A novel system for transcatheter closure of patent foramen ovale: clinical and echocardiographic outcome comparison with other contemporary devices.

Background: Effective closure performance for patent foramen ovale (PFO) has been suggested to be one of the factors that plays a relevant role in future clinical outcomes after stroke or transient ischemic attack.

Methods: Between January 2009 and June 2012, all consecutive patients undergoing transcatheter PFO closure in our institution using the Amplatzer PFO Occluder (APO) (St Jude Medical, St Paul, MN), BioSTAR (NMT Medical Inc, Boston, MA), GORE HELEX (HELEX) (W.L.

Effect on bleeding, time to revascularization, and one-year clinical outcomes of the radial approach during primary percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

The radial approach during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has been reported to reduce the incidence of bleeding complications. However, the radial approach still accounts for <10% of procedures worldwide and only 1% in the United States. Our objective was to compare the effect of radial versus femoral vascular access on the time to reperfusion, incidence of bleeding complications, and overall clinical outcomes in the setting of primary PCI.

Role of rheolytic thrombectomy in massive pulmonary embolism with contraindication to systemic thrombolytic therapy.

Aims: Mortality of massive pulmonary embolism remains exceedingly high despite thrombolytic therapy. Despite initial encouraging results, rheolytic thrombectomy has not been considered the first choice of treatment in the current European Guidelines for massive pulmonary embolism, even in cases of major contraindication to thrombolysis. Our objective was to assess the efficacy of rheolytic thrombectomy in the specific treatment of massive pulmonary embolism with contraindication to systemic thrombolytic therapy.

Complications of cardiac catheterization in the current era: a single-center experience.

Consecutive cardiac catheterization procedures done over a 2-yr period (April 1996 to March 1998) were prospectively analyzed to determine and characterize procedure-related complications (in-hospital and 1-mo follow-up), as they occur at present. During the study period, 11,821 procedures (7,953 diagnostic and 3,868 therapeutic) were performed. The majority of procedures (> 60%) were done in high-risk patients.

Successful balloon angioplasty of in-stent restenosis of left internal mammary artery.

The development of disease in left internal mammary artery bypass grafts is uncommon. Furthermore, development of restenosis following successful angioplasty is very low. We report a patient with in-stent restenosis of left internal mammary graft treated successfully by balloon dilatation.