Although the carotid endarterectomy presently represents the standard therapeutic approach for most patients with significant carotid artery stenosis, a percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) with stenting has become an alternative method for treating patients with co-mobid conditions, particulary coronary artery disease. A PTA with stenting has the potential for being safer, less traumatic, more cost-effective, and useful in patients at high surgical risk. As well, they are not limited to the cervical carotid artery. But it is reported that carotid angioplasty by femoral approach is difficult to do in 1 - 2% of patients with carotid stenosis due to abnormal origin of carotid artery or occlusion of femoral arteries. We succeeded in PTA with stenting of tight stenosis of right internal carotid artery through the transseptal approach in case of a sharply angled right brachiocephalic artery take-off from the aorta. The transseptal approach can be used for PTA with stenting in case of problems with femoral approach.
Angioplasty ; Aorta ; Arteries ; Carotid Arteries* ; Carotid Artery, Internal ; Carotid Stenosis* ; Constriction, Pathologic ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Endarterectomy, Carotid ; Femoral Artery ; Humans ; Stents*

No abstract available.
Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Drug-Eluting Stents*

Critical limb ischemia (CLI) is the most severe peripheral artery disease and caused by thrombus formation in blood vessel. The current strategies for treating CLI does not protect limb amputation and reduction in the risk of mortality. Recently, human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BD-MSC) were reported to have a paracrine effects on angiogenesis in several ischemic diseases. So, we validate to determine whether BD-MSC protect against ferric chloride treated CLI and induce angiogenesis. To characterized human bone marrow derived stem cell, BD-MSC differentiated to osteocytes and adipocytes and validated stemness using flow cytometry. Endothelial cell induced angiogenesis followed by mesenchymal stem cell cultured medium treatment in HUVEC in vitro. We also mimicked CLI patients condition using FeCl₃ treated CLI mouse and injected one hundred thousand of BD-MSC along the femoral artery to leg muscle. We validated stem cell survival, blood vessel formation, leg muscle condition and fibrosis compared by saline injected mice 28 days later. In this study, BD-MSC cultured medium treatment increased migration and tube formation of HUVEC and BD-MSC injection had an effective blood vessel formation in FeCl₃ treated CLI. As well as blood vessel formation, limb salvage rate also improved and fibrosis area statistically decreased in BD-MSC injected mice. In conclusion, bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cell improved not only blood vessel formation but also reduction of fibrosis in FeCl₃ treated CLI mice and finally protected limb amputation.
Adipocytes ; Amputation ; Animals ; Blood Vessels ; Bone Marrow ; Endothelial Cells ; Extremities* ; Femoral Artery ; Fibrosis ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; In Vitro Techniques ; Ischemia* ; Leg ; Limb Salvage ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells ; Mice ; Mortality ; Osteocytes ; Peripheral Arterial Disease ; Stem Cells ; Thrombosis

Endovascular therapy, proposed as an alternative to surgery, is considered a therapeutic innovation because of its low degree of invasiveness, allowing for the treatment of high-risk surgical patients and outcomes of limited complications and mortality. The combination of endovascular exclusion with cerebral branch revascularization for the treatment of thoracic aortic aneurysms involving arch has also been attempted. With improved capability to recognize proper anatomy and select clinical candidates, endovascular therapy may offer a strategy to optimize management and improve prognosis for thoracic aortic aneurysm patients.
Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic* ; Humans ; Mortality ; Prognosis

No abstract available.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Heart Atria*

Renal artery aneurysm (RAA) is a rare disease, and the precise incidence has not been very well known. It appears that with the increasing use of diagnostic ultrasound, computed tomography and arteriography, RAA are being identified more frequently than in the past. Rupture of RAA is associated with 10% mortality and the chance of nephrectomy is very high. Although, most of renal artery aneurysms are treated by endovascular technique, surgery is often necessary for aneurysms associated with bifurcation area or large braches. Here, we report a case of saccular renal artery aneurysm which was managed by open surgery.
Aneurysm ; Angiography ; Endovascular Procedures ; Incidence ; Nephrectomy ; Rare Diseases ; Renal Artery ; Rupture

