Editorial Note

Article Outline

• Copyright

We are pleased to present the last CRM issue of 2007, which I hope our readers find both interesting and educational. This year was stimulating, yet shaky for the interventional cardiology community. There was bad news regarding drug-eluting stent late stent thrombosis, which, on the flipside, presented alternative approaches to help deal with restenosis and expedite the development of second-generation, drug-eluting stents. With the approval for marketing of the Endeavor stent in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration, we enter into 2008 as a new era of the drug-eluting stent.

Attempts to improve current drug-eluting stents are reflected in the variety of manuscripts presented in this issue. Kipshidze et al. present a 6-month clinical and angiographic follow-up from the AVAIL study. AVAIL is a prospective, evaluator-blinded, randomized trial aimed to investigate both the safety and efficacy of a novel antisense phosphorodiamidate Morpholino oligomer, AVI-4126, delivered locally via Infiltrator catheter after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in humans. Seifert et al., in their biology original article, sought to determine whether or not there are primary differences that occur in the first 20 days of tissue response by comparing the vascular response of paclitaxel-eluting stents to that of the TAXUS® Express2 bare metal stent. Waksman et al. aimed to evaluate an effective dosage and safety profile of pimecrolimus as an anti-inflammatory drug for drug-eluting stents.

Suzuki et al. aimed to investigate the clinical and angiographic characteristics related to removable plaque elements in patients undergoing thrombectomy for myocardial infarction. Vaknin-Assa et al. evaluated the incidence, timing, and clinical outcomes of patients who presented with drug-eluting, stent-related early (<30 days) and late (>30 days) angiographic stent thrombosis. In their submission, Rigatelli et al. aimed to analyze the profile of patients with extracerebral paradoxical embolisms (EPE) and intracardiac shunts and the role of shunt closure on the recurrence of EPE in a population of patients evaluated for patent foramen ovale/atrial septal defect transcatheter closure.

Two case reports are also included. The first, by Sato et al., discusses the case of a 68-year-old woman who was referred to their hospital with increasing exertional dyspnea that had started 1 month earlier. Ozcan et al. then present three cases of left main coronary artery aneurysm, one of which was first diagnosed by multidetected computed tomography.

In the first of two review articles, Kaluski et al. discuss the current available data on the efficacy and safety of glycoprotein inhibitor use in PCI. Movahed et al. review available literature about the pathogenesis and characteristics of Tako-Tsubo cardiomyopathy. Our image of the issue, submitted by Pinto Slottow et al., shows that following deployment of a bioabsorbable magnesium alloy stent in a porcine model, optical coherence tomography imaging revealed that the stent had slipped off of the balloon prior to implantation and was completely unexpanded.

The results of the COURAGE (Clinical Outcomes Utilizing Revascularization and Agressive Drug Evaluation) trial were revealed this year, prompting controversy regarding the indications for PCI and perhaps contributing to the decline of cardiac catheterization procedures performed in the United States. We invite our readers to comment on the COURAGE study or other studies believed to be of importance. Finally, I would like to thank our authors, reviewers, and readers for their efforts in helping CRM grow and strengthen in terms of content and exposure. We look forward to a progressive, successful 2008.