Left Main Coronary Artery Disease

1 Anatomy
1.1 Normal Anatomy: Angle of Take-off
- Course
- Designation of Bifurcation
- Length and Diameter
1.2 Coronary Artery Abnormalities
- Pathological Anatomy of the Left Main Coronary Artery: Atheromatous Lesions of the Trunk: Distribution and Localization
- Other Pathological Presentations

2 Review of Literature
2.1 Data on Surgical Treatment
2.2 Data on Angioplasty with Bare Metal Stents in the Unprotected Left Main Coronary Artery
2.3 Data on Drug-eluting Stents in the Unprotected Left Main Coronary Artery
2.4 Observational Studies on Populations Treated with Drug-eluting stents Only
2.5 Observational Studies of Drug-eluting Stents Versus Bare Metal Stents
2.6 Non-randomized Studies of Drug-eluting Stents Versus Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting
2.7 Randomized Studies of Drug-eluting Stents Versus Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting
2.8 Studies on the Prognostic Implications of Stenosis Location
2.9 Data on Drug-eluting Stents in Left Main Coronary Artery Trifurcation Lesions
2.10 Final Considerations Based on Available Data

3 Morpho-functional Assessment of Left Main Coronary Artery Disease
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Role of Intravascular Ultrasound
3.3 Procedure for Performing Intravascular Ultrasound in the Left Main Coronary Artery
3.4 The Role of Fractional Flow Reserve
3.5 The Role of Optical Coherence Tomography
3.6 Three-dimensional Quantitative Coronary Analysis Reconstruction of the Left Main Coronary Artery
3.7 The Role of Multi-slice Computed Tomography
3.8 The Role of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance

4 Left Main Coronary Artery Percutaneous Interventions: Materials and Techniques
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Materials: Guiding Catheters
- Coronary Wires
- Coronary Balloons
- Coronary Stents
4.3 Ostial Lesions: Pitfalls
- Elastic Recoil
- Stent Hang-out
- Ostial Missing
- Sliding
- Proximal-Distal Dissection
4.4 Body Lesions: Elastic Recoil
- Difficult Stent Centering
- Sliding
- Proximal-DistalDissection
4.5

Corrado Tamburino is Professor of Cardiology and Director of both the Cardiology Institute and Cardiovascular Dept. and the Post-graduate School of Cardiology at the University of Catania. He is also Chief of the Cardiovascular Dept. at Ferrarotto Hospital, Catania.
At present he is also President of the Italian Society of Invasive Cardiology (GISE).
He introduced the technique of endomyocardial biopsy and mitral valvuloplasty to Sicily and has performed more than 12,000 interventional procedures of coronary angioplasty and coronary stent implantation. Prof. Tamburino was the first interventional cardiologist in Italy to implant a percutaneous aortic valve on patients who cannot undergo surgical interventions and the first who treated percuteneously mitral regurgitation.
An interesting recent article published in CIRCULATION presents Prof. Tamburrino's career and experiences in detail (Circulation 2008; 118; f63-f66).