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The aim was to investigate different genotypes and haplotypes of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR-677, -1298) and plasma concentration of total homocysteine (tHcy) in Macedonian patients with occlusive artery disease (OAD) and deep venous thrombosis (DVT). Investigated groups consists of 80 healthy, 74 patients with OAD, and 63 patients with DVT. Plasma tHcy was measured with Microplate Enzyme Immunoassay. Identification of MTHFR genotypes and haplotypes was done with CVD StripAssay. The probability level (P-value) was evaluated by the Student's t-test. Plasma concentration of tHcy in CC and CT genotypes of MTHFR C677T was significantly increased in patients with OAD and in patients with DVT. Plasma concentration of tHcy in AC genotype of MTHFR A1298C was increased in patients with OAD and in patients with DVT. Plasma concentration of tHcy was significantly increased in AA genotype of patients with OAD, but not in patients with DVT. We found a significant increase of plasma tHcy in patients with OAD in comparison with healthy respondents for normal:heterozygote (CC:AC), heterozygote:normal (CT:AA), and heterozygote:heterozygote (CT:AC) haplotypes. Plasma concentration of tHcy in patients with DVT in comparison with healthy respondents was significantly increased for normal:normal (CC:AA), normal heterozygote (CC:AC), and heterozygote:heterozygote (CT:AC) haplotypes. We conclude that MTHFR C677T and MTHFR A1289C genotypes and haplotypes are connected with tHcy plasma levels in Macedonian patients with OAD and DVT.

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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