Routine preprocedural radial artery angiography in STEMI patients is associated with lower rate of access site bleeding complications and reduced overall procedural time and TRA crossover rate.

Objective: To assess the incidence of arterial anomalies of the radial artery in the Macedonian population registered during transradial access (TRA) angiography procedures in a large series of patients. Background: Transradial angiography (TRA) is now the recommended access for percutaneous coronary intervention, but technically is a more challenging approach for angiography procedures mostly due to the anatomic anomalies on the radial artery, which may influence the success rate of transradial angiographic procedures. Methods: All consecutive 19292 patients from our Center, in the period from March 2011 until December 2014 were examined. Preprocedural radial artery angiography was performed in all patients. Clinical and procedure characteristics, type and incidence of vascular anatomy variants and access site complications were analyzed. Results: Anatomical variants were present in 1625 (8.8%) patients. The most frequent was high-bifurcating radial artery origin from the axillary and brachial arteries in 1017 (5.5%) patients, 227 (1.2%) had extreme radial artery tortuosity, 176 (0.95%) had a full radial loop, 32 (0.17%) with hypoplastic radial artery and 173 (0.9%) had tortuous brachial, subclavian and axillary arteries. Radial artery spasm was very common in patients with present radial artery anomalies. Conclusion: Radial artery anomalies are very common in the general population. Knowing the anatomy of the radial artery helps the interventional cardiologist in successfully planning and performing this procedure. Radial artery angiography is strongly encouraged in every patient before the begining of the transradial angiography procedures.

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The aim of this report is to describe invasive cardiology procedural practice in Macedonia during the period from 2010 to 2015. Details of all consecutive 39,899 patients who underwent cardiovascular, peripheral or structural heart procedures during the period from 2010 until 2015 were examined. Clinical and procedure characteristics, access site, procedural success and complications were analysed. The number of coronary angiographies increased from 5,540 in 2010 to 8,550 in 2015. Transfemoral access (TFA) was present in 4% of coronary angiographies in 2010 and had decreased to 1% in 2015. The number of primary percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) for acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction increased from 763 to 1,175 and both chronic total occlusion and left main coronary artery interventions also increased over time. In 2015, the drug-eluting stent penetration rate was 65%. Structural heart interventions, including transcatheter aortic valve implantations (TAVI) were introduced in 2014 and 23 TAVI cases have since been performed. Transradial access was performed in 38,455 (96%) of all patients. Wrist access adoption in the majority of cardiovascular interventions is possible in all PCI centres in Europe if an appropriate national strategy is developed.

Aims: To assess the safety and feasibility of ipsilateral transulnar access (TUA) after failure of radial access (TRA), with two sheaths placed in the radial and ulnar arteries (RA and UA) in the same arm.Materials and Methods: All consecutive patients with TUA due to inability to cross from ipsilateral TRA in the period from March 2011 until September 2020 were included in the study. We examined clinical and procedure characteristics, access site bleeding and ischemic complications and failure mode of initial TRA. Patients were assessed by duplex ultrasound post-procedure (at an average of 56 ± 31 months) and followed clinically (functional and pain assessment).Results: In this period, out of 51,866 patients 112 (0.2%) had a transulnar artery approach due to inability to cross from ipsilateral radial approach. Mean age of patients was 65 ± 11 years with 44% females. Cause for crossover to ipsilateral TUA was inability to cross a RA anomaly in 107 (95%) patients, mostly due to the presence of a "360 " RA loop in 88 patients.Type 3 and 4 EASY Score hematoma was present in 3 patients (2.6%). Six (5.3%) of the patients had new ipsilateral radial artery occlusion noted on duplex on follow up. There were no ulnar artery occlusions detected. There were no clinical or ischemic hand complications seen during a median 4.3 years of follow up. Conclusion:Ipsilateral transulnar artery access following failed radial artery access crossing is safe and successful for coronary angiography and intervention with low rates of complications.