Editor`s Message

Dear Readers,

The goal of the Journal of Invasive Cardiology is to provide state-of-the-art information that will support clinicians in the effective management of patients with cardiovascular disease. There are many selections in this issue that I hope readers will find useful in their clinical practice to promote more effective treatment of cardiovascular disease patients. 

In the first original research article, Dr Shinichi Furuichi and associates from the Department of Cardiology at Sakakibara Heart Institute in Tokyo, Japan report on their analysis of using rotational atherectomy followed by cutting balloon plaque modification for implanting drug-eluting stents in calcified coronary lesions. Dr Barbara Stähli and colleagues from the Department of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Center, Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Cardiac Imaging at the University Hospital Zurich in Zurich and the FB Mathematics and Computer Sciences at the University of Bremen in Germany present their analysis showing the utility of coronary computed tomography angiography in guiding percutaneous coronary intervention. In the next selection also related to imaging, Dr Joo Heung Yoon and associates from the Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard School of Medicine in Boston, Columbia University Medical Center and the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York, the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford, LightLab Imaging/St Jude Medical in Westford, MA and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Case Western University in Cleveland present their multicenter study of the feasibility and safety of the second-generation, frequency domain optical coherence tomography device. Next, Dr Bryan Cogar and associates from University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City VA Medical Center, Oklahoma Heart Hospital and Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma present their findings on the clinical safety of bivalirudin in patients undergoing carotid stenting. In the next research article, Dr Fei Sun and collaborators from Jesus Uson Minimally Invasive Surgery Center and the Department of Cardiology, San Pedro de Alcantara Hospital in Caceres, Spain and the Department of Endovascular Therapy, Hospiten Rambla, Santa Cruz de Tenerife in Spain present the results of their animal study on the technical feasibility of chronic intrapericardial catheterization for repeated drug delivery. In the final original research selection, Dr Jose Miguel Iturbe and colleagues from VA North Texas Healthcare System and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas report on their research study looking at the frequency, treatment, and consequences of device loss and entrapment in contemporary PCI.

In the first TAVR section selection, Drs Jon Spiro, Asif Nadeem, and Sagar Doshi from the Department of Interventional Cardiology, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Birmingham, UK show a case of delayed left main stem obstruction following successful TAVI where resuscitation and PCI were done using a non-invasive automated chest compression device. In the second article from this section, Drs Ramy Badawi, Mark Grise, and Stanley Thornton from the Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, The John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, LA present their study using Impella 2.5 assisted balloon aortic valvuloplasty and PCI as a bridge to heart transplantation.  

In the special section for Radial Access Technique, Dr Tak Kwan and colleagues from the Departments of Cardiology at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education in Scranton, PA and Medical Municipal College, Sheth V.S. General Hospital in Gujarat, India describe their study of balloon-assisted sheathless transradial intervention (BASTI) using 5 Fr Guiding catheters. In the second selection, Drs Tejas Patel, Sanjay Shah, and Samir Pancholy from the Total Cardiovascular Solutions Private Limited, Ahmedabad, India, Sheth V.S. General Hospital and Smt. N.H.L. Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad, India, and Mercy Hospital and Community Medical Center, Scranton, Pennsylvania discuss the challenges encountered treating an adult patient with mirror-image right aortic arch, whose coronary angiogram was performed through right transradial access.

This issue also contains selections from the New Technique, Brief Communication and Clinical Images special sections.  The first New Technique selection, submitted by Drs Raymond Chi-Yan Fung and Chi-Kin Chan from the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine and Geriatrics, United Christian Hospital in Hong Kong, describes their approach to treating chronic total occlusions using a novel antegrade guidewire probing technique.  In the second New Technique selection, Drs Anvar Babaev and Rahul Jhaveri from the Division of Cardiology at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York present their research on angiography and endovascular revascularization of pudendal artery atherosclerotic disease in patients with medically refractory erectile dysfunction. In the Brief Communication section selection,  Dr J.M. Weinstein and colleagues from the Cardiology Department, Soroka Medical Center and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel report on their study evaluating medical treatment versus angioplasty for isolated ostial diagonal stenoses.

In the first Clinical Images selection, Dr Konstantinos Toutouzas shows images of a case demonstrating the role of optical coherence tomography in overcoming the pitfalls of angiography in the assessment of atherosclerosis. And finally, Drs Usman Javed, Jeffrey Levisman, and Jason Rogers from the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of California, Davis Medical Center present a case showing their use of temporary balloon occlusion to assess hemodynamics with atrial septal defect. 

Articles published in our “Online Exclusive” section this month include a discussion of the importance of angiographic evaluation of the internal mammary artery prior to myocardial revascularization, a case of a pediatric patient with anomalous pulmonary flow to the left atrium that was redirected using a Vascular Plug II and a brief review of the pertinent literature, a case showing how segmental diastolic compression of the circumflex artery secondary to pericardial constriction can cause angina, a case demonstrating the use of a covered stent to exclude an infected pseudoaneurysm of a modified Blalock Taussig shunt, along with several cases from the Complex Case Interventions section, including a situation where post angioplasty there is acquired left circumflex coronary artery fistula draining into an LV aneurysm, the use of 3 Amplatzer occluders for closure of a post-myocardial infarction ventricular septal defect, and a case showing a very unusual origin of the left subclavian artery. All of these selections can be found on our website (www.invasivecardiology.com), as well as video components to several of the articles from the May issue. We welcome you to take advantage of our technologies with links to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn from our home page. Please join our  discussions of these articles and related important topics.

Sincerely,

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