Search

Introduction and Objectives: This article presents the annual activity report of the Interventional Cardiology Association of the Spanish Society of Cardiology (ACI-SEC) for the year 2022., Methods: All Spanish centers with catheterization laboratories were invited to participate. Data were collected online and were analyzed by an external company in collaboration with the members of the board of the ACI-SEC., Results: A total of 111 centers participated. The number of diagnostic studies increased by 4.8% compared with 2021, while that of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) remained stable. PCIs on the left main coronary artery increased by 22%. The radial approach continued to be preferred for PCI (94.9%). There was an upsurge in the use of drug-eluting balloons, as well as in intracoronary imaging techniques, which were used in 14.7% of PCIs. The use of pressure wires also increased (6.3% vs 2021) as did plaque modification techniques. Primary PCI continued to grow and was the most frequent treatment (97%) in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. Most noncoronary procedures maintained their upward trend, particularly percutaneous aortic valve implantation, atrial appendage closure, mitral/tricuspid edge-to-edge therapy, renal denervation, and percutaneous treatment of pulmonary arterial disease., Conclusions: The Spanish cardiac catheterization and coronary intervention registry for 2022 reveals a rise in the complexity of coronary disease, along with a notable growth in procedures for valvular and nonvalvular structural heart disease., (Copyright © 2023 Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Introduction and Objectives: Up to 25% of patients who undergo a percutaneous coronary intervention show some limitation in the use of drug-eluting stents. The aim of this study was to evaluate if titanium-nitride-oxide-coated stents could be a good alternative to everolimus-eluting stents in diabetic patients., Methods: A total of 173 diabetic patients with lesions at moderate risk of restenosis (exclusion criteria: diameter < 2.5 mm or length > 28 mm in vessels < 3mm, chronic occlusion) were randomized to a titanium group (83 patients) or an everolimus group (90 patients)., Results: Baseline characteristics were well balanced; 28.3% of patients were insulin dependent. At 1 year, the incidence of major adverse cardiac events (death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, stroke, or repeat target vessel revascularization) was significantly higher in the titanium group than in the everolimus group (total, 14.5% vs 4.4%; P = .02; noninsulin-dependent subgroup, 9.7% vs 3.2%; P = .14; insulin-dependent subgroup, 28.6% vs 7.1%; P = .04). The incidence of death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, stroke, or any revascularization was 16.9% in the titanium group and 7.8% in the everolimus group (P = .06). Target lesion and vessel revascularizations occurred in 8.4% compared with 3.3% (P = .15) and in 13.3% compared with 3.3% (P = .01) in the titanium and everolimus groups, respectively. Angiographic follow-up at 9 months showed significantly less late lumen loss in the everolimus group (in-segment, 0.52 [standard deviation, 0.58) mm vs -0.05 [0.32] mm; in-stent, 0.76 [0.54] mm vs 0.13 [0.31] mm; P < .0001)., Conclusions: The everolimus-eluting stent is superior to the titanium stent for clinical and angiographic end points in diabetic patients with lesions at moderate risk of restenosis., (Copyright © 2013 Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.)

Introduction and Objectives: Drug-eluting stents (DES) have proven to be effective in reducing the rate of restenosis and have, therefore, been incorporated into the treatment of patients with ST-elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI). The aim of this study was to investigate long-term clinical and angiographic outcomes following the use of DESs in patients with STEMI., Methods: A prospective study involving clinical and angiographic follow-up was performed in 81 patients with STEMI who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention including DES implantation. This group was compared with 82 patients with similar characteristics who were treated with bare-metal stents (BMS) in an earlier period., Results: At one year, there was no significant difference between the groups in the mortality (2.5% in the DES group vs 7.3% in the BMS group; P=.15) or reinfarction rate (4.8% in the DES group vs. 4.8% in the BMS group; P=.98). The target lesion revascularization rate was significantly lower in the DES group (8.6% vs 23.2% in the BMS group; P=.001), as was the restenosis rate (13.8% vs. 30.9% in the BMS group; P=.02). Acute or subacute stent thrombosis was diagnosed in five patients (3 with a DES and 2 with a BMS; P=.64), and one late stent thrombosis was detected after a year, in a sirolimus-eluting stent., Conclusions: Implantation of a DES in patients with STEMI did not result in a reduction in either the mortality or reinfarction rate at 1 year compared with BMS implantation. However, there were reductions in the rates of restenosis and target lesion revascularization. The incidence of thrombosis was similar with the two types of stent.

