Control of atrial fibrillation (AF) was not achieved in more than 40 percent of the AF patients included in a 10,000 patient REALISE-AF registry, according to a study presented Sept. 1 at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress in Stockholm.   Read more...

African-Americans may have more of a risk of developing life-threatening thrombosis after receiving drug-eluting stents (DES); however, socioeconomic status was independent of stent thrombosis, according to the results of a study published in the Aug. 31 issue of Circulation.   Read more...

The FDA has granted 510(k) clearance for the LipiScan near-infrared (NIR) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) coronary imaging system from InfraReDx.   Read more...

The use of a seven-day, double-dose of clopidogrel reduced cardiovascular events and stent thrombosis in patients with acute coronary syndromes undergoing PCI, but resulted in higher bleeding rates, according to a substudy of the CURRENT-OASIS 7 trial presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress in Stockholm and simultaneously published in the Lancet.
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A low-dose regimen of unfractionalted heparin compared with standard dose did not reduce the risk of major peri-PCI bleeding or vascular access site complications in patients receiving the anticoagulant fondaparinux, which had previously been found to cut bleeding by half, according to the results of the FUTURA/OASIS-8 trial presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress in Stockholm, and simultaneously published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.   Read more...

Medtronic has launched in Europe its Resolute Integrity drug-eluting stent (DES) system for the treatment of coronary artery disease, after receiving the CE mark.   Read more...

The transition from a default transfemoral access approach for coronary angioplasty to a default transradial approach increased fluoroscopy time, according to a study published in the September edition of American Journal of Cardiology. The transradial approach increased dose-area product for diagnostic procedures, but not interventional procedures.   Read more...

Patients implanted with drug-eluting stents (DES) saw a reduction in long-term rates of major adverse cardiac events, but had higher rates of cardiac death compared to those with bare-metal stents (BMS), according to the results of the DEDICATION trial published Aug. 17 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.   Read more...

High-risk patients undergoing PCI who electively received an intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) prior to the procedure did not experience a significantly lower overall rate of events such as MI, revascularization or death compared with those who did not prophylactically receive a pump. While researchers don't advocate for prophylactic IABPs, they suggested that improved PCI techniques and drug therapies could have helped reduced the complication rate, according to the BCIS-1 study in the Aug. 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.   Read more...

Medtronic’s financial results for its first quarter of fiscal year 2011, which ended July 30, revealed a double-digit increase in net earnings, despite a slight drop in revenues.   Read more...

The use of fractional-flow reserve (FFR) resulted in significantly lower PCIs compared with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in patients with intermediate coronary artery disease (CAD), based on study results in this month's Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions.   Read more...

While the Asian-American population accounts for 25 percent of the total foreign-born individuals in the U.S., targeted research regarding this population and their heart disease risk is limited and more is necessary, according to an American Heart Association (AHA) science advisory published in the Aug. 24 edition of Circulation.   Read more...

The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) and the American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF) will jointly sponsor the Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence (ACE), an organization that reviews and accredits facilities for invasive cardiac and endovascular procedures that meet certain quality guidelines.   Read more...

Drug-eluting stents (DES) sustain a prognostic benefit up to five years following PCI, based on a survival analysis published in the September issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions.   Read more...

Proper patient selection and adherence to set protocols allow same-day discharge after uncomplicated cases of elective PCI, despite using femoral access, according to a study published in the August edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions.   Read more...

After 585 patients at the St. Joseph Medical Center (SJMC) in Towson, Md., received word that their cardiac stent procedures may have been unwarranted, Maryland attorneys filed a 19-page lawsuit against the facility alleging that Mark G. Midei, MD, director of the SJMC cath lab violated the Maryland Medical Practice Act. The court documents accuse Midei of performing “hundreds, if not thousands, of unnecessary cardiac stent procedures on patients.” Now, this case and others like it have left most wondering what this will mean for the industry.   Read more...

An increased or adjusted loading dose of clopidogrel (Plavix, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi-Aventis), depending on platelet reactivity monitoring, can overcome high on-treatment platelet reactivity in patients who carry the CYP2C19 2 polymorphism, and therefore reduce thrombotic risk post-PCI, according to a study published Aug. 11 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the Duke Clinical Research Institute are recruiting hospitals enrolled in the ACC's NCDR CathPCI Registry to participate in an observational study—the TRANSLATE-ACS Study—to examine longitudinal outcomes, treatment patterns and healthcare costs for 15,000 patients with acute MI treated with PCI and antiplatelet medications.   Read more...

The vacancy rate for radiographers has continued to decline in recent years and is now at 2.1 percent, according to a staffing survey conducted by the American Society of Radiologic Technologists (ASRT).   Read more...

Transporting heart attack patients directly to PCI centers via emergency medical services (EMS) may be more effective than expanding PCI capacity at hospitals, according to a study published July 27 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.   Read more...