September 2007

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Volume 19 Issue 9
Right Pulmonary Artery-to-Left Atrial Fistula: A Differential Diagnosis of Cyanosis without Structural Heart Disease
Direct communication between the right pulmonary artery and the left atrium is an unusual variation of a pulmonary arteriovenous fistula. In fact, there are only about 50 cases reported in the literature.1 This is one condition in which clinical exam…
Of Octopus Pots and Broken Hearts
To the Editor: The angiographic finding of noncritical coronary stenoses in the setting of acute coronary syndrome and even myocardial infarction has been well described. One potential etiology is Prinzmetal’s angina or coronary spasm.1 More recent J…
Endovascular Repair of a Carotid Pseudoaneurysm with
Fluency® Plus Stent Graft Implantation
Pseudoaneurysm formation is a rare complication following carotid endarterectomy (CEA), with an incidence of less than 1% of cases.1 Treatment of this complication is challenging. The current standard of care is some form of repair rather than conser…
Percutaneous Treatment of Severe Carotid Stenosis Due to Takayasu’s Arteritis Early after Carotid Endarterectomy
Takayasu’s arteritis (TA) is a chronic inflammatory large-vessel disease of unknown etiology involving the aorta, its major branches and the pulmonary arteries.1,2 Resultant mixed areas of stenosis, occlusion, thrombosis and/or dilatation may cause a…
Percutaneous Coronary Intervention of a Totally Occluded Anomalous Right Coronary Artery Arising from the Left Sinus of Valsalva
Coronary arterial anomalies occur in approximately 1% of the population, without other congenital cardiac malformations.1 The incidence of anomalous origin of the right coronary artery out of the right sinus of Valsalva ranges from under 0.01–0.09%.…
Contact Wire Technique: A Possible Strategy for Parallel Wire Techniques
Successful recanalization of chronic total occlusion (CTO) improves left ventricular function1 and survival.2 There are, however, several difficulties with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for CTO (CTOPCI). Failure to cross the occlusive lesi…
Towards an Understanding of the Role of Rescue Angioplasty for Failed Fibrinolysis: Comparison of the MERLIN, RESCUE and REACT T
Early restoration of infarct-related artery (IRA) blood flow and myocardial perfusion in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (MI) is linked with preservation of left ventricular function, myocardial salvage and a reduction…
Vascular Complications in Women after Catheterization and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention 1998–2005
Women have been shown historically to have a greater risk of complications than men following invasive procedures.1–5 The increased incidence of complications in women appears to occur independently of other factors known to influence the incidence o…
XX and Risky Business
There is extensive literature demonstrating a disturbingly higher mortality rate, intraprocedural coronary artery injury rate and periprocedural vascular complication rate in women versus men. The disparity has been partially explained by more comorb…
Outlook of Drug-Eluting Stent Implantation for Unprotected Left Main Disease: Insights on Long-Term Clinical Predictors
Unprotected left main coronary artery (LMCA) is one of the most challenging lesion subsets for interventional cardiologists, and is still considered a strict surgical indication as long-term results of recent randomized trials are awaited. Although n…