Editor`s Message

Dear Readers,

This issue marks the beginning of another year of publication for the Journal of Invasive Cardiology. In this issue, we recognize the editorial board members and the reviewers who contribute their time to make this a state-of-the-art publication. I want to thank them for their willingness to take on this important work. I would also like to thank the editorial staff of the journal and HMP Communications for their support and efforts in making this all possible. As we begin this year, we are faced on one hand with the looming health care crisis and the unknown impact of health care reform, while on the other hand we are at the threshold of exciting developments such as TAVR and new drugs to treat cardiac conditions. I am certain that it will be a challenging year, and I am hopeful that the journal can make an impact on this by providing information that will help practitioners deliver beneficial and cost-effective treatment to cardiovascular disease patients. 

In the first original research selection, Dr. Harsh Golwala and colleagues from the Department of Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Section and Heart Rhythm Institute, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma present their study on the impact of embolic protection devices on outcomes in patients receiving saphenous vein graft interventions. This article is accompanied by an interesting commentary from Drs. Arumugam Narayanan, Mouhamad Abdallah, and Tarek Helmy from the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the next article, Dr. Teruyoshi Kume and collaborators from The Center for Cardiovascular Technology, and Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center in Stanford, California report on the evaluation of incomplete stent apposition using intravascular ultrasound. Dr. V.S. Srinivas from the editorial board along with Dr. Maulik Patel, both from Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine have provided an editorial commentary to accompany the article by Kume et al. Next, Kranthi Kolli and associates from the School of Dynamic Systems, Mechanical Engineering Program, Departments of Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Environmental Health at the University of Cincinnati, the Heart Institute, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Deaconess Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio present their research on the effect of changes in contractility on pressure drop coefficient and fractional flow reserve in a porcine model. In the last original research article, Dr. Anders Hvelplund and collaborators from the National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark in Gentofte, Copenhagen, the Danish Heart Registry, and the Department of Cardiology at Copenhagen University Hospital, Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen, and Departments of Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery at Aarhus University Hospital, Odense University Hospital and Skejby University Hospital present the results of their national study of over 18,000 patients evaluating the significance of the invasive strategy after acute myocardial infarction on prognosis and secondary prevention medication.

This issue also contains selections from the New Technique and Clinical Images sections, and a review article. The New Technique selection is from Drs. Jigar Patel, Reji Pappy and Mazen Abu-Fadel from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and presents their experience using a novel adjunctive kissing-balloon technique with the Trellis device to successfully prevent embolization across juxtaposed kissing aortoilliac stents. In the Clinical Images selection, Drs. Rajesh Sachdeva and Brian Eble from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Arkansas show a case demonstrating the rapid progression of coronary aneurysm to stenosis in a patient with Kawasaki disease. The review article this month was submitted by Drs. Sandra Weiss and Neeraj Jolly from the Section of Cardiology at the University of Chicago Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. Their review presents practical considerations of percutaneous ventricular assist devices.

Articles published in our “Online Exclusive” section this month include a case showing the use of ultrasound in the diagnosis and treatment of iatrogenic acute coronary dissection during coronary angioplasty for in-stent restenosis, a case with entrapment of a kinked catheter in the radial artery during transradial coronary angiography, a case demonstrating how CT coronary angiography-guided percutaneous intervention was used with the retrograde approach to treat a chronic total occlusion, a case illustrating the role of the hybrid endovascular suite in improving outcomes of surgical ligation of a coronary artery fistula, a case showing irreversible delayed complete heart block secondary to a jailed first septal perforator following PCI of the LAD, the closure of an acquired left ventricular to left atrial fistula with an Amplatzer device and a case of Impella assisted balloon aortic valvuloplasty. You’ll find these selections on our website www.invasivecardiology.com. After reading these articles, follow the website links to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to engage the authors and other readers in discussions of these articles or any related topics of interest to the cardiovascular specialist.

Sincerely,

Richard E. Shaw, PhD, FACC, FACA
Editor-in-Chief