Implications of a bioresorbable vascular scaffold implantation on vessel wall strain of the treated and the adjacent segments

Background: Metallic stents change permanently the mechanical properties of the vessel wall. However little is known about the implications of bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS) on the vessel wall strain. Methods: Patients (n = 53) implanted with an Absorb BVS that had palpographic evaluation at any time point [before device implantation, immediate after treatment, at short-term (6-12 months) or mid-term follow-up (24-36 months)] were included in the current analysis. The palpographic data were used to estimate the mean of the maximum strain values and the obtained measurements were classified using the Rotterdam classification (ROC) score and expressed as ROC/mm. Results: Scaffold implantation led to a significant decrease of the vessel wall strain in the treated segment [0.35 (0.20, 0.38) vs. 0.19 (0.09, 0.29); P = 0.005] but it did not affect the proximal and distal edge. In patients who had serial palpographic examination the vessel wall strain continued to decrease in the scaffolded segment at short-term [0.20 (0.12, 0.29) vs. 0.14 (0.08, 0.20); P = 0.048] and mid-term follow-up [0.20 (0.12, 0.29) vs. 0.15 (0.10, 0.19), P = 0.024]. No changes were noted with time in the mechanical properties of the vessel wall at the proximal and distal edge. Conclusions: Absorb BVS implantation results in a permanent alteration of the mechanical properties of the vessel wall in the treated segment. Long term follow-up data are needed in order to examine the clinical implications of these findings

Computed tomography angiography for the interventional cardiologist

In recent years, coronaryCTangiography(CCTA) hasbecome a widely adopted technique, not only due to its high diagnostic accuracy, but also to the fact that CCTA provides a comprehensive evaluation of the total (obstructive and non-obstructive) coronary atherosclerotic burden. More recently, this technique has become mature, with a large body of evidence addressing its prognostic validation. In addition, CT angiography has moved fromthe field of 'imagers' and clinicians and entered the intervent

Long-term forecasting and comparison of mortality in the Evaluation of the Xience Everolimus Eluting Stent vs. Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery for Effectiveness of Left Main Revascularization (EXCEL) trial: Prospective validation of the SYNTAX Score II

Aims To prospectively validate the SYNTAX Score II and forecast the outcomes of the randomized Evaluation of the Xience Everolimus-Eluting Stent Versus Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery for Effectiveness of Left Main Revascularization (EXCEL) Trial. Methods and results Evaluation of the Xience Everolimus Eluting Stent vs. Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery for Effectiveness of Left Main Revascularization is a prospective, randomized multicenter trial desi

Anatomic Characteristics and Clinical Implications of Angiographic Coronary Thrombus

Background - The distribution of thrombus-containing lesions (TCLs) in an all-comer population admitted with a heterogeneous clinical presentation (stable, ustable angina, or an acute coronary syndrome) and treated with percutaneous coronary intervention is yet unclear, and the long-term prognostic implications are still disputed. This study sought to assess the distribution and prognostic implications of coronary thrombus, detected by coronary angiography, in a population recruited in all-comer percutaneous coronary intervention trials. Methods and Results - Patient-level data from 3 contemporary coronary stent trials were pooled by an independent academic research organization (Cardialysis, Rotterdam, the Netherlands). Clinical outcomes in terms of major adverse cardiac events (major adverse cardiac events, a composite of death, myocardial infarction, and repeat revascularization), death, myocardial infarction, and repeated revascularization were compared between patients with and without angiographic TCL. Preprocedural TCL was present in 257 patients (5.8%) and absent in 4193 (94.2%) patients. At 3-year follow-up, there was no difference for major adverse cardiac events (25.3 versus 25.4%; P=0.683); all-cause death (7.4 versus 6.8%; P=0.683); myocardial infarction (5.8 versus 6.0%; P=0.962), and any revascularizations (17.5 versus 17.7%; P=0.822) between patients with and without TCL. The comparison of outcomes in groups weighing the jeopardized myocardial by TCL also did not show a significant difference. TCL were seen more often in the first 2 segments of the right (43.6%) and left anterior descending (36.8%) coronary arteries. The association of TCL and bifurcation lesions was present in 40.1% of the prespecified segments. Conclusions - TCL involved mainly the proximal coronary segments and did not have any effect on clinical outcomes. A more detailed thrombus burden quantification is required to investigate its prognostic implications. Clinical Trial Registration - URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifiers: NCT00114972, NCT01443104, NCT00617084

