Editor`s Message

Dear Readers,

The goal of the Journal of Invasive Cardiology is to provide state-of-the-art information that will support clinicians in the effective management of patients with cardiovascular disease.  There are many selections in this issue that I hope readers will find useful in their clinical practice and will promote more effective treatment of cardiovascular disease patients. 

In the first original research selection, Dr. Victoria Martin-Yuste and colleagues from the Departments of Cardiology at Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, Hospital Vall D’Hebron and Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, the Thoraxcenter in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and the Department of Interventional Cardiology, Hospital de la Santa Crue I Sant Pau in Barcelona, Spain report on their investigation of the long-term outcomes of emergent versus elective stent implantation in unprotected left main intervention.  Dr. Mladen Vidovich of the University of Chicago has provided a commentary to accompany this selection.  Next, Dr. Xavier Carrillo and collaborators from the Cardiology Service, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias I Pujol in Badalona, Spain and the Computer Vision Center at the Universitat de Barcelona in Barcelona and the Department of Medicine at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain present the results of their study of changes in radial artery volume assessed using ultrasound comparing two vasodilator regimens in transradial coronary intervention.  Drs. Anupama Shivaraju and Adhir Shroff of the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois have provided a commentary to accompany the article by Carrillo et al.

In the next original research selection, Dr. Mehmood Zeb and associates from Wessex Cardiothoracic Unit, Department of Cardiology at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK and Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, United Kingdom present the results of experience with catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation using multi-electrode mapping and ablation catheters. Dr. Abraham Kocheril from the University of Illinois in Chicago has provided a commentary to accompany the Zeb et al article.

In the final original research selection this month, Dr. Bryan Schwartz and colleagues from the Heart Institute and Department of Cardiology, Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles, and the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California present the results of their study evaluating high risk percutaneous coronary intervention with the Tandem Heart and Impella Devices. Dr. William O’Neill of the University of Miami has provided a commentary to further the discussion of high-risk PCI.

This issue also contains two selections from the new techniques section and a special editorial as a Counterpoint discussion of the radial versus femoral approach for optimal PCI access. This month, Dr. John S. Douglas of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia details the advantages of using the transfemoral arterial access approach in answer to last month’s selection from Escárcega et al which outlined the cost benefits of using the transradial approach. The first new technique selection is from Grigorios Tsigkas and colleagues from the Cardiology Department at Patras University Hospital in Patras, Greece. They present two cases illustrating that plain fluoroscopic imaging may be misleading when used for guiding optimal deployment of adjacent-sequential stents, whereas implementation of a new fluoroscopic technique can enhance stent visualization in such procedures in order to improve stent positioning, prevent overlap failure or excessive overlapping. Next, Dr. Gustavo Tamashiro and colleagues from the Department of Cardiology, Section of Hemodinamia, Hospital Nacional Alejandro Posadas in Buenos Aires, Argentina present their view of technical considerations of femoropopliteal stenting with flexions that occur in the popliteal artery. 

Articles published in our “Online Exclusive” section this month include a clinical image selection from Drs. Florim Cuculi, Alberto De Caterina and Adrian Banning from Oxford Heart Center, John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, United Kingdom. They describe a case showing a large perfusion defect on scintigraphy that is explained by severe microcirculatory dysfunction.  We have selected several interesting cases this month including a case where occlusion of a left internal mammary graft side branch occluded during attempts to deliver an Amplatzer Vascular Plug, a case showing reduction in the use of contrast medium by using a thrombus aspiration catheter for selective coronary angiography, aortic regurgitation following transcatheter closure of an aorto-pulmonary window, a patient with coronary embolus complicating peripartum cardiomyopathy,  an unusual presentation of a rare anomaly of the aortic arch with aberrant right subclavian associated with a common carotid trunk, and a case showing the management of a complicated transcatheter closure of a postinfarction ventricular acute septal defect. These selections can be found on our website and I encourage you to visit www.invasivecardiology.com to read these interesting and informative articles. You will also find JIC blogs on our website, video supplements to print material and links to our social networking presence on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. We hope you’ll join in these discussions. Click “like us” on Facebook and “follow” on Twitter to get regular updates from the Journal on your newsfeed and easy links to interesting discussions and topics.

Sincerely,

Richard E. Shaw, PhD, FACC, FACA
Editor-in-Chief