The Management of Extensive Thrombus Prior to Elective Percutaneous...
With the remarkable advances over the past decade in the field of interventional cardiology, it has become increasingly difficult to keep current with the latest techniques and strategies. The interventionalist has a wide array of devices and pharmacologic agents potentially useful in the management and treatment of the diverse clinical scenarios and lesion types that are encountered in the typical practice. In the majority of cases, there are many different potential management strategies that could be successfully employed.

In this issue we are pleased to introduce a new section entitled Clinical Decision Making. Since the practice of interventional cardiology encompasses not only contemporary technology but also the "art of medicine", the purpose of this section is to offer a forum for clinicians to describe the management of challenging and controversial cases. The format will be to present a specific patient case and the actual management that was employed, followed by commentaries from recognized clinicians in the field of interventional cardiology. We encourage readers to submit challenging cases for publication in this special section.

Michael H. Sketch, Jr., MD