Risk stratification in 3-vessel coronary artery disease: Applying the SYNTAX Score II in the Heart Team Discussion of the SYNTAX II trial

Background Heart Team (HT) and the SYNTAX Score II (SSII) have been integrated to the contemporary guidelines with the aim to provide a multidisciplinary decision-making process between coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Aims To prospectively assess the agreement between the HT decision and the SSII recommendation regarding the revascularization strategy in patients with 3-vessel coronary artery disease (CAD) of the SYNTAX II trial. Methods The SSII predicts the 4-year mortality of an individual patient both after PCI and after CABG. Patients were treated by PCI when the SSII predicted a mortality risk favoring PCI or when risk predictions were equipoise between PCI and CABG. However, the HT could overrule the SSII and recommend either CABG or PCI. Results A total of 202 patients have been screened and 24 did not fulfill inclusion criteria. The median age was 67.0 (IQR 59.0-73.3), and 167 (82.7%) were male. The HT endorsed SSII treatment recommendation, for CABG or PCI, in 152 patients (85.4%). Three patients had preference for PCI, irrespective of the HT decision. The main reason for the HT to overrule the SSII and recommend CABG was the prospect of a more complete revascularization (21 of 25 patients). Patients recommended for CABG by the HT had significantly higher anatomical SYNTAX score (P = 0.03) and higher predicted mortality risk for PCI (P = 0.04) when compared with patients that were enrolled in the trial. Conclusion The SYNTAX score II showed to be a suitable tool for guiding treatment decisions of patients with 3-vessel coronary artery disease being endorsed by the HT in the vast majority of the patients that have been enrolled in the SYNTAX II trial

Ex vivo validation of 45 MHz intravascular ultrasound backscatter tissue characterization

Aims: The objectives of the present study are to describe the algorithm for VHw IVUS using the 45-MHz rotational IVUS catheter and the associated ex vivo validation in comparison to the gold standard histology. Methods and results: The first phase of the present study was to construct the 45 MHz VH IVUS algorithm by using a total of 55 human coronary artery specimens [111 independent coronary lesions and 510 homogenous regions of interest (ROIs)], obtained at autopsy. Regions were selected from histology and matched with their corresponding IVUS data to build the plaque classification system using spectral analysis and statistical random forests. In the second phase, the ex vivo validation of the VH IVUS algorithm assessed a total of 1060 ROIs (120 lesions from 60 coronary arteries) in comparison with histology. In an independent manner, two interventional cardiologists also classified a randomly selected subset of the ROIs for assessment of inter- and intra-observer reproducibility of VH IVUS image interpretation. When including all ROIs, the predictive accuracies were 90.8% for fibrous tissue, 85.8% for fibro fatty tissue, 88.3% for necrotic core, and 88.0% for dense calcium. The exclusion of ROIs in the acoustically attenuated areas improved the predictive accuracies, ranging from 91.9 to 96.8%. The independent analysis of randomly selected 253 ROIs showed substantial agreement for inter-observer (k = 0.66) and intra-observer (k = 0.88) reproducibility. Conclusion: Tissue classification by 45 MHzVHIVUS technology, when not influenced by calcium-induced acoustic attenuation, provided combined tissue accuracy >88% to identify tissue types compared with the gold standard histologic assessment, with high inter- and intra-observer reproducibility