Coronary calcified plaque (CP) is both an important marker of atherosclerosis and major determinant of the success of coronary stenting. Intracoronary optical coherence tomography (OCT) with high spatial resolution can provide detailed volumetric characterization of CP. We present a semiautomatic method for segmentation and quantification of CP in OCT images. Following segmentation of the lumen, guide wire, and arterial wall, the CP was localized by edge detection and traced using a combined intensity and gradient-based level-set model. From the segmentation regions, quantification of the depth, area, angle fill fraction, and thickness of the CP was demonstrated. Validation by comparing the automatic results to expert manual segmentation of 106 in vivo images from eight patients showed an accuracy of 78±9%. For a variety of CP measurements, the bias was insignificant (except for depth measurement) and the agreement was adequate when the CP has a clear outer border and no guide-wire overlap. These results suggest that the proposed method can be used for automated CP analysis in OCT, thereby facilitating our understanding of coronary artery calcification in the process of atherosclerosis and helping guide complex interventional strategies in coronary arteries with superficial calcification.

Late stent thrombosis (LST) and very LST (VLST) are infrequent complications after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation, but they carry a significant risk for patients. Delayed healing, which may be represented by incomplete stent coverage, has been observed in necropsy vessel specimens treated with DES. As a result, in vivo assessment of stent coverage, as well as stent apposition using optical coherence tomography (OCT), have been recently used as surrogate safety endpoints in clinical trials testing DES platforms. By adopting strut coverage assessed by OCT, one can assess the safety profile of the new generation of DES in preregistration studies. This article focuses on stent strut coverage as a central predictor of late DES thrombosis from the histopathological point of view, discusses the limitations of the current imaging modalities and presents the technical characteristics of OCT for the detection of neointimal coverage after stent implantation. We also review the preclinical and clinical investigations using this novel imaging modality.

Introduction Ventricular tachycardia is a major complication associated with increased risk of sudden cardiac death in arrhythmogenic ventricular cardiomyopathy. Recurrence of VT status post catheter endocardial ablation with conventional mapping is a evolving discussion in management of VT prevention in ARVC. With the evolution of new mapping techniques to locate ectopic foci of VT, a combination of endo- and epicardial catheter ablation have proven to be efficacious in the prevention of frequency of VT recurrence and its duration. Methods Using PubMed, Ovid (MEDLINE) and Cochrane database we searched using the MeSH terms including: “arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy”, “arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia”, “monomorphic ventricular tachycardia”, “polymorphic ventricular Tachycardia”, “endocardial catheter ablation”, “epicardial catheter ablation”. The primary outcomes were to assess VT frequency and duration status post endocardial or epicardial or a combination of both types of ablation. The secondary outcome includes sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death after procedure. ANOVA with post HOC analysis was performed using SPSS v.26 (IBM Corp, NY, USA) Results A total of 33 studies included 1437 patients with a mean male=67%. The data analysis showed a mean VT prevention for endocardial ablation was 65%, epicardial 78%, and for combined epi-endocardial was 89% (figure-1). The mean procedural mortality rate was 2%. In order to test the hypothesis that combined epi-endocardial ablation was more successful in the prevention of VT recurrence, we performed a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The analysis was statistically significant F(2,14)=5.879, 95% CI, p=0.014. Post Hoc test (Tukey HSD test) with multiple comparisons indicated that patients who underwent combined epi-endocardial ablation experienced a statistically significant difference in VT prevention of 89% (95% CI p=0.01) compared to only endocardial ablation, mean VT prevention of 65% (95% CI, p=0.189) or only epicardial, mean VT prevention of 78% (95% CI, p=0.353). Conclusion With new mapping techniques, use of endocardial, and epicardial ablation is linked to decrease VT frequency, duration, ICD shocks, and sudden cardiac death in patients with ARVC in cohorts with prior failure of antiarrhythmics. Total VT Prevention across target sites Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None

ObjectiveThis manuscript aims to explore the impact of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status on in-hospital complication rates after left atrial appendage closure (LAAC).MethodsThe US National Inpatient Sample was used to identify hospitalisations for LAAC between 1 October 2015 to 31 December 2018. These patients were stratified by race/ethnicity and quartiles of median neighbourhood income. The primary outcome was the occurrence of in-hospital major adverse events, defined as a composite of postprocedural bleeding, cardiac and vascular complications, acute kidney injury and ischaemic stroke.ResultsOf 6478 unweighted hospitalisations for LAAC, 58% were male and patients of black, Hispanic and ‘other’ race/ethnicity each comprised approximately 5% of the cohort. Adjusted by the older Americans population, the estimated number of LAAC procedures was 69.2/100 000 for white individuals, as compared with 29.5/100 000 for blacks, 47.2/100 000 for Hispanics and 40.7/100 000 for individuals of ‘other’ race/ethnicity. Black patients were ~5 years younger but had a higher comorbidity burden. The primary outcome occurred in 5% of patients and differed significantly between racial/ethnic groups (p<0.001) but not across neighbourhood income quartiles (p=0.88). After multilevel modelling, the overall rate of in-hospital major adverse events was higher in black patients as compared with whites (OR: 1.60, 95% CI 1.22 to 2.10, p<0.001); however, the incidence of acute kidney injury was higher in Hispanics (OR: 2.19, 95% CI 1.52 to 3.17, p<0.001). No significant differences were found in adjusted overall in-hospital complication rates between income quartiles.ConclusionIn this study assessing racial/ethnic disparities in patients undergoing LAAC, minorities are under-represented, specifically patients of black race/ethnicity. Compared with whites, black patients had higher comorbidity burden and higher rates of in-hospital complications. Lower socioeconomic status was not associated with complication rates.

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