Oktay Sancaktar

Late results of combined percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty of mitral and tricuspid valves

Although combined mitral and tricuspid stenosis are rarely seen in patients with rheumatic heart disease, when both exist together, combined percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty can be an alternative to surgical treatment in suitable cases. We present the immediate and late follow up results of 12 patients with rheumatic tricuspid and mitral stenosis treated with combined percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty. Twelve patients (11 female, 91.7%; 1 male, 8.3%) with a mean age of 35.3 +/- 6.4 years were enrolled in the study. The patients were followed up for 38.8 +/- 12.6 months. The mitral valve area increased from 1.2 +/- 0.2 cm2 to 2.3 +/- 0.2 cm2 (P < 0.01) and on follow up the mitral valve area did not differ significantly (2.2 +/- 0.2 cm2; P > 0.05). The tricuspid valve area increased from 1.6 +/- 0.3 cm2 to 3.2 +/- 0.2 cm2 (P < 0.01) and on follow up the tricuspid valve area did not differ significantly (3.1 +/- 0.2 cm2; P > 0.05). Two patients (16.6%) had tricuspid restenosis and tricuspid re-valvuloplasty. One other patient (8.3%) was referred to surgery 14 months after the procedure secondary to severe tricuspid regurgitation. In conclusion, this study demonstrates a sustained benefit on late follow up after combined percutaneous balloon valvuloplasty of mitral and tricuspid valves and confirms the efficacy and safety of the procedure as an alternative to surgery in selected cases of combined mitral and tricuspid stenosis.

Mechanical complications of intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation

Intra-aortic balloon counterpulsation (IABP) related complications in a heterogeneous group of patients who received an IABP before or after thrombolytic therapy and mechanical revascularization or in the management of refractory unstable angina and myocardial infarction related mechanical complications were evaluated prospectively. Ninety-one patients were enrolled to the study. Mean IABP duration was 4.3+/-2.4 days. While the IABP was in place, three patients (3.3%) had femoral artery emboli, four patients (4.4%) had lower extremity ischemia that resolved after the removal of the balloon, eight patients (8.8%) had groin hematoma requiring blood transfusion (< or =2 units) and four patients (4.4%) had intra-aortic balloon rupture. The relation of several risk factors to groin hematoma requiring < or =2 units blood transfusion, emboli, lower extremity ischemia and to total complications was evaluated. A chi-squared analysis showed that nadroparine use was more often complicated with emboli (P = 0.00005) and ischemic events (emboli and/or lower extremity ischemia) (three patients; 30% of nadroparine group vs. four patients; 4.9% of heparin group, P = 0.005) and hypercholesterolemia (>200 mg/dl) was more often complicated with lower extremity ischemia (P = 0.017). Forward conditional logistic regression analysis did not show any relation between the risk factors identified and emboli, lower extremity ischemia, ischemic events and groin hematoma (P>0.05), but an inverse relation was found between IABP duration and total complications (P = 0.0198). In conclusion, IABP related complications were found to remain unchanged but were not life-threatening and were inversely related to IABP duration and this suggests shorter periods of IABP use whenever possible and one must be cautious to use low molecular weight heparin in patients with an IABP in place.

Successful management of osteal perforation of left anterior descending artery with coated stent

Coronary perforation is a rare complication of percutaneous coronary intervention. We report a case of left anterior descending artery osteal perforation that led to acute cardiac tamponade during excimer laser angioplasty. Perforation was successfully covered with a PTFE-coated stent with preserved distal coronary flow.

Concomitant Use of Intraaortic Balloon Counterpulsation and Streptokinase in Acute Anterior Myocardial Infarction

Using a prospective, nonrandomized design, the authors sought to determine whether concomitant use of intraaortic balloon counterpulsation (IABP) and streptokinase in acute anterior myocardial infarction (MI) would improve the in-hospital mortality rate and angiographic findings. The study included 45 patients with an acute anterior MI. All patients received intravenous streptokinase. Among these, 25 patients had concomitant IABP while the remaining 20 patients had streptokinase alone. All patients underwent cardiac catheterization. Patients treated with concomitant IABP had a significantly higher frequency of thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) grade 3 flow (n: 11; 44% vs n: 1; 5%, p<0.05), and there was a trend toward a lower in-hospital mortality rate in the IABP group (n: 0; 0% vs n: 3; 15%, p=0.08). The angiographic presence of thrombus image and grade ≥2 coronary collateral circulation to the infarct-related coronary artery for the IABP and non-IABP groups did not differ significantly. The preliminary results of this study suggest that concomitant use of IABP and streptokinase in acute anterior MI increases the incidence of TIMI grade 3 flow and may have decreased the in-hospital mortality rate without unacceptable rates of vascular or hemorrhagic complications.

Diastolic blood pressure-estimated left ventricular dp/dt.

