While Ernest Hemingway was referring to his early life in Paris in the early 1920s among other writers and artists of the Generation Perdue that continued to preoccupy him throughout his life, the interventional cardiology data emerging from Paris this week at the EuroPCR might have an equally lasting effect. In general, the news surrounding drug-eluting stents (DES) seems quite positive, particularly in allaying the fears related to stent thrombosis associated with DES implementation.

For instance, the XIENCE V USA researchers reported that Abbott’s Xience V DES demonstrated a definite/probable stent thrombosis rate of 0.84 percent per ARC definition at one year, and 0.34 percent in the subset of 1,800 less complex patients at one year.

Also, the all-comers trials and registry data are revealing how these technologies are performing in real-life clinical practice. Particularly, the next-generation stents are faring well in this arena. For example, Medtronic’s Resolute was found to be as safe and effective as the Xience V in the European RESOLUTE all-comers trial, which was presented by Dr. Patrick W. Serruys at EuroPCR on Tuesday.  

This is good news for Medtronic, whose previous DES iteration, Endeavor, proved inferior to Cordis' Cypher in the SORT OUT all-comers trial, presented at ACC.10 in March.

Also on Tuesday, the SOURCE Registry was presented by Dr. Martyn Thomas, further elucidating the field of transcatheter heart valve therapies, with one-year survival rate of 81.1 percent in transfemoral procedures and 72.1 percent in transapical procedures for those patients treated with the Edwards Lifesciences’ Sapien valves. However, the researchers noted that the next-generation Sapien XT delivery systems could result in lower vascular complications, and will be further evaluated in SOURCE XT Registry.

Further keeping attention on the European continent, a slew of devices received CE Mark this week, including Abbott’s Trek coronary dilatation catheter to treat coronary artery disease; Edwards’ Sapien pulmonic transcatheter heart valve to treat congenital heart disease; and Stentys’ DES to treat acute coronary syndrome.

As EuroPCR concludes, and the late-breaking news from Europe lessens, the “feast” of data will likely remain present in clinical decision making.

On these topics, or any others, please feel free to contact me.

Justine Cadet
jcadet@cardiovascularbusiness.com