Edtior`s Letter (April 2005)

Dear Readers, This issue of the Journal of Invasive Cardiology includes original research articles, a review article, a case report, articles from the journal's special sections Adjunctive Therapy and Clinical Decision Making, and a history of the International Andreas Gruentzig Society (IAGS) provided by Gary Roubin, as well as two discussion sections from the proceedings of the 8th Biennial International Andreas Gruentzig Society meeting held in January of 2004 in Lanai, Hawaii. The first research article submitted by Dr. Martin Unverdorben and colleagues from the ECORI study, presents their evaluation of the Coroflex Theca-Stent, a polyphosphazene-coated stent designed to reduce restenosis. The deviced showed a 15.6% restenosis rate at 7 months and favorable measures on late loss and late loss index. Dr. Ehtisham Mahmud and collaborators from the John Ross Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at the University of California in San Diego, have submitted their work on identifying expanded applications of rotational atherectomy in contemporary coronary and peripheral interventional practice. They review the applications of this modality as a means of altering lesion compliance for more effective delivery of stents and anti-restenotic drug therapy at the site of the underlying lesion. In the next original research article, Dr. David Meerkin, from the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jersusalem, Israel, and collaborators from Cornell University, University of Texas and the Heart Center Siegburg in Siegburg, Germany, present their animal and human studies of the beneficial effects of thed FX miniRAIL.™ This balloon is designed to reduce vessel resistance with improved or comparable results at lower pressures compared to other devices. The final original research paper submitted by Dr. Raul Moreno and colleagues of the Hospital Clinicao San Carlos in Madrid, Spain, presents their research on long-term outcome of patients with proximal left anterior descending coronary artery in-stent restenosis treated with a second percutaneous intervention. They found that a second percutaneous procedured is a feasible and safe long-term strategy, with few patients ultimately requiring surgical revascularization. This issue of the Journal also includes a case report from Dr. Hany Awadalla and associates from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, Texas, and collaborators from the University of Ain Sham s in Cairo, Egypt. They present five cases of iatrogenic left main coronary artery dissection, describing factors related to this occurrence and therapeutic strategies that might be helpful in dealing with this rare situation. Two of the journal's special sections are also featured in this issue. In the first special section, Adjunctive Therapy, edited by Dr. Deepak Bhatt, Director of the Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Dr. George Tadros and colleagues from the University of Minnesota, discuss the effect of the iso-osmolar radiocontrast agent iodixanol on patients with chronic kidney disease. They found that the volume of contrast did not affect the incidence of contrast-induced nephropathy in these patients. In the Clinical Decision Making section, edited by Dr. Michael Sketch from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, Drs. David Lubell and Luis Gruberg from the Rambam Medical Center and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, present an unusual case with an aneurysm post-stent placement that is very prioximal in the left anterior descending artery. This case is accompanied by comments representing treatment approaches from several clinicians. Drs. Ian Menown, Robert Lowe and Ian Penn, from the Craigavon Cardiac Centre at the Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada, have provided an excellent review of the development of passive stent coatings and their role in the contemporary era of anti-proliferative drug-eluting stents. This issue of the Journal is completed with the first in a series of articles covering the 8th Biennial International Andreas Gruentzig Society meeting held in January of 2004 in Lanai, Hawaii. To lead off this series, Dr. Gary Roubin, from the Department of Cardiology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, has provided an interesting, informative overview of the history of the formation of the IAGS and the meetings that preceded the one currently reported. This issue contains two discussion sections from the meeting: The Biology of Plaques and Patient Vulnerability and Acute Myocardial Infartion: Early Strategies. It is my hope that the articles in this issue of the Journal provide cardiovascular healthcare professionals with information that improves the daily care of their cardiac patients.