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, Drs. Michael Recto, Matthew Stohs, and Thomas Yeh from the sections of Pediatric Cardiology and Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana present their findings on the safety, short-, and mid-term follow-up of Amplatzer Plug I and II used in pulmonary artery and systemic venous collateral vessels. Next, Dr. Florim Cuculi and colleagues from the Department of Cardiology, Luzerner Kantonsspital, Switzerland report on their research study looking at the use of drug-eluting balloons in patients with in-stent restenosis and patients who may not be amenable to dual-antiplatelet therapy. Dr. Reza Arsanjani and collaborators from the University of Arizona School of Medicine, Southern Arizona VA Health Care System and University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center in Tucson, Arizona present the results of their evaluation of the safety of using low- dose unfractionated heparin during IVUS in heart transplant patients shortly after endomyocardial biopsy. Dr. Herbert Aronow from the Michigan Heart and Vascular Institute in Ann Arbor, Michigan has provided a commentary to accompany the Arsanjani et al. article. In the next selection, Dr. Shin Watanabe and associates from the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Kyoto University and Gifu Heart Center present their in vitro and in vivo studies of a novel method for delivering the Filtrap coronary embolic protection system via a manual thrombectomy catheter compared with the conventional method. Next, Dr. Nick Collins and colleagues from the Cardiovascular Unit, John Hunter Hospital in New Lambton, Australia present their initial experience, and procedural and intermediate-term results comparing the Premere PFO Occlusion Device with the Amplatzer device in closure of patent foramen ovale. The final original research selection is also part of our special section on TAVR: Dr. Michael Liang, Gerard Devlin, and Sanjeevan Pasupati from Waikato Hospital in New Zealand and National University Heart Centre in Singapore describe their study of the incidence of transcatheter aortic valve implantation heart block in the self-expandable Medtronic CoreValve and the balloon-expandable Edwards valves.

In a second article in our TAVR section, Drs. Raffi Bekeredjian, Emmanuel Chorianopoulos, and Hugo Katus from the Department of Cardiology, University of Heidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany present their study of successful transfemoral antegrade valve-in-valve implantation of a SAPIEN XT valve into a degenerated mitral valve prosthesis.  

In our section focusing on Radial Access Technique, Drs. Harsh Golwala, Soni Zacharias, and Faisal Latif from the Cardiovascular Section at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center present their use of bilateral arm approach for percutaneous coronary intervention of unprotected left main supported by a modified intra-aortic balloon pump.

Our clinical review article this month is from Drs. Kiyotake Ishikawa, Yutaka Aoyama, and Haruo Hirayama from the Department of Cardiology, Nagoya Red Cross Hospital in Nagoya, Japan and the Cardiovascular Research Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. They present a review article on the management of drug-eluting stent restenosis. In the Clinical Images selection, Drs. Jin-Man Cho, Byung-Hyun Joe, and Chong-Jin Kim from the Department of Cardiology, Kyung-Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Seoul, Korea, show OCT images of a case of demonstrating rapid stent surface coverage after endothelial progenitor cell capture stent implantation.

Articles published in our “Online Exclusive” section this month include a patient presenting with acute STEMI six years following a sirolimus-eluting stent secondary to complete stent fracture, a single coronary anomaly in which the left coronary artery branches from the right coronary artery in two distinct patterns, evaluation of endothelialization after percutaneous closure of paravalvular  leaks, a case showing the use of percutaneous aortic balloon valvuloplasty to treat distal aortic occlusion, demonstration of the Guideliner Microcatheter to improve backup support during a complex coronary stenting procedure performed through a tortuous left internal mammary graft, a case showing the successful sealing of a coronary artery perforation with a mesh covered stent, and primary PCI in a case of idiopathic SCAD. 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