Editor`s Message (October 2004)

Dear Readers, This issue of The Journal of Invasive Cardiology includes original research articles, case reports, a current topic review, as well as original articles or cases from the journal special sections Intervention in Peripheral Vascular Disease, Clinical Decision Making, The Electrophysiology Corner, and Interventional Pediatric Cardiology. In the first research article, Dr. Kei Nishiyama and associates from the Division of Cardiology at Kokura Memorial Hospital in Kitakyushu, Japan, present their research on factors predicting free wall rupture in patients presenting with myocardial infarction. They found that free wall rupture was associated with patients who did not have coronary angioplasty, had failed reperfusion therapy, and were female, older or who had intervention of left main stenosis. Dr. Nicholas Shammas of the editorial board has provided a commentary to accompany the article by Dr. Nishiyama and associates. In the next original article, from the Royal Jubilee Hospital, in Victoria, British Columbia, Dr. Antonios Ziakas and colleagues studied 953 patients who had same-day discharge radial PCI between 1998 and 2001 and found that the majority of patients preferred same day discharge, especially if they did not experience vascular complications. In the lnext original research article, Dr. Robert Eckart and colleagues from Brooke Army Medical Center report on their study to determine if central aortic pulse pressure or fractional pulse pressure are related to worsened outcomes following coronary revascularization with stents. They found that these hemodynamic measures were not related to differences in outcome for stent patients. Dr. Edouard Cheneau and associates from the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. describe their analysis of subacute vessel closure following PCI using IVUS imaging. Comparing matched lesions, they found that subacute vessel closure was most often associated with post-procedure issues including inadequate final lumen or dissection. Dr. Paolo Rubartelli and collaborators from the Division of Cardiology at the Ospedale Villa Scassi in Genoa, Italy present their study assessing early renarrowing within 24 hours following PCI for in-stent restenosis. They found that all lesions exhibit a small but significant decrease in minimal luminal diameter within 24 hours, but narrowings did not exceed 50%, suggesting that this post-PCI loss may have no significant clinical implications. In the next original research article, an article also for our Interventional Pediatric Cardiology section, Dr. Gabriel Delgado and collaborators from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, present their study assessing the outcome of transcatheter closure of patent foramen ovale or atrial septal defect in patients with platypnea-orthodeoxia syndrome. They demonstrate that a high success rate, low complication rate and low frequency of recurrent symptoms can be achieved compared to surgical approaches to this condition.Dr. P. Syamasundar Rao of the editorial board and section editor has provided a commentary to accompany this article. The last original research article, which is from the Interventions in Peripheral Vascular Disease section, contains the experience of Drs. Paolo Sganzeria and colleagues from Humanitas Gavazzeni using stenting for the treatment of carotid bifurcation stenosis in a series of 100 consecutive patients. In the Clinical Decision Making section, edited by Dr. Michael Sketch from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, Dr. Gianluca Rigatelli and colleagues from the Cardiovascular Catheterization Laboratory and Brain, Heart and Kidney Department at Legnago Teaching Hospital in Verona, Italy present a challenging patient who presented with combined coronary artery, abdominal aorta and iliac artery inflammatory aneurysmal disease. They describe their approach to treatment of this complex case, which is followed by comments on the management of the patients from several clinicians. This issue of the journal contains a special review article submitted by Dr. Michael Lee and colleagues from St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York, New York, provides a comprehensive review of the immediate and longterm results of Angiojet rheolytic thrombectomy in the setting of acute myocardial infarction and the treatment of saphenous vein graft disease. In the first case report, Drs. Mikhail, Airoldi and Colombo from the San Raffaele Hospital and EMO Centro Cuore Columbus in Milan, Italy describe a patient who presented with acute myocardial infarction while on antimigraine drug therapy. They recommend that patients on these drugs who have chest pain should be taken off the drugs immediately. In the second case report, Drs. Paul Ho and Cyril Leung from the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii present a patient with an ostial saphenous vein graft lesion with a saccular post-stenotic aneurysm that was successfully managed with a polytetrafluoroethylene-covered stent. In the next case report, Drs. Urasawa, Oyama and Sakai from the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine in Sapporo, Japan report an unusual situation where a patient presented 6 years after Palmaz-Schatz stent implantation with a stent-jailed side branch that was treated using Directional Coronary Atherectomy to abrade the stent struts and gain full access to the side branch, which was ultimately treated with stenting and the kissing balloon technique. In the next case report, submitted by Dr. Ashish Pershad and colleagues from the Heart and Vascular Center of Arizona and St. Luke’s Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, the authors describe a patient who returned with claudication months following an interventional procedure in which a closure device was used and was likely related to this negative outcome at follow-up. In the last case report, which includes a brief review of the literature, Frances Wood and associates at the Wake Heart Center in Raleigh, North Carolina describe their management of 2 patients who required stenting of their subclavian arteries prior to successful transradial access approach for treatment of coronary artery stenoses. In the last special journal section, the Electrophysiology Corner, edited by Dr. Todd Cohen of the Department of Cardiology at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, New York, Drs. Cohen and Choi present a case demonstrating the advantage of using a steerable long introducer sheath to facilitate left ventricular lead placement during a complex biventricular implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implant. It is my hope that each of the articles in this issue of the journal provides cardiovascular healthcare professionals with information that improves the daily care of cardiac patients. Richard E. Shaw, PhD, FACC Editor-in-Chief Addenda In the following two September 2004 articles, please note the following corrections: In Intravascular Ultraasound Findings in ‘Pseudostenosis’ During Coronary Angioplasty by Jose de la Torre-Hernandez, MD, PhD, et al. (pages 528–530) the maintenance dose of clopidogrel should have been listed as “75 mg/day” (Methods section, page 528); The figure 2 legend, last line should have stated “12 to 3 hours,” and the figure 3 legend, third line, should mention the “mid segment” rather than proximal segment. In The Role of Percutaneous Thrombectomy in the Contemporary Treatment of Acute Myocardial Infarction by Arshad Ali, MD, Theodore L. Schreiber, MD (pages 546–549), a reference was incorrectly made to Figure 1, which does not exist. The abbreviation “SNF” was not defined (“slow flow/no-reflow”). In addition, question 6 should have been worded, Of the following thrombectomy devices, which one has shown improved ST-segment resolution in AMI patients? The Journal of Invasive Cardiology regrets these errors.