This issue of Cardiac Interventions Today reviews several topics in the world of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), including guidelines for coronary artery bypass grafting versus PCI, the use of drug-eluting stents to treat left main disease, thrombectomy in acute myocardial infarction, and PCI outcomes in diabetic patients.

Michael A. Kutcher, MD, FACC, FSCAI, opens this issue with a review of the current PCI guidelines and appropriate use criteria to expand quality assurance. Subhasis Chatterjee, MD; John C. Alexander, MD; and Paul J. Pearson, MD, PhD, then look at PCI versus coronary artery bypass grafting for treating three-vessel coronary artery disease.

Next, Tuncay Yetgin, MD; Michael Magro, MD; Robert-Jan van Geuns, MD, PhD; and Felix Zijlstra, MD, PhD, discuss the role of manual aspiration thrombectomy versus mechanical thrombectomy as an adjunct to primary PCI to prevent coronary thrombus.

Seung-Jung Park, MD, PhD, and Young-Hak Kim, MD, PhD, examine the recent data and the current guidelines for PCI using drug-eluting stents in treating unprotected left main coronary artery stenosis.

Diabetic patients continue to struggle with worse clinical outcomes after revascularization procedures compared to nondiabetics. Victor Alfonso Jiménez Díaz, MD, and Andrés Iñiguez Romo, MD, explain the recent advances in treatment for this challenging patient population.

This month, we have a Pharmacology article by Amit B. Sharma, MD; Jason C. Kovacic, MD, PhD; and Annapoorna S. Kini, MD, which covers dualantiplatelet therapy after PCI when the patient requires noncardiac surgery and the most effective medical management strategies available today.

We also have a Today's Practice article by Carolyn A. Dickens, MSN, APN, and Adhir Shroff, MD, MPH, who present a helpful guide with tips on how best to set up a same-day discharge program for patients undergoing radial PCI.

Finally, we speak with Corrado Tamburino, MD, about some of the most pressing topics in the interventional cardiology community, including treatment strategies for complex chronic total occlusions and left main artery disease.

As always, we hope Cardiac Interventions Today will help you keep up with the ever-expanding number of journals and presentations by synthesizing the current status of important topics in interventional cardiology.

Ted E. Feldman, MD, FSCAI
Chief Medical Editor
citeditorial@bmctoday.com