Drug‐coated balloons: “Do they still have a role in treating coronary artery disease?”

• Small vessels with coronary artery disease (CAD) are at high risk of restenosis, despite the use of drug‐eluting stents (DESs).
• Drug‐coated balloon (DCB) therapy offers a viable alternative to DESs for the management of small vessel CAD.
• The literature regarding the use of DCBs in lieu of the newer generation DESs to treat small vessel CAD is controversial.

     

Is leishmaniasis an “unusual suspect” of infection in allogeneic transplantation?

Leishmaniasis is a disease of the immunocompetent population, more often affecting infants and young children. However, the number of leishmaniasis cases associated with immunosuppression has increased over the last 20 years. The visceral form of the disease, visceral leishmaniasis (VL), is identified as an opportunistic infection in immunosuppressed individuals, occurring mainly after solid organ transplantation, especially in renal transplant recipients. Limited data are available about VL after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). We report the cases of 3 patients with late VL after allogeneic HSCT, and review the literature.     

Is it really “paradoxical” or just the ventricle?

• Patients with paradoxical low flow low gradient (PLFLG) aortic stenosis (AS) have favorable mid‐term outcomes after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). These outcomes were comparable to those patients with high gradient AS (HGAS).
• Clinicians should avoid delaying referral of patients with PLFLG AS for valve replacement for either surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) or TAVR.
• Further studies are need to understand the increased early mortality after TAVR in PLFLG AS compared to HGAS, and to determine whether improvements of TAVR procedural techniques can result in better outcomes.