Coronary stent thrombosis is a catastrophic complication of percutaneous coronary intervention. Its incidence is reported to be about 1%, though it can occur more frequently in high-risk patients, in high-risk lesions, and in multivessel procedures. We investigated the occurrence of stent thrombosis in 404 consecutive patients in a period when conventional and drug-eluting stents were both being used. We found an overall incidence of 2.23%, a mortality rate of 22.2%, and a non-fatal myocardial infarction rate of 66.6%. Predictors of stent thrombosis were acute myocardial infarction, multiple stent placement, poor ejection fraction, small stent diameter, the presence of residual dissection, and premature discontinuation of clopidogrel.

Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the right sinus of Valsalva is an anatomical abnormality that is usually associated with myocardial ischemia and sudden death. Although this abnormality may coexist with obstructive atherosclerotic coronary disease, disease is not usually found in the anomalous course of the artery. When this coronary anomaly and obstructive coronary disease are both present, it is difficult to determine the cause of ischemic symptoms. We report a case in which three different diagnostic techniques were used to find the cause of ischemic symptoms in a patient whose left coronary artery originated anomalously in the right sinus of Valsalva and followed a course between the aorta and the pulmonary trunk and who had obstructive atherosclerotic lesions in the right coronary artery. The techniques were conventional angiography, which was used for the initial diagnosis, multislice computerized tomography, which was used to determine the anomalous course of the artery and its relationship with vascular structures, and exercise echocardiography, which was used to evaluate ischemia in the left coronary artery territory after treatment of the stenoses in the right coronary artery.

Introduction and Objectives: A variable percentage of patients with myocardial infarction treated with successful primary angioplasty and restoration of coronary flow show persistent ST-segment elevation, probably due to inadequate cellular reperfusion. We studied if persistent ST-segment elevation was a predictor of worse prognosis., Patients and Methods: We comparatively studied the clinical and angiographic results of 116 acute myocardial infarction patients after successful primary angioplasty, which were classified into two groups depending on the persistence (> 50%) or reduction (

Introduction and Objectives: The late reocclusion or restenosis rate of the infarct related artery is frequent after primary angioplasty. An implanted stent may be able to improve the coronary angioplasty results and long-term outcome of these patients. We present the clinical and angiographic outcome of a cohort of patients treated with primary stenting., Patients and Methods: A group of 74 consecutive patients with acute myocardial infarction treated with primary angioplasty and stenting were followed for one year. An angiographic control was performed at the 6th month of follow-up in 91% of patients to assess the restenosis and reocclusion rates of the infarct-related artery., Results: There were eight in-hospital deaths and three during follow-up (mortality rate 14.8%) and one non-fatal reinfarction (1.5%). The cumulative rate of recurrent ischemia was 6% at 3 months and 15% at 6 months, without any further increment at one-year follow-up. A new angioplasty was performed in 7 patients and three patients underwent surgical revascularization. Thus 80% of patients after discharge were free of events. The angiographic control showed only one reocclusion of the infarct related artery and a restenosis rate of 27%., Conclusions: These results show that primary stenting is an effective procedure in treating non-selected patients with acute myocardial infarction with a low long-term incidence of adverse events and a low restenosis rate.

Introduction and Objectives: There are not any conclusive data about the changes in in-hospital mortality in a non-selected series of patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction in different periods of time. We studied the in-hospital mortality of three extensive series of patients admitted to our Coronary Care Unit during different periods of time, the influence of reperfusion methods and their early application, as well as the changes in baseline characteristics of the three populations studied., Methods: The in-hospital mortality of 1,858 consecutively-admitted patients during three different periods of time (1983-1986, 1992-1994, and 1995-1998) were studied. The demographic data, the previous history and risk factors, the evolution during the acute phase and the treatment prescribed with special attention to the reperfusion methods applied and the delay on its administration were compared., Results: The differences in the baseline characteristics of the populations studied are described. In the two groups of the nineteen-nineties, an increase in the age and in the percentage of women, diabetics and hypertensives was compared. As for the characteristics of acute myocardial infarction, an increase of patients in Killip class 3 and 4 stands out besides other changes. Fibrinolitic treatment decreased during the third period due to the increment in primary angioplasty. There were no significant differences in hospital mortality among the three series studied. The treatment with thrombolysis and primary angioplasty during the first two hours showed a significant independent reduction of mortality., Conclusions: The early application of thrombolysis and primary angioplasty showed an independent reduction of the hospital mortality in our study. Nevertheless the non-adjusted mortality rate did not show any change during the last 15 years.

