Aloke Finn

Chronic total occlusion (CTO) PCI is an increasingly performed procedure. Although we tend to focus on characteristics of intimal plaque, the media is an important but poorly understood structure and target especially for techniques involving antegrade dissection and re-rentry.

Atherosclerotic vascular disease remains a major cause of death and disability. Because of the histological diversity of atherosclerotic lesions, it is essential to simplify plaques into unstable and stable plaques to accurately understand and provide better clinical context.

Fibrous cap thinning is an indicator of plaque instability but what are the mechanisms by which it occurs? Here we show that intraplaque hemorrhage and CD163+ macrophages induce endothelial to mesenchymal transition in intraplaque endothelial cells and subsequent apoptosis.

Tremendous effort and progress have been made in trying to minimize the duration of DAPT after PCI, especially in those at high bleeding risk (HBR). The POEM trial examined the use of short-term DAPT in subjects receiving the Synergy stent.

Here is my take on the recently published substudy from AEGIS II trial investigating the effect of infusions of Apolipoprotein A-1, the main component of HDL, on cardiac outcomes in patients with ACS.