Atherosclerosis is a chronic and progressive inflammatory process beginning early in life with late clinical manifestation. This slow pathological trend underlines the importance to early identify high-risk patients and to treat intensively risk factors to prevent the onset and/or the progression of atherosclerotic lesions. In addition to the common Cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, new markers able to increase the risk of CV disease have been identified. Among them, high levels of Lipoprotein(a)—Lp(a)—lead to very high risk of future CV diseases; this relationship has been well demonstrated in epidemiological, mendelian randomization and genome-wide association studies as well as in meta-analyses. Recently, new aspects have been identified, such as its association with aortic stenosis. Although till recent years it has been considered an unmodifiable risk factor, specific drugs have been developed with a strong efficacy in reducing the circulating levels of Lp(a) and their capacity to reduce subsequent CV events is under testing in ongoing trials. In this paper we will review all these aspects: from the synthesis, clearance and measurement of Lp(a), through the findings that examine its association with CV diseases and aortic stenosis to the new therapeutic options that will be available in the next years.

The growing awareness of tricuspid regurgitation (TR) and the fast-expanding array of devices aiming to percutaneously repair or replace the tricuspid valve have underscored the central role of multi-modality imaging in comprehensively assessing the anatomical and functional characteristics of TR. Accurate phenotyping of TR, the right heart, and pulmonary vasculature via echocardiography, computed tomography, and, occasionally, cardiovascular magnetic resonance and right heart catheterization is deemed crucial in choosing the most suitable treatment strategy for each patient and achieving procedural success. In the first part of the present review, key imaging factors for patient selection will be discussed. In the ensuing sections, an overview of the most commonly used, commercially available systems for transcatheter repair/replacement will be presented, along with their respective selection criteria and information on intraprocedural imaging guidance; these are edge-to-edge repair, orthotopic and heterotopic replacement, and valve-in-valve procedures.

BACKGROUND: Drug-coated balloons (DCBs) are increasingly adopted in percutaneous coronary intervention. Bail-out drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation due to suboptimal immediate results after DCB angioplasty is not infrequent, and the clinical outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention with DCB angioplasty followed by bail-out DES implantation remain unexplored. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety of bail-out DES implantation following DCB angioplasty in percutaneous coronary intervention. METHODS: The BAILOUT registry included consecutive patients undergoing bail-out DES implantation after DCB angioplasty at 17 European centers between 2011 and 2024. The primary end point was target lesion failure (TLF) at 1 year, defined as the composite of target lesion revascularization, target vessel myocardial infarction, and cardiac death. The TLF rate was compared with a performance goal of 7.0% for an upfront DES-only strategy, derived from a meta-analysis of contemporary randomized controlled trials. RESULTS: A total of 733 patients were included, accounting for 5.5% of all DCB-based percutaneous coronary interventions. At 1 year, the cumulative TLF incidence in the overall population was 7.0% (95% CI, 5.2%–9.3%), which was comparable to the performance goal ( P =0.916). This was mainly driven by target lesion revascularization (4.1%), while cardiac death and target vessel myocardial infarction occurred both in 1.9% of patients. The incidence of stent thrombosis was 0.6%. Independent predictors of 1-year TLF included lesion length (hazard ratio, 1.02 per mm increase [95% CI, 1.01–1.03]; P <0.001), moderate-to-severe calcification (hazard ratio, 2.82 [95% CI, 1.48–5.40]; P =0.002), and the use of paclitaxel- versus sirolimus-coated balloons (hazard ratio, 1.99 [95% CI, 1.01–4.05]; P =0.048). CONCLUSIONS: In cases of suboptimal angiographic results after DCB angioplasty, bail-out DES implantation is safe, with no increased risk of TLF at 1 year compared with the expected performance goal for an upfront DES-only strategy.