May Letter to Readers

Dear Readers, This issue of the Journal of Invasive Cardiology includes original research articles, a special teaching collection on catheter treatments for aneurysms, articles from four of the Journal special sections, and a case report. In the first research article, Dr. Benny Johansson and colleagues from the Divisions of Cardiology and Radiology at Orebro Medical Centre and Division of Cardiology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden present their study demonstrating the use of standardized angiographically guided “over-dilatation” of stents with a high pressure technique. They utilize intravascular ultrasound to verify excellent placement with no increase in risk of complication. Drs. Antonio Colombo and Leo Finci from the Columbus Hospital and San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy provide an interesting commentary on this paper as well. The second research article, submitted by Dr. Johanna Armstrong and collaborators from the Cardiovascular Group at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, Biocompatibles Ltd in Farnham, UK and the Unit of Cardiac Physiology at the University of Manchester, UK describes the promising initial results in human saphenous vein graft segments and pig coronary arteries of an angiopeptin-eluting stent. The third original research article, from Dr. Koon-Hou Mak and associates from the National Heart Centre and National University Hospital in Singapore and the Siriraj Hospital in Thailand, reports on the early and late clinical and angiographic outcomes of the Terumo coronary stent. In the last research article, Drs. Ulf Berglund and Arina Richter of the Department of Cardiology at the University Hospital in Linkoping, Sweden report on their study showing that clopidogrel used prior to PCI reduces adverse cardiovascular events. This issue of the Journal also has articles from four of our special sections. Two articles are included in the Acute Coronary Syndromes special section, edited by Dr. Lloyd Klein from the Section of Cardiology, Rush Heart Institute at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago Illinois. In the first article, Lonnie Miller and colleagues from North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo present initial results of a study examining the use of clopidogrel loading, enoxaparin and double-bolus eptifibitide in the setting of early PCI for acute coronary syndrome. In an accompanying commentary, Drs. Gruberg and Beyar from the Division of Invasive Cardiology at Rambam Medical Center and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel write that while this paper shows excellent results, the strategy’s efficacy will be determined in future randomized studies that are currently under way. In the second article, Drs. Rami Doukky and James Calvin from Cook County Hospital in Chicago present Part II of their article on risk stratification approaches for patients with unstable angina and non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction. A case report from Drs. Kagoshima, Kobayashi and Owa from the Joetsu General Hospital in Niigata, Japan on aortic dissection complicating failed coronary stenting is also included in this issue. In this month’s Clinical Decision Making section, edited by Dr. Michael Sketch from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, Drs. Tantibhedhyangkul and Stafford from the University of Maryland present the dilemma of treating an unstable angina patient with a single saphenous vein bypass graft supplying the entire coronary circulation. Dr. Lowell Satler of Washington Hospital Center and James Zidar of Duke have provided insight into the clinical decision making process for this challenging case. This issue of the Journal also includes an article from the Intervention for Peripheral Vascular Disease section, edited by Dr. Frank Criado of the Division of Vascular Surgery at the Union Memorial Hospital /Medstar Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Debabrata Mukherjee and colleagues from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation have provided an article for this section on endovascular treatment of carotid artery aneurysms with stent grafts. In our last section, our special teaching collection of reports highlights articles on innovations in catheter-based treatment of aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms. These reports include an ultrasound study of the pathogenesis of the evolution of coronary dissection to pseudoaneurysm (Dr. Carlos Cafri and associates from Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva, Israel), spontaneous closure of a perforation-induced coronary artery pseudoaneurysm (Dr. Bassam Mikhail and colleagues from the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit), obliteration of a left main coronary artery aneurysm with a PTFE-covered stent (Dr. Maja Strozzi and associates from Rebro University Hospital in Croatia), use of scaffolding stenting to support PTEF-covered stents in the treatment of giant coronary aneurysms (Dr. Mauricio Lopez-Meneses and collaborators from the Hospital Clinico at San Carlos in Madrid, Spain), and successful exclusion of a subclavian artery pseudoaneurysm with a covered self-expanding stent (Drs. Hernandez, Pershad and Laufer from the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona). It is my hope that all of the articles in this issue of the Journal provide information that is timely and useful for all professionals involved in the delivery of health care to cardiac patients. Sincerely, Richard E. Shaw, PhD, FACC Editor in Chief The Journal of Invasive Cardiology