the guideliner catheter: a useful tool in the armamentarium of the interventional cardiologist

regardless of the clinical setting, a good back-up represents one of the most important conditions to ensure guide wire and balloon advancement and stent delivery. as a “mother and child” system, the guideliner catheter (vascular solutions inc., minneapolis, mn, usa) provides an extension to the guide catheter with better coaxial alignment and stability. we report two didactic cases showing the usefulness of the guideliner device in everyday catheterization laboratory practice. the first case was a primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pci) in a 71-year-old diabetic man admitted for inferior st-elevation myocardial infarction, related to tight proximal stenosis in a dominant tortuous and calcified left circumflex. the second case was an elective pci in a 76-year-old man admitted for stable angina (canadian cardiovascular society [ccs] class iii), related to focal intra-stent restenosis of a saphenous venous graft to the left anterior descending. in both cases, the guideliner catheter provided a good back-up insuring the success of pci and drug-eluting stents implantation, with a good in-hospital outcome.