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 to promote more effective treatment of cardiovascular disease patients. 

In the first original research article, Dr. Renicus S. Hermanides and colleagues from the On-TIME 2 trial investigator group present their analysis of the net clinical benefit of pre-hospital glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction and high risk of bleeding. In the next selection, Dr. Alessandro Lupi and associates from Hospital Cardiology, Maggiore della Carita Hospital and University of Eastern Piedmont in Novara, Italy and the Divisions of Cardiology at S. Andrea Hospital in Vercelli and Castelli Hospital in Verbania, Italy present their study on vascular complications after Angio-seal deployment or manual compression.  Dr. Hitinder Gurm from the University of Michigan has submitted a commentary to accompany the Lupi et al. article. Next, Dr. Partha Sardar and colleagues from Lenox Hill Cardiovascular Institute in New York and the Departments of Internal Medicine at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York and Texas Tech Health Sciences in El Paso, Texas present a systematic review and meta-analysis of steroids for the prevention of mortality and restenosis in bare metal stents. Dr. Petri O. Tuomainen and the investigators from the TITAX AMI Trial report on their gender-based analysis of the 3-year outcome of bioactive stents versus paclitaxel-eluting stents in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Dr. Nick Shammas from the editorial board has provided a commentary to accompany the Tuomainen et al. article. Next, Dr. Sathyadeepak Ramesh and collaborators from UT Southwestern and VA North Texas Healthcare System in Dallas, Texas present the results of their in vivo study comparing Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography and intravascular ultrasound. In the final original research selection, Dr. Byeong-Keuk Kim and colleagues from the Division of Cardiology, Severance Cardiovascular Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine and Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea report on their research study looking at the use of optical coherence tomography evaluation of in-stent restenotic lesions with visible microvessels.

This issue also contains articles from the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement and Radial Access Technique special sections. In the TAVR section, Drs. Kentaro Meguro, Nicolas Lellouche and Emmanuel Teiger from the Interventional Cardiology Unit, Henri Mondor University Hospital, Val-de-Marne University in Creteil, France present a case demonstrating the use of cardiac resynchronization therapy to improve heart failure after left bundle branch block during transcatheter aortic valve implantation. In the special section for Radial Access Technique, Dr. Surya Dharma and colleagues from Jakarta, Indonesia Sanjay Shah, TCVS Pvt. Ltd, Ahmadabad, India and the Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education in Scranton, Pennsylvania describe their study of nitroglycerin plus diltiazem versus nitroglycerin alone for spasm prophylaxis with the transradial approach. In the second article from this section, Drs. Abdul Basit, Raja Nazir and Harvey Hahn from Kettering Medical Center in Kettering, Ohio, Wright State University/Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio and Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California present a case showing myocardial and pericardial staining by transradial Optitorque Jacky shape catheter during left ventriculogram.         

This month we’ve included a New Technique selection from Drs. Usman Javed, Thomas Smith and Jason Rogers from the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center. They describe their approach to percutaneous repair of an anterior mitral leaflet perforation. In the Brief Communication section,  Drs. Reuben Ilia, Arik Wolak and Jean Marc Weinstein from the Cardiology Department, Soroka Medical Center and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel report on their successful use of collateral myocardial blush in inferior wall myocardial infarction to differentiate between occluded right coronary and circumflex arteries. In the Clinical Images selection, Drs. Avinash Murthy, Ankit Jain and Anthony Nappi from the Division of Cardiology at Albany Medical Center in Albany, New York show images of a case of showing tumor blush of a left ventricular cardiac hemangioma with supply from both the left anterior descending and circumflex arteries. Drs. Rajinder Marok and Lloyd Klein from Advocate Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois have submitted a commentary to accompany the Murthy et al article. We also have a selection for our Complex Case Intervention section this month from M.P. Girish and colleagues from the Department of Cardiology, GB Pant Hospital and Associated Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India who describe the successful management of a large thrombus occluding a right coronary artery using guide catheter suction with a novel double wire technique.

Articles published in our “Online Exclusive” section this month include a patient presenting with ST-segment elevation MI and multiple coronary artery thrombosis, a case showing recurrent cardiac tamponade following an unusual micro leak after successful closure of a primary leak, the successful treatment of SVC syndrome using isolated mechanical thrombolysis, a case showing the usefulness of the Corsair micro-catheter for the treatment of complex chronic total occlusions, the use of percutaneous treatment approach for Lutembacher Syndrome in a patient with a difficult mitral valve crossing and a case showing the use of “Open Sesame” and “Hairpin Wire”  techniques to treat a chronic total occlusion. These selections can be found on our website (www.invasivecardiology.com), as well as any past issues of the journal that you may have missed. Also take advantage of our technologies with links to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn from our home page for interesting discussions of important topics.

Sincerely,

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