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The Tenax coronary stent is laser sculpted from high precision 316 L stainless steel using advanced production procedures. An a-SiC: H (hydrogen-rich amorphous silicon carbide) coating reduces its thrombogenicity and improves its biocompatibility. From April to July 1998, 266 stents were implanted in 241 patients (aged 62.7 +/- 10.5 years) in five centers. The clinical indication for intervention was unstable angina (33.2%) and recent myocardial infarction (29.5%) in many cases. Most lesions (53.8%) had complex characteristics (Class B2 or C). The target vessel was the LAD in 42.5% and the right coronary artery in 36.8% of all cases. Four primary stent deployment failures occurred and implantation was successful in 259 (97.4%) of 266 stents. No death and no Q-wave myocardial infarction or emergency CABG occurred during hospital stay. Clinical success, defined as successful deployment without procedural or clinical event, was achieved in 230 (95.4%) of 241 patients. One-year clinical follow-up shows a low need for target lesion revascularization (17/237 [7.1%] patients) and a 15.8% rate of major adverse cardiac events (36/237 patients). The clinical and angiographic outcomes of our study suggest that the hybrid, amorphous hydrogenated silicon carbide coated design is promising and merits further evaluation in larger clinical trials.

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The NATURE-HF registry was aimed to describe clinical epidemiology and 1-year outcomes of outpatients and inpatients with heart failure (HF). This is a prospective, multicenter, observational survey conducted in Tunisian Cardiology centers. A total of 2040 patients were included in the study. Of these, 1632 (80%) were outpatients with chronic HF (CHF). The mean hospital stay was 8.7 ± 8.2 days. The mortality rate during the initial hospitalization event for AHF was 7.4%. The all-cause 1-year mortality rate was 22.8% among AHF patients and 10.6% among CHF patients. Among CHF patients, the older age, diabetes, anemia, reduced EF, ischemic etiology, residual congestion and the absence of ACEI/ ARBs treatment were independent predictors of 1-year cumulative rates of rehospitalization and mortality. The female sex and the functional status were independent predictors of 1-year all-cause mortality and rehospitalization in AHF patients. This study confirmed that acute HF is still associated with a poor prognosis, while the mid-term outcomes in patients with chronic HF seems to be improved. Some differences across countries may be due to different clinical characteristics and differences in healthcare systems.