Editorial Note
The US health care reform bill has passed, and it may significantly impact the interventional cardiology field, technology innovation, and day-to-day practice. Several aspects of the bill are related to…
Evaluation of sirolimus-eluting stents and Titan2 bio-active stents performance by optical coherence tomography: a window on the importance of nitric oxide for strut coverage
Background Lack of stent strut coverage has emerged as a main factor affecting stent performance in terms of restenosis and thrombosis propensity. Patients and methods Two groups of patients were…
Clinical results of first-generation zotarolimus-eluting stents endeavor in the treatment of bare metal stent restenosis
Background Treating in-stent restenosis still remains a great challenge for the interventional cardiologist. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of first-generation zotarolimus-eluting stents (ZES) (Endeavor, Medtronic) in the treatment…
Mitral annular reduction with subablative therapeutic ultrasound
Objectives To evaluate the potential for mitral annular size reduction using a novel device utilizing therapeutic ultrasound (TU). Background Delivering energy at sub-ablative temperatures appears to produce contraction of the…
Clinical implications of thrombocytopenia among patients undergoing intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation in the coronary care unit
Background Thrombocytopenia is a common adverse effect of intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation (IABP). However, the clinical implications of IABP-associated thrombocytopenia are unknown. Methods We assessed the incidence and predictors of thrombocytopenia,…
The plaque morphology of restenosis in DES versus BMS assessed by virtual histology
Background Drug-eluting stents (DES) effectively reduce restenosis compared to bare metal stents (BMS). However, late stent thrombosis associated with DES is a major drawback of this device. Intimal plaque composition…
One-year outcomes of everolimus-eluting and paclitaxel-eluting coronary stents in women: analysis from the Spirit IV Trial
Background Women with coronary artery disease are believed to have a higher risk for adverse outcomes than men after coronary interventions. Many of the assumptions regarding cardiovascular disease in women…
Randomized comparison of everolimus-eluting and paclitaxel-eluting stents: pooled analysis of 3-year clinical outcomes from the Spirit II and III Trials
Background The SPIRIT II and SPIRIT III clinical trials compared the XIENCE V (Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, CA, USA) everolimus-eluting stent (EES) to the TAXUS Express 2 (Boston Scientific, Natick,…
Is intravascular ultrasound beneficial for percutaneous coronary intervention of bifurcation lesions? Evidence from a 4314-patient registry
Background Coronary bifurcations remain a challenging lesion subset for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). It is unclear whether intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) guidance can improve PCI results for these lesions. We aimed…
Use of retinoic acid-eluting stents for preventing restenosis in an animal model
Introduction Retinoic acid (RA), the active form of vitamin A (retinol), acts through specific nuclear receptors inducing expression of specific genes. Retinoid receptors are expressed in vascular smooth muscle cells…
