A Closer Look at Atherectomy for Lower Extremity Intervention
In a recent Expert Analysis, Konstantinos Charitakis, MD, and Dmitriy N. Feldman, MD, FACC, take an in-depth look at atherectomy for lower extremity intervention. "Endovascular technological advances have made a minimally invasive percutaneous approach the treatment of choice in the initial management of the majority of symptomatic patients over the traditional surgical approach," Charitakis and Feldman state. "However, the presence of severe vascular calcification, particularly in the infrainguinal vasculature, presents a significant procedural challenge to current endovascular strategies." In a second Expert Analysis recently published, Kamal Gupta, MBBS, FACC, and Zubair Shah, MBBS, examine the future of asymptomatic carotid artery disease. "The old paradigms for deciding the timing of revascularization need to be revisited," Gupta and Shah comment. “Thus physicians today are faced with a dilemma regarding who to treat and when." In addition, the latest Vascular Medicine Patient Case Quiz features information on two post-coronary artery bypass graft patients who present with a myriad of symptoms, including chest pain. Examine the patients' angiography films and computed tomography imaging and test your knowledge of how to best treat these patients. Check out the Vascular Medicine Clinical Topic Collection on ACC.org for the latest clinical updates.