In this issue of Interventional Cardiology Review there are nine excellent papers, all focusing on issues that have important implications for the clinical practice of interventional cardiologists. Jabbour et al recently published a paper documenting the incidence and possible predictors of delayed coronary obstruction (DCO). Here they summarise the data and go on to discuss how valve design may reduce the incidence of DCO. Coughlan et al discuss another of the feared complications of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) – annular rupture. They focus on predictors of annular rupture, as well as its management. The final paper in this issue’s structural section by Modine et al provides an excellent and comprehensive review of non femoral access for TAVI procedures, with particular focus on outcome data.
In this issue’s coronary section, Kaski et al provide an excellent review of microvascular angina. Capodan et al review the currently available tools for risk stratifying patients with coronary artery disease, discussing their relative merits and applications. Rigger et al provide an overview of the complications of chronic total occlusion (CTO) procedures, an important consideration when counselling patients regarding such procedures. Coronary computerised tomography (CT) scans are commonly used to diagnose coronary artery disease, but Leipsic et al assess the value of non-invasive FFRct for planning coronary interventions. In this issue, Leipsic et al survey the current status of non-invasive FFRct imaging for planning coronary interventions. Weidinger et al review the current data relating to the management of patients presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), specifically with regards to the relative merits of culprit only and complete revascularisation. The autumn issue of ICR concludes with a review by Jackson et al highlighting the initial results from the ORBITA trial.
I hope you find these papers as useful as I do!