Chronic Kidney Disease and Coronary Artery Disease
Syncope After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention
Clinical Case Study | By Tsushima T, Sahadevan J, Intini A.
A man in his late 50s with a history of remote coronary artery bypass grafting presented with unstable angina and underwent percutaneous coronary intervention with a drug-eluting stent. He was discharged and prescribed ticagrelor, 90 mg twice daily, in addition to his home regimen of aspirin and metoprolol tartrate. Three months later, he experienced worsening exertional dyspnea and had multiple episodes of syncope. He had no history of syncopal...
Patient and Hospital Characteristics of Mitral Valve Surgery in the United States
Original Research | By Vemulapalli S, Grau-Sepulveda M, Habib R et al.
IMPORTANCE - Volume metrics may have relevance in the evaluation of valve center expertise. However, a paucity of data exists regarding the quantity, volume, and geographic location of mitral valve (MV) surgical centers in the United States and the proportion of underserved populations they treat. OBJECTIVES - To evaluate the hospital, patient, and procedural characteristics of mitral valve repair or replacement (MVRR) in...
Original Research | By A Vamvakidou, WY Jin, O Danylenko et al.
OBJECTIVES - This study aimed to assess the value of low transvalvular flow rate (FR) for the prediction of mortality compared with low stroke volume index (SVi) in patients with low-gradient (mean gradient: <40 mm Hg), low aortic valve area (<1 cm2) aortic stenosis (AS) following aortic valve intervention. BACKGROUND - Transaortic FR defined as stroke volume/left ventricular ejection time is also ...
Why and How to Measure Aortic Valve Calcification in Patients With Aortic Stenosis
Review Article | By T Pawade, T Sheth, E Guzzetti, MR Dweck et al.
The first-line evaluation of aortic stenosis severity is Doppler echocardiography. However, in up to 40% of patients, resting echocardiographic assessment of aortic stenosis severity is discordant, leading to clinical uncertainty. Interest has therefore grown in aortic valve calcium scoring by multidetector computed tomography (CT-AVC) as an alternative load independent assessment of aortic stenosis severity. This paper will briefly review the pathophys...
Original Research | By A Borlotti, M Jerosch-Herold, D Liu et al.
Original Research | By JJ Bax, P Debonnaire, P Lancellotti et al.
Transcatheter therapies to treat mitral regurgitation are rapidly developing. Currently, there are several devices commercially available to treat mitral regurgitation. The underlying cause of mitral regurgitation and specific anatomical aspects of the mitral valve and surrounding structures are considered when patients with symptomatic severe mitral regurgitation for transcatheter mitral valve therapies are selected. Multimodality imaging plays an impo...
Poor Long-Term Survival in Patients With Moderate Aortic Stenosis
BACKGROUND - Historical data suggesting poor survival in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) who do not undergo treatment are largely confined to patients with severe AS. OBJECTIVES - This study sought to determine the prognostic impact of all levels of native valvular AS. METHODS - Severity of AS was characterized by convention and by statistical distribution in 122,809 male pa...
Ascending Aortic Length and Risk of Aortic Adverse Events: The Neglected Dimension
Original Research | By J Wu, MA Zafar, YP Li, JA Elefteriades et al.
BACKGROUND - Little information is available regarding the longitudinal changes of the aneurysmal ascending aorta. OBJECTIVES - This study sought to outline the natural history of ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (ATAA) based on ascending aortic length (AAL) and develop novel predictive tools to better aid risk stratification. METHODS - The ascending aortic diameters and lengths, and long...