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 diagnosis and treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease. There are many selections in this issue that I hope readers will find useful in their clinical practice.

In the first original research selection, Dr. Chuntao Wu and associates from the Department of Public Health Services and the Penn State Heart and Vascular Institute at Penn State Hershey College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania, present their study on the occurrence of adverse outcomes following percutaneous coronary intervention using the transradial approach. Dr. Morton Kern of the editorial board has written a commentary to accompany the article by Wu et al.

Next, Dr. Jyotsna Maddury and associates from Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, and Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad, India, present their study to assess the feasibility and safety of elective transradial coronary intervention in Asian females. Drs. Sunil Rao and Mitch Krucoff from Duke University Medical Center have provided a commentary to accompany the article by Maddury et al. The next research article comes from Dr. Avneet Singh and collaborators from Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, Boston University School of Medicine and George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., report on the use of low-dose heparin with bivalirudin for ad-hoc transradial coronary interventions. Drs. Apurva Badheka and Mauricio Cohen from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have provided a commentary to accompany the Singh et al article. Next, Dr. Konstantin Heinroth and collaborators from the Department of Medicine at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, report on the impact of guidewire insulation using transcoronary pacing in a porcine model. Dr. Bernhard Meier from the editorial board has provided a commentary on this topic. The final original research selection comes from Dr. Lori Vales and associates from the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. They report on their study to evaluate intra-aortic balloon pump use and outcomes with current therapies.

In the New Technique selection, Dr. Simon MacDonald and colleagues from the Department of Pediatric Cardiology and Adult Congenital Heart Disease, Policlinico San Donato IRCCS in San Donato Milanese, Italy, present their initial experience with the Amplatzer Vascular Plug IV in congenital heart disease.

This issue also contains two selections from the Clinical Images sections. In the first selection, Drs. Pradeepto Ghosh, C.K. Liew and A. Chauhan from Lancashire Cardiac Centre, Victoria Hospital, Blackpool, United Kingdom, present an unusual case with coronary anatomy comprised of dual (Type IV) left anterior descending arteries and an anomalous left circumflex artery from the right coronary artery. In the second selection (published on our Web site), Drs. Sean Gallagher, Ajay Jain and R. Andrew Archbold from the Department of Cardiology at the London Chest Hospital in London, United Kingdom, describe their use of primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST-elevation myocardial infarction in a patient with a single coronary artery arising from the right aortic sinus.

Other articles published in our Online Exclusive section this month include three selections from our Complex Coronary Interventions section. These are challenging case descriptions accompanied by editorial comment from our section editor, Samin K. Sharma, from Mt. Sinai in New York. First, Elias B. Hanna and colleagues provide an example of the use of the Guideliner catheter for the treatment of a bifurcation total occlusion of the native left anterior descending artery through a tortuous composite venous graft. Next, Brian G. Hynes and colleagues use the Heartrail II catheter to enhance backup support during very difficult stent delivery, and Emmanouil Brilakis et al describe the treatment of a chronic total occlusion using the “bilateral knuckle” technique and Stingray re-entry system for retrograde access.

We have several interesting case reports online, including a case showing the importance of collateral circulation; the successful percutaneous implantation of an aortic valve stent prosthesis in a patient with a mechanical mitral valve; a case in which optical coherence tomography helped characterize restenosis following sirolimus-eluting stent implantation; as well as the successful use of an extra-long hydrophilic-coated sheath in an enlarged aorta to overcome extreme trotuosity of the right subclavian artery via the transradial approach. In addition, we have included a case describing aortocoronary dissection occurring during angioplasty of an anomalous right coronary artery and another case illustrating a complication following deployment of the Angioseal Vascular Closure Device after routine angiography.

These selections can be found on our Web site, and I encourage you to visit www.invasivecardiology.com to read these articles, as well as any past issues of the journal that you may have missed. Also take advantage of links from our home page to the Journal of Invasive Cardiology’s Facebook page and our LinkedIn group to join other readers in discussing important topics and ideas related to treating patients with cardiovascular disease.

Sincerely,