Background: In patients with complex coronary bifurcation lesions undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), various 2-stent techniques might be utilised. The Visible Heart Laboratories (VHL) offer an experimental environment where PCI results can be assessed by multimodality imaging.
Aims: We aimed to assess the post-PCI stent configuration achieved by 2-stent techniques in the VHL and to evaluate the procedural factors associated with suboptimal results.
Background: Stepwise provisional stenting is the gold standard for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on bifurcation lesions, but the optimal ballooning technique for eventual side branch treatment is not established. The objective of the present study was to compare the stent configuration obtained by 2 different side branch optimization techniques performed after main vessel (MV) stent implantation: proximal optimization technique+kissing balloon inflation+final proximal optimization technique (POT/KBI/POT [PKP]) versus proximal optimization technique+isolated side branch dilation+final proximal optimization technique (POT-side-POT [PSP]).
Methods: We realized a 1:1 prospective randomized trial comparing bifurcation PCI conducted (under angiographic and angioscopic visualization) with either PKP or PSP in reanimated swine hearts using commercially available drug-eluting stents.
Objective: For cardiac arrhythmia mapping and ablation procedures, the ability to record focal cardiac action potentials could aid in precisely identifying lesions, scarred tissue, and/or arrhythmic foci. Our study objective was to validate the electrophysiologic properties of a routinely employed large mammalian in vitro working heart model.
Methods: Monophasic action potentials (MAPs) were recorded from 18 swine hearts during viable hemodynamic function both in situ (postmedian sternotomy) and in vitro (using Visible Heart methodologies).
Objective: Ablative treatments can sometimes cause collateral injury to surrounding muscular tissue, with important clinical implications. In this study, we investigated the changes in muscle physiology of the human vastus lateralis when exposed to three different ablation modalities: radiofrequency ablation, cryoablation, and microwave ablation.
Methods: We obtained fresh vastus lateralis tissue biopsy specimens from nine patients (age range: 29-73 years) who were undergoing in vitro contracture testing for malignant hyperthermia.