When it comes to diagnosing disease, image is everything. It is difficult to treat what you can’t see. That’s especially true in the cardiac cath lab where cardiologists performing procedures ranging from simple diagnostic tests to more complex interventional maneuvers rely on imaging technology to guide their course.

iffering approaches for the treatment of coronary bifurcation and ostial lesions (CBOL) continue to feed the debate over which stent designs and stenting techniques are most effective.

Just when drug-eluting stents (DES) were going to revolutionize interventional cardiology, new reports that DES may be associated with increased risk of late-stent thrombosis have many physicians putting the brakes on DES use. Despite this significant bump in the road, stent manufacturers are forging ahead with clinical trials on novel systems and on plans to roll out new DES platforms in 2008.