Journal of Invasive Cardiology

Dear Readers,

This issue of the Journal of Invasive Cardiology includes original research articles, a review, “Clinical Images”, and online case reports. These case reports can be found on our web site (www.invasivecardiology. com). I encourage you to visit the website to read these interesting and informative case reports.

In the first original article, Dr. Francesco Burzotta and colleagues from the Catholic University of the Sacred in Rome, Italy describe their study to assess the feasibility of the sequential combination of thrombus-aspiration and filter distal protection in the management of lesions with a very high thrombus burden. Although the authors found improvement in blood flow following the use of the thrombus-aspiration device, there was not significant improvement following the distal filter protection device, suggesting that the increased complexity of adding this device may not be warranted. Dr. On Topaz of the editorial board has included a commentary to accompany the Burzotta et al. article.

In the next original research article, Dr. Edo Kaluski and colleagues from the Department of Cardiology at the University Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey, Brigham and Women Hospital and Harvard Medical School and the Biomedical Engineering Center, Experimental Cardiovascular Interventional Laboratory in Boston, Massachusetts present an animal study evaluating deliverability and safety of a novel stent design utilizing an ultra-thin polymer mesh sleeve attached to the external surface of the stent (M-Guard). Compared to bare metal stents, the M-guard stent had similar success in delivery and comparable restenosis profile at 30 days compared to the bare metal stents.

Dr. Kunadian Vijayalakshmi and collaborators from the Department of Cardiology at the James Cook University Hospital and the School of Health and Social Care in Middlesbrough, UK describe their randomized study in highrisk, non-shock patients to assess the effect of intra-aortic counterpulsation on coronary flow and tissue perfusion after PCI. They found that intra-aortic counterpulsation did not have measurable beneficial effects on early coronary flow nor on 1 or 30-day assessment echocardiographic wall motion index. Drs. Sukesh Burjonroppa, AJ Boyle and Yerem Yeghiazarians from the University of California San Francisco have provided a commentary to accompany the article by Dr. Vijayalakshmi et al.

In the next original research article, submitted by Dr. Oleg Roussanov and associates from the Cardiology Section of the Salem VA Medical Center in Salem, Virginia, the authors report on their study of the cost effectiveness of the radial versus femoral artery approach for diagnostic cardiac catheterization. They found that the radial approach was more cost effective than the femoral approach for diagnostic cardiac catheterization, with or without the use of femoral closure devices. Professor Ferdinand Kiemeneij from OLCV has provided a commentary.