[Update on interventional cardiology]

Abstract

This article contains a review of the most important studies on interventional cardiology reported in either publications or presentations. In the area of coronary interventions, ST-elevation myocardial infarction continues to take center place: recent studies have confirmed the importance of timely intervention and the safety of drug-eluting stents. The numerous studies that have compared different generations of drug-eluting stents indicate that there has been a steady improvement in safety and efficacy. In addition, the use of stents in the left main coronary artery and in multivessel disease have also been investigated in major studies. Of the different intracoronary diagnostic techniques, optical coherence tomography is highlighted by this review, particularly for its use in the study of drug-eluting stents. There is increasing interest in the percutaneous treatment of structural heart disease, specifically percutaneous aortic valve implantation, especially following the publication of the first randomized trial, which produced encouraging results.