Few situations in clinical medicine are as disheartening to patients, family, healthcare providers, and healthcare systems as readmission to the hospital shortly after discharge. Such events lead to a not-unexpected plethora of questions. From the patient and family: “What went wrong?” From the provider: “What did I do wrong?” From the healthcare system: “How do we prevent this from happening a...

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of chronic total occlusions (CTOs) is a rapidly developing field. In the present review, we summarize the most important CTO PCI related literature published in 2013.

BACKGROUND Decisions to proceed with surgical versus percutaneous revascularization for multivessel coronary artery disease are often based on subtle clinical information that may not be captured in contemporary registries. The present study sought to evaluate the association between surgical ineligibility documented in the medical record and long-term mortality among patients with unprotected ...

BACKGROUND After successful percutaneous coronary arterial revascularization, 25% to 60% of subjects have restenosis, a recurrent coronary arterial narrowing at the site of the intervention. At present, restenosis is usually detected invasively with contrast coronary angiography. This study was performed to determine if phase-contrast MRI (PC-MRI) could be used to detect restenosis noninvasivel...

BACKGROUND Bleeding is associated with poor outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Although arterial closure devices (ACDs) are widely used in clinical practice, whether they are effective in reducing bleeding complications during transfemoral PCI is uncertain. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of ACDs for the prevention of vascular access site comp...

Direct thrombin inhibitors (DTI) are emerging as alternative anticoagulants to unfractionated heparin and indirect thrombin inhibitors in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). We review the pharmacological properties of these newer antithrombotic agents and evaluate the clinical data demonstrating their use in patients undergoing PCI.

INTRODUCTION Differences in after-hours capability or performance of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) centers has the potential to impact outcomes of patients presenting outside of regular hours. METHODS Using a prospective observational study, we analyzed all 1,247 non-transfer STEMI patients treated in 15 percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) facilities in Dallas, Texas, during...

A pproximately 600 000 percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) are performed annually in the United States.

The establishment of timely access to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients holds great promise for improving quality of care and patient outcomes. As described in other sections of these conference proceedings, there are significant barriers to the establishment of the ideal system. Changes in policy will be required to overcom...