Three-Year Outcomes of Chronic Total Occlusion (CTO) versus Non-CTO Femoropopliteal Lesions Treated With Atherectomy Followed by Drug-Coated Balloon Angioplasty.

BackgroundEndovascular intervention of the femoropopliteal chronic total occlusions (CTOs) is technically challenging and associated with increased rates of treatment failure and complications. The long-term patency of CTOs of the femoropopliteal segment treated with contemporary tools, such as atherectomy and drug-eluting technology, is not well studied.MethodsWe performed a prospective, single-center analysis of 60 consecutive patients with femoropopliteal disease successfully treated with either directional or orbital atherectomy followed by paclitaxel drug-coated balloon (DCB).

Galectin-9 regulates dendritic cell polarity and uropod contraction by modulating RhoA activity.

Adaptive immunity relies on dendritic cell (DC) migration to transport antigens from tissues to lymph nodes. Galectins, a family of β-galactoside-binding proteins, control cell membrane organisation, exerting crucial roles in multiple physiological processes. Here, we report a novel mechanism underlying cell polarity and uropod retraction.

A single-center retrospective analysis of patency rates of intraluminal versus subintimal endovascular revascularization of long femoropopliteal occlusions.

Objective: The evaluation of patency rates of intraluminal versus subintimal endovascular revascularization of long femoropopliteal (FP) lesions.

Background: Chronic total occlusions (CTO) of the FP artery in peripheral interventions are crossed either with a support catheter-guidewire based technique or subintimal dissection and re-entry device assisted approach. Both techniques have a high procedural success rate, but their long term patency is not well studied.

Treatment of Angio-Seal-Related Femoral Artery Occlusion Using Directional Atherectomy-Primary Results and Midterm Follow-Up.

Objective: We describe a novel approach for the endovascular treatment of femoral artery occlusion as a result of Angio-Seal closure device deployment.

Background: Angio-Seal is the most commonly used vascular closure device following percutaneous coronary and peripheral catheterizations worldwide. A rare complication of Angio-Seal deployment is an occlusion of the femoral artery leading to limb ischemia requiring revascularization.

A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing percutaneous coronary intervention with medical therapy in stable angina pectoris.

There continues to remain uncertainty regarding the effect of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) vs medical therapy in patients with stable angina. We therefore performed a systematic review and study-level meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of patients with stable angina comparing PCI vs medical therapy for each of the following individual outcomes: all-cause mortality, cardiovascular (CV) mortality, myocardial infarction (MI), and angina relief. We used 8 strategies to identify eligible trials including bibliographic database searches of MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry until November 2011.

Effectiveness of percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with silent myocardial ischemia (post hoc analysis of the COURAGE trial).

Previous studies have suggested that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) decreases long-term mortality in patients with silent myocardial ischemia (SMI), but whether PCI specifically decreases mortality when added to intensive medical therapy is unknown. We performed a post hoc analysis of clinical outcomes in patients in the COURAGE trial based on the presence or absence of anginal symptoms at baseline. Asymptomatic patients were classified as having SMI by electrocardiographic ischemia at rest or reversible stress perfusion imaging (exercise-induced or pharmacologic).

Repair of traumatic skeletal muscle injury with bone-marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells seeded on extracellular matrix.

Skeletal muscle injury resulting in tissue loss poses unique challenges for surgical repair. Despite the regenerative potential of skeletal muscle, if a significant amount of tissue is lost, skeletal myofibers will not grow to fill the injured area completely. Prior work in our lab has shown the potential to fill the void with an extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffold, resulting in restoration of morphology, but not functional recovery.

Cytokine response to strenuous exercise in athletes and non-athletes--an adaptive response.

Exercise and physical strenuous activity have been demonstrated to increase the serum TNF-alpha and IL-6. Regular physical training is expected to attenuate such a response. This study was undertaken to understand the impact of regular exercise training on IL-6 and TNF-alpha in athletes and non-athletes.