Guiding catheters for transradial approach: New designs and summary of experiences with VDL/VDR catheters. A novel score for PCI technical complexity.

In one multicenter and several single-center studies involving 202 cases, new shapes of transradial access PCI guide catheters were tested following a standardized original protocol. The evaluation included a newly designed score for PCI complexity. Three operators successfully performed the 40 cases of the multicenter study, scoring intermediate to difficult 66% of the cases. New shapes were tested for left and right coronary artery and saphenous vein graft PCIs, with right or left transradial access. The new shapes performed adequately, including in 5F sizing. PCI success and fluoroscopy time were related to the score of complexity.