More than 1.2 million percutaneous coronary interventions are performed annually in the United States, withonly an estimated 33% performed in women, despite the established benefits of percutaneous coronary intervention andadjunctive pharmacotherapy in reducing fatal and nonfatal ischemic complications in acute myocardial infarction andhigh-risk acute coronary syndromes. This statem...

Activities related to medical innovation are accelerating and becoming increasingly important due to the demand for better and less invasive therapies, a rapidly aging population in the developed world and a globally larger population able to afford advanced medical care. Medical Innovation is occurring in the fields of pharmacy, diagnostics and therapeutic imaging, surgical products, intervent...

The evolving specialty of cardiovascular hybrid surgery that involves the integration of advanced interventional techniques into cardiovascular surgery requires sophisticated angiographic imaging capabilities in the operating room (hybrid suite). This new operating-room concept enables new cardiac-surgery therapies and will play a vital role for the advancement of minimally invasive cardiovascu...

R efractory angina pectoris is a debilitating clinical condition that has typically been used to describe a subset of patients with chest pain syndrome on maximally tolerated antianginal medical therapy, demonstrable myocardial ischemia, and no coronary revascularization options (1). A multitude of novel treatment options directed at patients with refractory angina, ranging from interventional ...

Despite the several-thousand-fold increase of brain volume during the course of mammalian evolution, the hierarchy of brain oscillations remains remarkably preserved, allowing for multiple-time-scale communication within and across neuronal networks at approximately the same speed, irrespective of brain size. Deployment of large-diameter axons of long-range neurons could be a key factor in the ...

The assessment of hemodynamics based on medical image data represents an attractive means in order to enhance diagnostic imaging capabilities, to evaluate clinical outcomes of therapies focusing on the patient’s vascular system, as well as to guide minimally invasive interventional procedures in the catheter lab. We present a first evaluation along with comparisons of algorithmic approaches tow...

Patent foramen ovale (PFO) is experiencing increased clinical interest as a congenital cardiac lesion persisting into adulthood. It is implicated in several serious clinical syndromes, including stroke, myocardial infarction, and systemic embolism. The PFO is now amenable to percutaneous interventional therapies, and multiple novel technologies are either available or under development for lesi...

Objectives At the completion of this course, the reader should be able to: 1. Discuss the symptoms of complex regional pain syndrome. 2. Delineate the diagnostic criteria for complex regional pain syndrome. 3. Review the major pathophysiologic mechanisms of complex regional pain syndrome. 4. Describe the role of sympathetic dysfunction in complex regional pain syndrome. 5. Discuss interventiona...

Transcatheter mitral valve therapies have emerged as an alternative option in high surgical risk or inoperable patients with severe and symptomatic mitral regurgitation (MR). As multiple technologies and different approaches will become available in the field of mitral valve interventions, different challenges are emerging, both patient- (clinical challenges) and procedure-related (technical ch...