Category Archives: Stent

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

September 28, 2012 · 7:37 pm

Medtronic Launches Stent for Diabetics in India; Abbott Launches Absorb “Scaffold”

Medtronic’s Resolute Integrity zotarolimus-eluting stent

According to reports yesterday by the Mumbai Bureau of Pharmabiz, and confirmed today by MassDevice, Medtronic has launched its Resolute Integrity Drug-Eluting Stent (DES) in India for the treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD). The Resolute Integrity is the only stent approved by the FDA for use in diabetics, based on a large cohort of diabetic patients in the Resolute clinical program.

Diabetics historically have had higher adverse events when treated with PCI (angioplasty and stents) — but the data from the Resolute trials showed virtually no difference between diabetics and non-diabetics, leading the FDA to approve the indication. Continue reading →

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Filed under Clinical Trials / Studies, Diabetes, Drug-Eluting Stents, FDA, Global Trends, Stent

September 15, 2012 · 9:45 pm

Jerry “The King” Lawler Has Heart Attack (on the air) and Stents (not on the air)

Jerry Lawler

Jerry Lawler, announcing during a match in 2007 (courtesy Mshake3)

Jerry “The King’ Lawler, semi-retired professional wrestler, holder of 168 championships (reportedly) and commentator for WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” collapsed on September 10, during a live broadcast in Montreal, Canada.

62-year-old Lawler was having a heart attack.

EMTs performed CPR and defibrillated him (seven times, it is reported). He was revived and rushed to a Montreal hospital where he received an angioplasty with two stents. Continue reading →

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Filed under Celebrity Patients, Heart Attack, Stent, Video

· 1:00 pm

Results of the ADVISE Registry Published

Artist rendition illustrating the iFR "Wave Free Period"

Artist illustration of the iFR “Wave Free Period”

As previously reported on Angioplasty.Org, a new method for the functional measurement of intracoronary pressures and the severity of blockages has been developed by researchers at Imperial College in London. One of the main advantages of this new method, called Instant Wave-Free Ratio™ (iFR), is that, unlike standard fractional flow reserve (FFR), it does not require injection of a vasodilator drug, such as adenosine, to induce stress on the heart. The result is that the procedure is more comfortable for the patient and potentially useable in clinical scenarios where vasodilation is not feasible, such as acute coronary syndromes, infarctions, unstable patients, patients with breathing problems; it may also be somewhat quicker, easier to use, and more cost-effective. Continue reading →

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Filed under Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC), Cost Effectiveness, FAME I / FAME II, FFR, Interviews, Intravascular Guidance, Stent

June 10, 2012 · 3:03 pm

Can Using IVUS (Intravascular Ultrasound) Prevent Stent Thrombosis?

IVUS image shows stent under-expansion (click for larger image)

IVUS image shows stent under-expansion (click for larger image)

A recent paper, published online before print in SCAI’s journal, Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, yet again adds to the evidence that intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging during PCI can improve stent placement and expansion in a way that may prevent stent thrombosis (ST).

Titled, “Angiographically confirmed stent thrombosis in contemporary practice: insights from intravascular ultrasound“, the study looked at five years (2005-2010) of a multicenter registry of stent thromboses and studied the IVUS images where performed. Continue reading →

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Filed under Innovators, IVUS, Japan, Stent Thrombosis

February 8, 2012 · 5:35 pm

Stents vs. Pills — Summer Re-run in February

Pills vs. StentI’m looking at this morning’s news and I’m seeing headlines like these: “Stents Overused in Stable Heart Patients” (WebMD), “Pills as good as stents for stable heart patients” (Reuters), “No Extra Benefits Are Seen in Stents for Coronary Artery Disease” (New York Times), and “Stents no better than pills for some heart patients” (MassDevice) — and I think I have time-traveled half a decade back to March 2007 when the results of the COURAGE study were presented at the American College of Cardiology Annual Meeting. Continue reading →

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Filed under Clinical Trials / Studies, COURAGE, Media Coverage, Stent

January 18, 2012 · 6:30 pm

Does FAME II Trump COURAGE? FFR: Key to Stents and Angioplasty

Fame II QuestionsPositive news today from St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) about FFR as a clinical decision-making tool. The company announced that it is stopping enrollment in its FAME II trial after only 2/3 of the planned patients were included. Why? Because the interim data so clearly favor the use of Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) to guide stenting (PCI) in stable angina patients that the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the trial has concluded that it would be unethical to continue to randomize patients to optimal medical therapy (OMT) alone. Turns out that patients receiving OMT only experienced a highly statistically significant increased risk of hospital readmission and urgent revascularization.

Wait a minute! Did they say that using optimal medical therapy alone was unethical for the treatment of stable angina patients? That’s pretty big news! Continue reading →

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Filed under COURAGE, FAME I / FAME II, FFR, Stent