Accurate diagnosis and determination of patient characteristics are crucial for a good prognosis in coronary disease because highly effective techniques such as percutaneous intervention more harmful than beneficial certain patients.

1. Steinhubl SR, Berger PB, Mann JT III, et al. Early and sustained dual oral antiplatelet therapy following percutaneous coronary intervention: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2002;288:2411–20. 2. Mehta SR, Yusuf S, Peters RJG, et al. Effects of pretreatment with clopidogrel and aspirin followed by long-term therapy in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: the PCI-CURE st...

Percutaneous mechanical circulatory support has been used to stabilize patients in cardiogenic shock and provide hemodynamic support during high-risk percutaneous coronary interventions for several decades. The goal of this paper is to provide a practical approach to percutaneous mechanical circulatory support in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention with cardiogenic shock and/...

Although acute left main coronary artery occlusion is rare, it carries a very high mortality rate. Following the encouraging results of trials testing the effect of primary percutaneous coronary intervention, more cases of left main stenosis are treated as culprit lesion in acute myocardial infarction. Few cases of primary percutaneous intervention on left main occlusion have been published. We...

Coronary reperfusion for an occluded vessel with ruptured vulnerable plaque and clot burden in patients with acute myocardial infarction is now more easily performed due to the development of devices and techniques for percutaneous coronary intervention. However, even after successful coronary intervention, some patients may still have complications such as heart failure, stent thrombosis, or r...

We describe a case of Prinzmetal’s angina that is refractory to medical therapy but responded fully after percutaneous coronary intervention. This case shows that there is a role for percutaneous coronary intervention in refractory variant angina as long as a culprit lesion within the vasospastic segment can be identified.

Coronary artery perforation as a result of percutaneous coronary intervention is a rare complication which may result in cardiac tamponade, myocardial infarction and death. Perforation of a saphenous vein graft is unusual and generally requires surgical intervention. We describe a novel percutaneous approach that facilitated the successful management of a potentially catastrophic saphenous vein...

1. Steinhubl SR, Berger PB, Mann JT III, et al. Early and sustained dual oral antiplatelet therapy following percutaneous coronary intervention: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2002;288:2411–20. 2. Mehta SR, Yusuf S, Peters RJG, et al. Effects of pretreatment with clopidogrel and aspirin followed by long-term therapy in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: the PCI-CURE st...

We report the case of a 78-year-old woman with saphenous vein graft (SVG) disease and chronic total occlusion (CTO) in three native coronary arteries [left anterior descending artery (LAD), left circumflex artery, and the right coronary artery], who was successfully treated by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using the retrograde approach via the critically degenerated SVGs. The patient...