Background: Peak dp/dt is one of the best isovolumic phase indexes of the myocardial contractile state requiring invasive procedures or presence of mitral regurgitation severe enough to measure in clinical practice by Doppler echocardiography. In this study, we sought the correlation between two noninvasive methods of measurements for left ventricular dp/dt‐diastolic blood pressure‐ (DBP) estimated and continuous‐wave Doppler‐derived dp/dt‐min electrocardiographic/echocardiographic study to emphasize the clinical feasibility of the DBP‐estimated method. Method: Thirty‐six randomized patients (27 male, 9 female; 58 ± 8 years) with mild mitral regurgitation were enrolled in this study. DBP‐estimated dp/dt was calculated from DBP minus the left ventricular end‐diastolic pressure (LVEDP) over the isovolumetric contraction time (IVCT). LVEDP was assumed to be 10 mmHg for all patients. Doppler‐determined left ventricular dp/dt was derived from the continuous‐wave Doppler spectrum of mitral regurgitation jet by dividing the magnitude of the left ventricular atrial pressure gradient rise between 1 mm/sec–3 mm/sec of mitral regurgitant velocity signal by the time taken for this change. Results: Left ventricular dp/dt by Doppler was 1122 ± 303 mmHg/sec and blood pressure‐estimated dp/dt was 1063 ± 294 mmHg/sec. There was a high correlation (r = 0.97, P < 0.001) of dp/dt between the two techniques. Conclusions: DBP and IVCT can generate left ventricular dp/dt without invasive procedures, even in the absence of mitral regurgitation in clinical practice.

Left atrial function as a predictor of haemodynamic response in patients with mitral stenosis: a dobutamine stress echocardiographic study.

Objective—The mechanisms of the different haemodynamic and clinical responses to dobutamine infusion in mitral stenosis (MS) are not clearly established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between left atrial (LA) function and haemodynamic response in patiens with MS during dobutamine infusion. Methods and results — Forty-two consecutive moderately symptomatic patients (33 women, 9 men; mean age 46±9, range from 26 to 66), NewYork Heart Association (NYHA) class II with MS (mean mitral valve area 1.7±0.1cm2) were evaluated with dobutamine stress echocardiography. Haemodynamic measurements were obtained at rest and during peak dobutamine infusion. LA fractional shortening at rest was used as an index of global LA function. Group I consisting of patients with significantly elevated pulmonary artery pressure (>60 mm Hg) and mean transmitral gradient (>15 mm Hg) at peak dobutamine infusion were defined as haemodynamically serious MS. Group II consisted of the remaining 30 patients whose haemodynamic data were below these levels.While baseline haemodynamic parameters and mitral valve characteristics were not different between the two groups, LA fractional shortening was significantly lower (18.9±2.8 vs. 32.3±5.1%, p<0.0001) and left atrial dimension was significantly larger in group I (49.7±2.3mm vs 43.6±5.3 mm, p<0.0001). Left atrial fractional shortening was negatively correlated with the increase in mean transmitral gradient (r:-0.58, p<0.01). When the patients were divided using a LA fractional shortening level of 25% as the cut-off point, we observed that the patients with low LA fractional shortening had a greater increase in mean transmitral gradient (7.3±3.1 mm Hg vs. 4.6±1.4 mm Hg), p = 0.005) and pulmonary artery pressure (22.4±3.5 mm Hg vs. 16.1±8.5 mm Hg, p = 0.001) compared to the patients with high LA fractional shortening. Based on these haemodynamic results, management was changed in 12 patients (28%): 5 underwent percutaneous mitral balloon commissurotomy and 7 received intensive medical treatment. Conclusions—The present study demonstrates that haemodynamic response during dobutamine stress echocardiography correlates with LA fractional shortening in patients with MS. The evaluation of left atrial function at rest in patients with ambiguous symptoms and mild mitral stenosis may be useful in clinical decision making. Atrial dysfunction at rest may predict the haemodynamic response during stress echo in these patients.

Percutaneous revascularization of total or subtotal left main occlusion in the setting of acute myocardial infarction.

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the effect of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for total or subtotal left main coronary occlusion (LMCO) in the setting of acute myocardial infarction (AMI), together with clinical features, outcome, and prognostic determinants. STUDY DESIGN Between March 2008 and June 2010, PCI was performed for total or subtotal thrombotic LMCO in eight patients with AMI. All the patients were males with a mean age of 55.5 years (range 25 to 75 years). The primary endpoints were the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events including death from any cause, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and target lesion revascularization. RESULTS Five patients were admitted with anterior AMI and three patients with non-ST elevation AMI. Seven patients were in cardiogenic shock. The mean symptom duration was 195 min (range 15 min to 10 hr). Predilatation was performed in six patients, and postdilatation was performed in two patients. Six patients received a single stent with the cross-over technique and the simultaneous kissing stent technique was used in one patient. Mortality occurred in three patients (37.5%). Two deaths developed in the catheterization laboratory, one before stent implantation. One patient died six days after the procedure due to subacute stent thrombosis. After a mean follow-up of 79 weeks (range 27 to 152 weeks), two patients underwent elective bypass surgery because of restenosis, while the rest of the patients remained free of any cardiac event. CONCLUSION Percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with LMCO complicated by AMI is feasible and effective, and offers a good mid-term outcome for hospital survivors.