The field of interventional cardiology continues to progress quickly. The efficacy of percutaneous interventions with newer generation drug-eluting stents has advanced a lot over the last decade. This improvement in stent performance has broadened the level of indication towards more complex interventions such as left main and multi- vessel PCI. Major improvements continue in the field of medic...

The Multidisciplinary Congress in Cardio-Thoracic Healthcare was held in Ottawa, Canada, August 17–20, 2006. The Congress focused on some of the fastest-evolving areas in cardio–thoracic healthcare, namely medical devices, interventional procedures, pharmaceutical agents, imaging technologies, cell-based therapies and surgical approaches. The Congress Chairs were Sir Magdi Yacoub, Joel D Cooper...

Introduction and aims The role of capsule endoscopy (CE) in patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) has yet to be established; however, it is likely that it will remain a valuable diagnostic modality in several groups of patients with LC. The primary aims of the current prospective interventional study are to examine the prevalence for small bowel lesions and transit time of CE in the gastrointestin...

An increasing number of patients have advanced coronary artery disease with ischemic symptoms that are refractory to medical therapy and revascularization. With the increasing adoption of percutaneous revascularization of chronic total occlusions, previously nonrevascularizable vessels may now be targets for revascularization, which may change the landscape of refractory angina. Several nonphar...

A potential complementary role of the dietary long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCn-3 PUFA) in combination with innovative mono-targeted therapies has recently been proposed. These compounds are thought to act pleiotropically to prevent the development and progression of a variety of cancers, including breast cancer. We hereinafter critically analyze the reports investigating the abil...

In the care of patients with hepatic neuroendocrine metastases, medical oncologists should work in multidisciplinary fashion with surgeons, interventional radiologists, and radiation oncologists to assess the potential utility of liver-directed and systemic therapies. This paper addresses the various roles and evidence basis for cytoreductive surgery, thermal ablation (radiofrequency, microwave...

Neuropathic pain originates from a lesion within the central or peripheral nervous system. The signs of neuropathic pain include heat hyperalgesia, mechanohyperalgesia, and mechanoand cold allodynia. Traditionally, neuropathic pain responds poorly to conventional analgesics. This chapter will provide recommendations for medical and interventional management of neuropathic pain conditions based ...

"Heart failure is an increasingly prevalent disease with high mortality and public health burden. It is associated with autonomic imbalance characterized by sympathetic hyperactivity and parasympathetic hypoactivity. Evolving novel interventional and device-based therapies have sought to restore autonomic balance by neuromodulation. Results of preclinical animal studies and early clinical trial...

The development of disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an urgent issue. Progress in the understanding of AD pathophysiology based on the amyloid hypothesis has led to the development of numerous candidate disease-modifying therapies over the past 15 years. The therapeutic target, amyloid β (Aβ), starts to accumulate in AD brains long before the onset of cognitive decline...