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Lucian Predescu1, Marin Postu1

1 “Prof. Dr. C.C. Iliescu” Emergency Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases, Bucharest, Romania

Abstract: This article summarizes the workload of the interventional cardiology centers from Romania during 2018. Data was collected from all interventional cardiology centers from Romania using a standard reporting model. The report highli-ghts the total number of coronary interventions, peripheral interventions and other procedures like TAVI and interventions in structural heart diseases, that were performed in 2018 in Romania. A comparison of the workload of the interventional cardiology centers from Romania between 2014 to 2018 was done.
Keywords: interventional cardiology, percutaneous coronary interventions, stents.

This article summarizes the workload of the interven-tional cardiology centers of Romania during 2018 and it highlights the trends in coronary or peripheral in-terventions between 2014 and 20181-4. Data was col-lected from all interventional cardiology centers from Romania using a standard reporting model at the initi-ative of the Interventional Cardiology Working Group of Romanian Society of Cardiology.
Table 1 summarizes the data from 2018 provided by 38 public and private interventional cardiology centers from Romania. Currently, there are 38 interventional cardiology centers in Romania, of which 15 are private centers and 23 public centers with 61 functional angi-ographs. In 2018, in Romania were 126 independent interventional cardiologists and 66 interventional car-diologists in training.
The annual number of PCIs in every interventio-nal cardiology center from Romania is represented in Figure 1. A direct comparison of data from 2014 to 2018 was done, that highlights the continuous increase of workload of the interventional cardiology centers from Romania (Figure 2). Between 2014 and 2015 the-re was a step increase in the number of PCIs perfor-med annually, that flattened in 2017-2018. In 2018, in Romania, 21333 PCIs were performed.
The total number of primary PCIs performed in STEMI patients has a downward trend (Figure 3). This can raise some questions about how the STEMI pro-gram is financed and how the patients were reported.
There was a linear increase in the total number of implanted stents (Figure 4). Each year, the percentage of implanted drug eluting stents increased.
A constant progress was obtained in what concerns peripheral angioplasty. The total number of peripheral angioplasties performed had a step increased in 2017 and in 2018. In 2018 there was an increase with 14.2% compared to 2017 (Figure 5).
With the implementation of new program, the number of TAVI performed in 2018 almost doubled comparing to 2017.

Figure 1. Total number of PCIs in 2018 in all interventional centers from Romania (PCI – percutaneous coronary intervention).

Figure 2. Total number of PCIs from 2014 to 2018 in Romania (PCI – per-cutaneous coronary intervention).

Figure 3. Total number of primary PCIs in STEMI patients from 2015 to 2018 in interventional centers from Romania (STEMI – ST segment eleva-tion myocardial infarction).

Figure 4. Total number of stents implanted from 2014 to 2018 in Romania.

Figure 5. Total number of peripheral angioplasties from 2014 to 2018 in Romania (only in interventional cardiology centers).

Figure 6. Total number of TAVI performed from 2014 to 2018 in Romania (TAVI – transcatheter aortic valve implantation).

Acknowledgement: We want to thank for their contribution to data collection to: Dr. Adrian Bucsa and Prof. Dr. Vlad Iliescu, „Prof. Dr. CC Iliescu” Emer-gency Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases, Bucharest; Dr. Cristian Udroiu and Prof. Dr. Dragos Vinereanu, Emergency University Hospital, Bucharest; Dr. Luci-an Calmac, Emergency Clinic Hospital, Bucharest; Dr. Emanuel Radu, Emergency Clinical Hospital „Prof. Dr. Agrippa Ionescu „, Bucharest; Dr. Sebastian Botezatu, Central Military Emergency University Hospital „Dr. Carol Davila”, Bucharest; Dr. Valentin Chioncel, „Bag-dasar-Arseni” Clinical Emergency Hospital, Bucharest; Dr. Mihai Melnic, Elias Emergency University Hospital, Bucharest; Dr. Octavian Zara, „Sf. Ioan” Clinical Emer-gency Hospital, Bucharest; Dr. Cristina Spinu, Sanador Clinical Hospital, Bucharest; Dr. Oren Iancovici, ARES Centers of Excellence in Cardiology and Radiology, Bucharest and Ares-Monza, Constanta and Cluj Na-poca; Prof. Dr. Gheorghe Dan and Dr. Emilian Mihai, Colentina Clinical Hospital, Bucharest; Dr. Florina Pin-te, Medlife, Bucharest; Dr. Lucian Zarma, „Victor Ba-bes” Private Medical Clinic, Bucharest; Dr. Stefan Mot, Heart Institute „Niculae Stancioiu” and Cardioteam, Cluj-Napoca; Prof. Dr. Dan Olinic, County Emergency Hospital, Cluj-Napoca; Dr. Bogdan Dutu, Clinical Recovery Hospital, Cluj-Napoca; Dr. Alexandru Burlacu, Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases „Prof. Dr. George IM Georgescu”, Dr. Igor Nedelciuc, Arcadia, Iasi; Prof. Dr. Imre Benedek and Prof. Dr. Teodora Benedek, County Emergency Hospital, Targu Mures, Dr. Ayman Elkahlout, Emergency Institute For Cardiovascular Di-seases, Targu Mures; Conf. Dr. Ioan Tilea, Nova-Vita, Targu Mures; Conf. Dr. Cristian Mornos, Institute Of Cardiovascular Disease, Timisoara; Dr. Milovan Slo-venski, Cordismed, Timisoara; Dr. Mihai Ursu, Clinic-co, Brasov; Dr. Florin Ortan and Dr. Cristina Popica, County Emergency Hospital, Brasov; Dr. Virgil Popa and Dr. Marius Rus, County Emergency Clinical Hos-pital, Oradea; Dr. Cristian Dina, Cardiolife, Arad; Dr. Roberto Haret, Med New Life, Suceava; Dr. Dan Filip, County Emergency Hospital “Dr. Constantin Opris”, Baia Mare; Dr. Nicolae Florescu, Polisano, Sibiu; Dr. Radu Pretorian and Dr. Ioan Bitea, County Emergency Hospital, Sibiu; Dr. Marian Albu and Dr. Victor Iorga, County Emergency Hospital, Ploiesti; Dr. Elvis Botu, County Emergency Hospital, Pitesti; Dr. Radu Stava-ru and Dr. Paul Trasca; County Emergency Hospital, Craiova.

Conflict of interest: none declared.

References:
1. Predescu L, Postu M, The activity of the Interventional Cardiology Centers in Romania: a 2017 overview and 2014-2017 trends, Roma-nian Journal of Cardiology, Vol. 28, No. 2, 2018, pag. 147-153
2. Postu M, Predescu L, Mot S, The activity of the interventional cardi-ology centers in Romania: a 2016 overview and 2014-2016 trends, Romanian Journal of Cardiology, Vol. 27, No. 3, 2017, pag. 359-368
3. Postu M, Predescu L, Mot S, The activity of the Interventional Car-diology Centers in Romania: a 2015 overview, Romanian Journal of Cardiology, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2016, pag. 298-309
4. Postu M, Uşurelu C, Predescu L et al., Romanian interventional car-diology centers, 2014-2015: an overview, Romanian Journal of Car-diology, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2015, pag. 170-174