During percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) for chronic total occlusion (CTO), prolonged procedures increase the risk of excessive radiation exposure. These situations harbor a major concern to protect patients and personnel in the cardiac interventional laboratory (CCL). Important questions regarding radiation safety for interventional cardiologists performing PCI for CTO lesions are disc...

Chronic total occlusion recanalization still represents the final frontier in percutaneous coronary intervention. Retrograde chronic total occlusion recanalization has recently become an essential complement to the classical antegrade approach. In experienced hands, the retrograde technique currently has a high success rate with a low complication profile, despite frequent utilization in the mo...

BACKGROUND Whether increasing use of radial access has improved percutaneous coronary intervention outcomes remains unknown. We sought to determine the relationship between increasing facility-level use of transradial percutaneous coronary intervention (TRI) and periprocedural outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS Within the National Cardiovascular Data Registry CathPCI Registry, we estimated the ris...

Extending revascularization to all ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients who could benefit from it requires both the rethinking of significant aspects of what is being done now and the development of new thinking for patients for whom such care requires system innovations. Such rethinking and restructuring involves how services are purchased, how payments are made, and how account...

INTRODUCTION Using thrombus aspiration devices during primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the setting of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is a highly debatable issue. In 2013, after the announcement of the Thrombus Aspiration in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction in Scandinavia trial (TASTE) short term outcomes, more confusion was added to this hot topic. The m...

This describes a technique for the successful performance of percutaneous coronary intervention in patients whose right coronary artery arises from the left sinus of Valsalva and in whom the standard guiding catheters do not allow coaxial support.

There have been published risk stratification approaches to predict complications following percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). However, a formal assessment of such approaches with respect to predicting length of stay (LOS) is lacking. Therefore, we sought to assess the performance of, an easy-to-use, tree-structured prognostic classification model in predicting LOS among patients with e...

Background-—Adjunctive thrombus aspiration (TA) during primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was reported to promote better coronary and myocardial reperfusion. However, long-term mortality benefit of TA remains controversial. The objective of this study is to investigate the clinical impact of TA on long-term clinical outcomes in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarct...

Anterior ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) can be a life-threatening condition. Prompt recognition of the typical ECG findings and rapid transfer to a primary percutaneous coronary intervention centre are critical. Although the ECG appearances of anterior STEMI are quite characteristic, confusion sometimes arises with 3 other ECG morphologies. Can you identify the genuine anter...

BACKGROUND Substantial geographic variation exists in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) use across the United States. It is unclear the extent to which high PCI utilization can be explained by PCI for inappropriate indications. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between PCI rates across regional healthcare markets utilizing hospital referral regions (HRRs) and PC...