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Journal and News Scan
Patients with bicuspid aortic valves have a significantly increased incidence of aortic complications including type A aortic dissection. The authors studied 1181 patients with bicuspid aortic valves and sinus of valsalva or ascending aortic aneurysms with diameter greater than or equal to 4.7 cm on CT scan or MRI. The prevalence of type A dissection identified by initial imaging or detected at operation or during surveillance follow up was 5.3%. The probability of surgical intervention for aortic expansion or dissection among patients undergoing surveillance was 16% at 1 year and 50% at 6 years follow up. The authors found the cross-sectional area of the ascending aorta or sinuses of Valsalva to height ratio to be the best predictor of type A dissection, and recommend aortic replacement in patients with bicuspid aortic valves and aortic diameter greater than 5 cm or cross sectional area to height ratio greater than 10 cm2/m.
This is an interesting document adding the proposals for the next edition of lung cancer staging. the changes are going to be quite significant :
Recommended changes are as follows: to subclassify T1 into T1a (≤1 cm), T1b (>1 to ≤2 cm), and T1c (>2 to ≤3 cm); to subclassify T2 into T2a (>3 to ≤4 cm) and T2b (>4 to ≤5 cm); to reclassify tumors greater than 5 to less than or equal to 7 cm as T3; to reclassify tumors greater than 7 cm as T4; to group involvement of main bronchus as T2 regardless of distance from carina; to group partial and total atelectasis/pneumonitis as T2; to reclassify diaphragm invasion as T4; and to delete mediastinal pleura invasion as a T descriptor.
This is an expert commentary on the state of the art in this field together with an audio commentary also available on this link
This article reports on the long-term (up to 15 year) survival of patients who participated in the COURAGE trial.
A nice short demonstration from Michael Mack of his cannulation technique for minimally invasive AVR with femoral vein cannulation
This is an interesting video documenting radiotracer labelld lung nodule incision of a small 10mm right upper lobe nodule that is really quite deep
The authors report on TAVI implantation through the brachiocephalic artery in patients without ideal femoral access. This approach is safe and feasible. The distance between access point and implant site is short, facilitating catheter manipulation and implantation itself.
Results of the Dutch National Paediatric HTx Programme are presented. Eighteen of 43 eligible patients underwent implantation of a ventricular assist device. The authors provide a detailed description of the outcomes.
Prediction of the implantation plane in transcatheter aortic valve implantation using a multislice computed tomography-based method is evaluated in 244 patients. The results reveal large interindividual differences
How to develop the perfect clinical guideline: Instructions by the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS).