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The optimal antithrombotic management of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients who require oral anticoagulation (OAC) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remains unclear. Current guidelines recommend dual antithrombotic therapy (DAT; OAC plus P2Y 12 inhibitor - preferably clopidogrel) after a short course of triple antithrombotic therapy (TAT; DAT plus aspirin). Although DAT reduces bleeding risk compared to TAT, this is counterbalanced by an increase in ischaemic events. Aspirin provides early ischaemic benefit, but TAT is associated with an increased haemorrhagic burden; therefore, we propose a 30-day dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT; aspirin plus P2Y 12 inhibitor) strategy post-PCI, temporarily omitting OAC. The study aims to compare bleeding and ischaemic risk between a 30-day DAPT strategy following PCI and a guideline-directed therapy in AF patients requiring OAC. WOEST-3 (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04436978) is an investigator-initiated, international, open-label, randomised controlled trial (RCT). AF patients requiring OAC who have undergone successful PCI will be randomised within 72 hours after PCI to guideline-directed therapy (edoxaban plus P2Y 12 inhibitor plus limited duration of aspirin) or a 30-day DAPT strategy (P2Y 12 inhibitor plus aspirin, immediately discontinuing OAC) followed by DAT (edoxaban plus P2Y 12 inhibitor). With a sample size of 2,000 patients, this trial is powered to assess both superiority for major or clinically relevant non-major bleeding and non-inferiority for a composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction, stroke, systemic embolism or stent thrombosis. In summary, the WOEST-3 trial is the first RCT temporarily omitting OAC in AF patients, comparing a 30-day DAPT strategy with guideline-directed therapy post-PCI to reduce bleeding events without hampering efficacy.

Background: Percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) of chronic total occlusions (CTO) are high risk procedures with low success rates compared to standard PCI. Recently the 'hybrid approach' method has been developed to increase success rate. In 2015 we set up a dedicated program to systematically treat CTOs by this hybrid approach. This retrospective, observational registry aims to report achieved results in a single PCI centre., Methods and Results: We reviewed all CTO procedures between January 2012 and December 2017. Procedures performed by dedicated operators after December 2014 were assigned to the hybrid cohort, procedures done before this time or performed by a non-CTO operator were assigned to the non-hybrid cohort. Procedural techniques, difficulty of lesions, J-CTO scores, outcomes and complications were analysed. In total 505 procedures were included. Average J-CTO score was 1.9 ± 1.1, which was significantly higher in the hybrid cohort (2.1 ± 1.2 vs. 1.6 ± 1.1; p < 0.001). Overall procedural success rate was 75.4% with significantly higher success rates in the hybrid cohort (81.2% vs. 68.2%; p < 0.001). Combining both cohorts, overall success rate increased over the years (2012-2017 respectively 65.2%, 60.0%, 71.7%, 83.2%, 77.9% and 81.4%). Complication rate was higher in the hybrid cohort compared to the non-hybrid cohort (4.6% vs 0.4%, respectively; p = 0.026)., Conclusion: By introducing a systematic CTO program, including use of the hybrid approach, we observed higher success rates of PCI CTO, despite increased complexity of the lesions (higher J-CTO score). The occurrence of MACE was in accordance with current literature., Condensed Abstract: Our registry demonstrates that introduction of a dedicated CTO program increases success rates of CTO treatments despites increased lesions difficulty and with acceptable MACEs rates., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives. We aimed to compare the rate of apoptosis after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and cardioplegic arrest during coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery between atrial and ventricular tissue.Methods. During CABG surgery with CPB and cardioplegic arrest, sequential biopsies were taken from the right atrial appendage and left ventricular anterior wall before CPB and after aortic cross clamp release. Change in number of apoptotic cells and biochemical markers of myocardial ischaemia and renal dysfunction were assessed.Results. CPB was associated with a transient small, but significant increase in CK (1091+/-374%), CK-MB (128+/-38%), troponin-T (102+/-13%) and NT-proBNP (1308+/-372%) levels (all: p<0.05). A higher number of apoptotic cells as assessed by caspase-3 staining was found in the ventricular biopsies taken after aortic cross clamp release compared with the biopsies taken before CPB (5.3+/-0.6 vs. 14.0+/-1.5 cells/microscopic field, p<0.01). The number of apoptotic cells in the atrial appendage was not altered during CPB. Correlation between the duration of aortic cross clamp time and the change in caspase-3 positive cells in the left ventricular wall was of borderline significance (r of 0.58, p=0.08). Similar results were obtained from TUNEL staining for apoptosis.Conclusion. CABG surgery with CPB and cardioplegic arrest is associated with an elevated rate of apoptosis in ventricular but not in atrial myocardial tissue. Ventricular tissue may be more sensitive to detect changes than atrial tissue, and may be more useful to investigate the protective effects of therapeutic intervention. (Neth Heart J 2010;18:236-42.).

Background: Coronary angioplasty is being increasingly performed in complex lesions of the unprotected and protected left main (LM) coronary artery., Objectives: To assess the impact of patient and operator related clinical variables of success and to evaluate the subsequent mid-term effects of percutaneous treatment of LM coronary stenosis., Methods: In a tertiary referral, high-volume angioplasty centre a total of 118 consecutive surgical and nonsurgical patients with protected and unprotected LM lesions were treated and evaluated in a retrospective observational study., Results: There were 57 protected and 61 unprotected patients, including 13 patients with an acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Mean age was 67 years (range 33-90). The length of the stenotic segment was 4.8±2.3 mm, mean lumen diameter 1.1±0.6 mm and percentage diameter stenosis 63.6±14.6%. There were seven (5.9%) in-hospital cardiac deaths which presented with AMI and cardiogenic shock. All seven patients had unprotected LM lesions. Average follow-up was eight months (range 1 to 36 months). Major adverse cardiac events (MACE) during follow-up comprised eight (6.8%) cardiac deaths, three (2.5%) myocardial infarctions, eight (6.8%) subjects with coronary bypass surgery and 16 (13.6%) repeated angioplasties. The total event rate (MACE, n=43) at the end of the follow-up period was 36.4%. There were more MACE in the unprotected group than in the protected group (41 vs. 31.6%, p<0.05)., Conclusion: This study supports prior data on LM angioplasty. LM stenting in AMI, however, showed less favourable in-hospital and late outcome.