Jacob Ricci, Bruno Lab MD/PhD Student, has published his first 1st author publication in CARDIAC INTERVENTIONS TODAY.
Article Title: Access and Closure of Calcified Vessels in Patients Undergoing PCI
Article Summary: In Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI), calcified vessels can cause complications during endovascular procedures. This article is a review covering different techniques and devices that interventional cardiologists can employ when performing procedures on patients with arterial calcium deposits. When accessing these patients, operators may first choose alternate access sites to avoid potential calcium burden. In PCI, operators can mitigate the effect of calcium burden by opting for different anatomical access sites and utilizing ultrasound guidance. While it is currently not employed in PCI, we argue that preprocedural planning using non-contrast CT may have a benefit in access site evaluation provided that the drawbacks such as additional radiation or cost are not prohibitive. This has been standard in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR). When closing access sites, Manual compression remains the gold standard. However, two types of devices are now often utilized: plug-based and suture-based. Neither of these devices show a clear superiority when used in calcified vessels implying that optimizing access site choice is important in reducing complication rates in calcified arteries.