Introduction and Objectives: In previous studies we have observed ischemic processes of very brief duration (2 minutes) and with brief reperfusion (3 minutes), which have been repeated 20 times (ischemic protocol [IP]). They are capable of producing contractile dysfunction of the ischemic zone, with a decrease of 28.6% at 24 hours, and coronary blood flow maintenance (stunning)., Methods: The aim of this study is to examine the evolution of this dysfunction. The IP designed in our laboratory was used on 24 adult mongrel dogs. We measured regional myocardial function using a pair of implanted chronic ultrasonic crystals in the ischemic area (depending on the left anterior descending coronary artery) and a second pair in the control zone (depending on the left circumflex coronary artery)., Results: After analyzing results, we found that the shortening fraction decreased to 28.6% (p < 0.05) in 24 hours. During the subsequent five days the shortening fraction decreased to a minimum of 67.88% (p < 0.01), after which there was a progressive recovery that reached 18.95% (NS) below the base-line on the tenth day. We did not observe any significant variation in the hemodynamic parameters at any time., Conclusions: The repeated, very brief episodes of ischemia (in the experimental terms that we have explained) produced a contractile dysfunction which reached its maximum on the fifth day, and returned to normal on the tenth day. We hypothesize that these alterations could explain the episodes of left ventricular failure with spontaneous recuperation observed in stable myocardial ischemia, and for which no immediate cause has been found.

Introduction and Objectives: Stent implantation has been generally contraindicated during primary percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty in AMI, because of its possible trombogenicity. Report the early outcome of patients undergoing coronary stenting during primary PTCA., Methods: From january 1995 to april 1996, 31 patients underwent stent implantation in primary. Mean age 62 +/- 11 years. Infarct location was anterior in 20 (65%), and inferior in 11 patients (35%). Four patients were in Killip class IV. Mean onset of chest pain was 129 +/- 29 minutes. Indications for stenting were suboptimal result (64%), dissection (29%) and elective (6%). All patients were treated with heparin during 72 hours and antiplatelet therapy with ticlopidine and aspirin., Results: Coronary stenting restored vessel patency with TIMI 3 flow in 29 patients (94%) and TIMI 2 flow in 2 patients. Angiographic control was performed in 80% of the patients: no stent occlusion was observed and all patients showed a TIMI 3 flow. There were 3 deaths (9%): 2 patients died due to cardiogenic shock and 1 to severe right ventricular dysfunction. 2 patients (6%) had recurrent angina, due to other artery. One patient with left main coronary disease underwent elective coronary artery bypass graft surgery., Conclusions: Intracoronary stent can be used successfully during primary angioplasty with a low incidence of complications. The long term benefits remains to be established.

Objective: To analyze whether nitroglycerin and nifedipine can reduce myocardial stunning due to very brief, repeated coronary ischemias., Material and Methods: In 33 anaesthetized and open chest dogs, the lengthening and shortening fractions were analyzed with ultrasonic crystals in the ischemic and control myocardial areas. Twenty repeated coronary occlusions of 2 minutes each, with a recovery time of 3 minutes between each occlusion, were induced. At the beginning of the experiment, nitroglycerin (0.3 mg i.v. and 80 micrograms/kg/min perfusion) was administered in series A (n = 8), nifedipine (5 mu/kg i.v. and 1 microgram/kg/min perfusion) in series B (n = 9). The results were compared with control results (n = 16) without drugs., Results: Changes in the shortening fraction of the ischemic area during coronary occlusions were similar in all three series; after the last occlusion the shortening fraction in the control series was -14.9% with respect to basal values, -14.6% in series A and -16.6% in series B. Sixty minutes after the last ischemia, the shortening fraction impairment in respect to the basal values was larger in the control series (-18.9%) and in series A (-16.9%). In series B there was recovery (-13.5%) (p < 0.05 vs control series)., Conclusions: Our study indicates that nitroglycerin does not seem to have cardioprotective effects against brief, repeated ischemia. However, nifedipine decreases postischemic dysfunction due to this model of ischemia, probably by avoiding the intracellular Ca overload produced during cardiac ischemia.