Interventional Cardiology

Forty-seven years ago, Andreas Gruentzig introduced ‘percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty’ (PTCA) as a new approach to treating symptomatic occlusive coronary artery disease.1 The mechanism of balloon angioplasty (BA) formed the foundation around which newer equipment and technologies were developed, including ...

As 2024 draws to a close, we’re celebrating a wonderful year of content. From insightful expert Q&As and peer-reviewed articles to conference highlights and a wealth of medical education, it’s been a year filled with content that we hope has been useful to our audience. We’ve had the privilege of connecting with leading experts and working alongside medical societies to support the cardiology community with high-quality, easily accessible content.

Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is a frequent finding on echocardiography, with detection rates reaching up to 86% across the different ranges of severity, with moderate or greater TR being reported in at least 6–8% of patients.1–3 The prevalence of TR increases with age, ...

touchCARDIO is delighted to announce that Heart International has received an impressive new Impact Factor of 1.9 in the 2024 Journal Citation Reports (JCR). This achievement marks a notable increase from last year’s Impact Factor of 0.2 and highlights the journal’s growing influence in the cardiology field.

In this interview, Dr. Margarida Pujol-Lopez from the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona discusses the differences between conduction system pacing (CSP) and biventricular pacing (BVP) in treating heart failure. CSP is more physiological and may offer better outcomes than BVP, which fails in about 30% of patients. The CONSYST-CRT trial, comparing CSP and BVP, showed that CSP is non-inferior to BVP based on primary and secondary endpoints, including mortality, heart failure, and QRS shortening.

Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of mortality and morbidity in adults worldwide.1 Coronary angiography (CAG) is the gold standard method for evaluating atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD).2 It is conventionally performed via the trans-femoral (TF) route. Recently, however, ...

Revascularization for patients with ischaemic left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction takes one of two forms - percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), both of which have positives and negatives. STICH, published in 2011, analysed the role of CABG in patients with LV systolic dysfunction and looked at improvement of clinical outcomes in 1,212 patients from 22 countries across the world, optimised to either optimal medical therapy or optimal medical therapy plus CABG. REVIVED-BCIS2 in 2022 looked at 700 patients in the UK with a similar patient population of 35% ejection fraction or less, randomized to PCI or optimal medical therapy. This interview dives into their analysis of the results from these exciting trials and investigation into the discrepancies between the outcomes.

We are sorry to announce the death of one of our valued editorial board members, Dr Richard Heuser (November 17, 1950–May 23, 2024). Richard R Heuser, MD, FACC, FACP, FESC, MSCAI, was an internationally recognized cardiologist, inventor, educator and author, and was a ...

The EuroPCR 2024 meeting, the leading global conference in interventional cardiovascular medicine, was a hub of innovation and cutting-edge research. This year’s event in Paris brought together the world's foremost experts, researchers and clinicians to share the latest advancements and breakthroughs in the field. From novel therapeutic approaches to landmark clinical trials, EuroPCR 2024 provided a comprehensive overview of the current and future landscape of cardiovascular care. We selected our top three trials from this year’s late-breaking sessions: