Category Archives: Meetings & Conferences

November 15, 2012 · 7:16 pm

Angioplasty: From the Legs to the Heart and Back to the Legs

Charles Dotter, MD in LIFE Magazine

Charles Dotter, MD in LIFE Magazine, August 1964

Angioplasty! A word at the center of the recent TCT meeting in Miami, attended by 12,000 healthcare professionals. A word coined half-a-century ago by Dr. Charles Dotter, a radiologist who practiced at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon.

Dotter’s idea was simple: to open up arterial blockages in the legs from the inside out: by snaking a catheter down the circulatory system to the blockage, instead of cutting through the various layers of body tissue to repair the artery through open surgery. Continue reading →

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Filed under History, Innovators, Meetings & Conferences, Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), Video

November 3, 2012 · 10:22 pm

Notes from the Bunker: Sandy Follows Me from the TCT in Miami to Home in New York

MIami Beach Convention Center (left) and Long Island, NY (right)

(L) Palm fronds outside of Miami Beach Convention Center; (R) three days later, oak tree smashed into house on Long Island  (click to enlarge)

As I braved the strong winds and rain of Hurricane Sandy in Miami Beach a little over a week ago in order to hear the latest about stents, angioplasty, renal denervation, aortic valves, and more at the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting, I wished a number of times that I was just sitting by the fire in my comfortable small home at the eastern end of Long Island.

The wind and rain went sweeping through the Floridian avenues, palm trees bending, fronds flying. Wednesday night and Thursday were the worst. Boston Scientific had to relocate their “Technology Preview” from the rooftop of the Perry South Beach Hotel to a meeting room inside. All of us in the press room at TCT were checking to see if our Friday flights were being cancelled or not. Continue reading →

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October 30, 2012 · 8:54 pm

The Question of Angioplasty in the Elderly

We just posted a report on the XIMA Trial which studied stents in octogenarians. The trial compared drug-eluting with bare-metal stents and the results are very interesting: while the trial didn’t find a difference in these two types of stents for the pre-specified composite endpoint of death, heart attack, revascularization, stroke and major bleeding…it did find significantly lower incidence of revascularization and heart attack in those patients who received the drug-eluting Xience stent.

But the real take-away from the XIMA Trial is that stenting and angioplasty in the elderly is safe and effective. Mortality from cardiac causes in this trial was 4% at one year, no matter which stent was used. Continue reading →

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Filed under Antiplatelet Medications, Bare Metal Stents, Clinical Trials / Studies, Drug-Eluting Stents, Heart Attack, Meetings & Conferences, Patients, Stent, Video

October 17, 2012 · 11:57 pm

“Annual Report” of Stent Procedures Shows Big Increase in Wrist Angioplasty

Today’s report from the ACC CathPCI Registry data has some interesting statistics, among them a significant increase in the transradial approach, in which balloons and stents are directed to the heart via the radial artery in the wrist. As I’ve discussed for several years now, the radial approach is utilized much more outside of the U.S. — but it is catching on here…finally.

Dr. Sunil V. Rao

Dr. Sunil V. Rao

Four years ago we wrote about a study, authored by Dr. Sunil V. Rao, that also used data from the CathPCI registry for the years 2004-2007. (For more information, read my interview with Dr. Rao.) At that time Dr. Rao calculated the usage of transradial angioplasty in the U.S. at 1.32%.

Today’s report tabulates it at 6.9%: a five-fold increase!

Dr. Rao has been one of the main proponents of the transradial approach in the U.S., practicing it, teaching it, lecturing all over the country about it, and most recently co-directing a “Masters Course” in transradial at Duke. Continue reading →

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Filed under ACC, Heart Attack, Meetings & Conferences, Transradial Approach

October 15, 2012 · 7:59 pm

TCT 2012 – Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics in Miami Beach

Miami Beach

The TCT will be held in Miami Beach, October 22-26, 2012

The Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference (TCT) is the largest U.S. meeting devoted to interventional cardiology (angioplasty, stents, and related procedures) and it starts next week. Organizers are predicting a new attendance record of over 12,000 cardiologists and associated healthcare professionals, as well as members of the device, imaging and pharmaceutical industries, venture capitalists, and press. Speaking of which, yes…I will be there and Angioplasty.Org will be reporting on late-breaking trials, new directions and innovative devices.

The annual  meeting is truly international: attendees will be traveling from 70 countries; in fact, this year more than two-thirds of the registrants hail from outside the United States. Continue reading →

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Filed under Clinical Trials / Studies, Cost Effectiveness, FDA, Global Trends, Heart Attack, High Blood Pressure, Intravascular Guidance, Meetings & Conferences, Stent, Transradial Approach

May 15, 2012 · 3:30 pm

An American Cardiologist in Paris: Be Careful in the Shower

FranticToday EuroPCR 2012 begins. More than 12,000 cardiologists descend on the Palais des Congrès in Paris to present and learn about stents, angioplasty, fractional flow reserve, etc.

Just be careful in the shower. Especially if you’re traveling with your wife! Continue reading →

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Filed under France, Meetings & Conferences

March 4, 2012 · 1:30 pm

Stent-Trek: The Next Generation

Starship Stenterprise

Starship Stenterprise

Yeah. I went there. Since everyone from Motley Fool to MassDevice to the Wall Street Journal feels the need to use “Stent Wars” (a pun that I originated on this website a decade ago) I’ve decided to go all TV. Actually, “The Next Generation” is also a more appropriate reference than the “Wars” moniker, because the story here is no longer so much about behemoth entities and dark lords battling each other for control of the universe (not that this aspect has gone away) but a story of refinement, sleeker technology and, yes, much more Data! And this past couple of weeks has seen some important developments in the next generation of stents that are positive for both patients and physicians. Continue reading →

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Filed under Antiplatelet Medications, Clinical Trials / Studies, FFR, High Blood Pressure, Innovators, Intravascular Guidance, IVUS, Meetings & Conferences, OCT