, we evaluated and compared the operative time, sperm analysis results, and complications of three different methods of open and laparoscopic varicocelectomies.

Materials And Methods: From among all bilateral varicocelectomies in our center, we randomly selected 30 of each following cases: laparoscopic varicocelectomy, open subinguinal varicocelectomy under general anesthesia, and open subinguinal varicocelectomy under local anesthesia.

Male fertility after spermatocele formation from tunica vaginalis in patients with bilateral vas agenesis.

To form spermatocele from vaginal layers as a sperm reservoir and intra-uterine insemination (IUI) in infertile men with bilateral vas agenesis (BVA), we studied 19 patients with azoospermia due to BVA referred to our infertility clinic from March 1992 until May 2003. The ages of the patients ranged from 20-41 (mean 29.6+/-5.