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The clinical outcome of patient with an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), with or without achievement of target low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), has little known information. This study investigated if target LDL-C level (below 70 mg/dL) achievements in patients with AMI showed better clinical outcomes or not. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Between May 2008 and September 2012, this study enrolled 13473 AMI patients in a large-scale, prospective, multicenter Korean Myocardial Infarction (KorMI) registry. 12720 patients survived and 6746 patients completed a 1-year clinical follow up. Among them 3315 patients received serial lipid profile follow-ups. Propensity score matching was applied to adjust for differences in clinical baseline and angiographic characteristics, producing a total of 1292 patients (646 target LDL-C achievers vs. 646 non-achievers). The primary end point was the composite of a 1-year major adverse cardiac event (MACE) including cardiac death, recurrent myocardial infarction (MI), target lesion revascularization (TLR) and coronary artery bypass grafting. RESULTS: After propensity score matching, baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics were similar between the two groups. Clinical outcomes of the propensity score matched patients who showed no significant differences in cardiac death (0.5% vs. 0.5%, p=1.000), recurrent MI (1.1% vs. 0.8%, p=0.562), TLR (5.0% vs. 4.5%, p=0.649), MACEs (6.5% vs. 5.9%, p=0.644) and stent thrombosis (2.5% vs. 1.9%, p=0.560). CONCLUSION: In this propensity-matched comparison, AMI patients undergoing PCI with a target LDL-C (below 70 mg/dL) achievement did not show better clinical outcomes.
Coronary Artery Bypass ; Death ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Myocardial Infarction* ; Percutaneous Coronary Intervention ; Propensity Score ; Prospective Studies ; Stents ; Thrombosis ; Treatment Outcome

Torsades de pointes is a polymorphic ventricular tachycardia associated with prolonged QT interval and increased U wave amplitude. It has been found to be induced by various drugs, electrolyte imbalances, and so on, but the mechanism of torsades de pointes has not been completely documented. Two hypotheses, early afterdepolarization and dispersion of repolarization have been known to be the possible mechanism. Terfenadine and astemizole are the antihistamines, known to be one of the etiologic agents of torsades de pointes, and factors associated with increased risk are significant liver disease, drug overdose, and concomitant administration of imidazole and macrolide antimicrobial drugs. There has been only one case reported that torsades de pointes had been induced by first-generation antihistamine, piprinhydrinate. We experienced a case of 43 year old male patient with torsades de pointes induced by first-generation antihistamine, hydroxyzine and treated successfully with drug cessation, MgSO
Adult ; Astemizole ; Drug Overdose ; Histamine Antagonists ; Humans ; Hydroxyzine* ; Isoproterenol ; Liver Diseases ; Male ; Tachycardia, Ventricular ; Terfenadine ; Torsades de Pointes*

Distal embolization, such as plaque debris and thrombus during percutaneous coronary and carotid interventions, often lead to virtually untreatable small vessel occlusions and the no-reflow phenomenon, which may cause periprocedural end organ ischemia and infarction. This is clinically important as the one-year mortality is doubled in patients with a periprocedural myocardial infarction. To prevent a distal embolization a number of distal protection devices have been developed, with others still under development, such as a balloon occlusion device (PercuSurge GuardWire), numerous filter devices (FilterWire EX, AngioGuard, Mednova Neuroshield, AccuNet) and a catheter occlusion device (Parodi Anti-Emboli System). The usefulness and roles of distal protection devices, for cardiovascular intervention, are reviewed.
Angioplasty, Balloon ; Balloon Occlusion ; Catheters ; Humans ; Infarction ; Ischemia ; Mortality ; Myocardial Infarction ; No-Reflow Phenomenon ; Thrombosis