Changes to transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) services during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A single centre experience from United Kingdom tertiary hospital.

Aims: COVID-19 had a devastating impact on patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS). Like many cardiac procedures, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) services were suspended during the first wave of COVID-19. We took the opportunity to evaluate the clinical outcomes and identify any delays at different stages of the TAVR pathway during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of learning-curve-experience on transcatheter aortic valve replacement outcomes: Insights from the United Kingdom and Ireland all-comers second-generation ACURATE neo™ transcatheter aortic heart valve registry.

Background: The ACURATE neo™ is a novel, second-generation self-expanding supra-annular transcatheter heart valve (THV). The objective of this multi-centre registry is to assess the safety, clinical utility, and impact of 'learning-curve-experience' (LCE) on transcatheter aortic valve replacement outcomes in the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland.

Methods: We prospectively collected data from seven ACURATE neo™ THV implanting centres (n = 484) between February 2016 and November 2020.

Pulsatile sterile abscess in the left breast following transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation: a case report.

Background: Over the last decade, transcatheter treatment of degenerative aortic valve stenosis has been established as an alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement. Late complications of transcatheter treatment of aortic stenosis (AS) are infrequent.

Case Summary: We report an 87-year-old woman treated successfully with 23 mm Sapien 3 transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation for severe AS.

Mediastinal monophasic synovial sarcoma with pericardial extension causing hemodynamic instability.

A 46-year-old man presented with mass on chest x-ray along with a 6-month history of weight loss, dyspnea and cough. He was hypotensive and an echocardiogram showed large extra-cardiac mass compressing the right ventricular outflow tract resulting in features of cardiac tamponade. Chest computed tomography revealed a mediastinal mass invading the pericardium adjacent to right ventricular outflow tract.

Impact of call-to-balloon time on 30-day mortality in contemporary practice.

Objective: Studies reporting an association between treatment delay and outcome for patients with ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have generally not included patients treated by a primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) service that systematically delivers reperfusion therapy to all eligible patients. We set out to determine the association of call-to-balloon (CTB) time with 30-day mortality after PPCI in a contemporary series of patients treated within a national reperfusion service.

Methods: We analysed data on 16 907 consecutive patients with STEMI treated by PPCI in England and Wales in 2011 with CTB time of ≤6 hours.

Use of a cutting balloon and a paclitaxel-coated balloon to treat recurrent subclavian in-stent restenosis causing coronary subclavian steal syndrome.

A 56-year-old male with a past history of coronary artery bypass graft surgery underwent stent implantation for a severe proximal left subclavian artery stenosis. Recurrent in-stent restenosis (ISR) resulted in the coronary subclavian steal syndrome (CSSS), with angina due to compromised blood flow in the left internal mammary artery/radial composite bypass graft. This was treated with cutting balloon predilatation followed by paclitaxel-coated balloon (PCB) dilatation, with an excellent angiographic result.

Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist alters the response to vessel wall injury in a porcine coronary artery model.

Objective: To determine the influence of IL-1 on the arterial response to experimental injury in porcine models of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Methods: An intravenous (i.v.

Decreased whole body endogenous nitric oxide production in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension.

Impaired pulmonary release of nitric oxide (NO) is one of the characteristic phenotypic changes of vascular cells in pulmonary hypertension. The aim of this study was to determine nitric oxide synthase (NOS)-dependent whole body NO production in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension. NOS-dependent whole body NO production was assessed by giving an intravenous infusion of L-[(15)N](2)-arginine (50 micromol/min for 30 min) and measuring isotopic urinary enrichment of (15)N-nitrite and (15)N-nitrate.