Eurointervention 

About: Eurointervention is an academic journal published by European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Stent & Percutaneous coronary intervention. It has an ISSN identifier of 1774-024X. Over the lifetime, 4042 publications have been published receiving 81316 citations. The journal is also known as: Euro Intervention.

The SYNTAX Score: an angiographic tool grading the complexity of coronary artery disease.

Abstract: 1 Department of Interventional Cardiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Thoraxcenter Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2 Cardialysis BV, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 3 Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Erasmus Medical Center, Thoraxcenter, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 4 Institut Cardiovasculaire Paris Sud, Massy, France 5 San Raffaele Hospital, Milano, Italy 6 Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK 7 Ouderkerk aan den ijssel, The Netherlands 8 Boston Scientific Corporation, Maastricht, The Netherlands 9 Boston Scientific Corporation, Natick Massachusetts, USA 10 Herzzentrum, Leipzig, Germany

Procedural and 30-day outcomes following transcatheter aortic valve implantation using the third generation (18 Fr) CoreValve ReValving System: results from the multicentre, expanded evaluation registry 1-year following CE mark approval

Abstract: AIMS: To describe the procedural performance and 30-day outcomes following implantation using the 18 Fr CoreValve Revalving System (CRS) as part of the multicentre, expanded evaluation registry, 1-year after obtaining CE mark approval. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis and logistic Euroscore > or =15%, or age > or =75 years, or age > or =65 years associated with pre-defined risk factors, and for whom a physician proctor and a clinical specialist were in attendance during the implantation and who collected the clinical data, were included. From April 2007, to April 2008, 646 patients with a mean age of 81 +/- 6.6 years, mean aortic valve area 0.6 +/- 0.2 cm2, and logistic EuroSCORE of 23.1 +/- 13.8% were recruited. After valve implantation, the mean transaortic valve gradient decreased from 49.4 +/- 13.9 to 3 +/- 2 mmHg. All patients had paravalvular aortic regurgitation < or = grade 2. The rate of procedural success was 97%. The procedural mortality rate was 1.5%. At 30 days, the all-cause mortality rate (i.e, including procedural) was 8% and the combined rate of death, stroke and myocardial infarction was 9.3%. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study demonstrate the high rate of procedural success and a low 30-day mortality in a large cohort of high-risk patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) with the CRS.

Assessment of the SYNTAX score in the Syntax study

Abstract: Aims: The SYNTAX™ score has been designed to better anticipate the risks of percutaneous or surgical revascularisation, taking into account the functional impact of the coronary circulation with all its anatomic components including the presence of bifurcations, total occlusions, thrombus, calcification, and small vessels. The purpose of this paper is to describe the baseline assessment of the SYNTAX™ score in the Syntax randomised trial, the corelab reproducibility, the potential difference in score assessment between the investigator and the corelab, and to ascertain the impact on one-year outcome after either percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) in patients with complex coronary artery disease. Methods and results: To assess the reliability of Syntax™ scoring, 100 diagnostic angiograms from the Syntax trial were randomly selected and assessed independently by two observers. Intra-observer variability was assessed by analysing 91 sets of angiograms after an interval of at least eight weeks by one of the observers. Clinical outcomes in the randomised cohort of the Syntax trial up to one year are presented with stratification by tertile group of the SYNTAX™ score. The weighted kappa value for the inter-observer reproducibility on the global score was 0.45, while the intra-observer weighted kappa value was 0.59. The SYNTAX™ score as calculated by investigators consistently underscored the corelab score by 3.4 points. When the Syntax randomised cohort was stratified by tertiles of the SYNTAX™ score, there were similar or nonsignificantly different MACCE rates in those with low or intermediate scores; however in the top tertile the MACCE rate was greater in those receiving PCI compared to CABG. Conclusions: The SYNTAX™ score is a visual coronary score with an acceptable corelab reproducibility that has an impact on the one-year outcome of those having PCI, whereas it has no effect on the one-year outcome following surgical revascularisation. The SYNTAX™ score tool is likely to be useful in a wide range of patients with complex coronary disease.

Left atrial appendage occlusion for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation: multicentre experience with the AMPLATZER Cardiac Plug.

Abstract: AIMS To investigate the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) with the AMPLATZER Cardiac Plug (ACP) for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS AND RESULTS Data from consecutive patients treated in 22 centres were collected. A total of 1,047 patients were included in the study. Procedural success was 97.3%. There were 52 (4.97%) periprocedural major adverse events. Follow-up was complete in 1,001/1,019 (98.2%) of successfully implanted patients (average 13 months, total 1,349 patient-years). One-year all-cause mortality was 4.2%. No death at follow-up was reported as device-related. There were nine strokes (0.9%) and nine transient ischaemic attacks (0.9%) during follow-up. The annual rate of systemic thromboembolism was 2.3% (31/1,349 patient-years), which is a 59% risk reduction. There were 15 major bleedings (1.5%) during follow-up. The annual rate of major bleeding was 2.1% (28/1,349 patient-years), which is a 61% risk reduction. Patients with single LAAO on aspirin monotherapy or no therapy and longer follow-up had fewer cerebral and fewer bleeding events. CONCLUSIONS In this multicentre study, LAAO with the ACP showed high procedural success and a favourable outcome for the prevention of AF-related thromboembolism. Modification in antithrombotic therapy after LAAO may result in reduction of bleeding events.

Percutaneous coronary intervention with everolimus-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffolds in routine clinical practice: early and midterm outcomes from the European multicentre GHOST-EU registry

Abstract: Clinical data on the early and midterm outcomes of bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS) in routine clinical practice are limited. To fill this gap, we report on the early and midterm clinical outcomes of PCI with everolimus-eluting BVS from the large multicentre GHOST-EU registry.Between November 2011 and January 2014, 1,189 patients underwent percutaneous coronary intervention with one or more BVS (Absorb BVS; Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, CA, USA) at 10 European centres. The primary outcome of interest was target lesion failure (TLF), defined as the combination of cardiac death, target vessel myocardial infarction, or clinically driven target lesion revascularisation (TLR). A total of 1,731 Absorb BVS were implanted at a mean of 12.3±3.4 atm. Technical success was achieved in 99.7% of cases. TLF was recorded in 67 of 1,189 patients at a median of 109 (interquartile range 8-227) days after implantation. The cumulative incidence of TLF was 2.2% at 30 days and 4.4% at six months. The annualised rate of TLFwas 10.1%. At six months, the rate of cardiac death was 1.0%, target vessel myocardial infarction was 2.0%, TLR was 2.5%, and target vessel revascularisation was 4.0%. Diabetes mellitus was the only independent predictor of TLF (hazard ratio 2.41, 95% confidence interval: 1.28-4.53; p=0.006). The cumulative incidence of definite/probable scaffold thrombosis was 1.5% at 30 days and 2.1% at six months, with 16 of 23 cases occurring within 30 days."Real-world" outcomes of BVS showed acceptable rates of TLF at six months, although the rates of early and midterm scaffold thrombosis, mostly clustered within 30 days, were not negligible.