ACC.14: Renal denervation, colchicine and registries among late-breakers

The upcoming American College of Cardiology (ACC) conference will feature more than 2,200 abstracts and 22 late-breaking trials. The ACC elaborated March 18 on its list of late-breakers that will be presented at the three-day event, to be held March 29-31 in Washington, D.C.

Here are a few of the standout trials:

SYMPLICITY HTN-3: The SYMPLICITY trial compared the use of the Symplicity renal denervation system (Medtronic) to medical management in more than 500 patients with resistant hypertension. Early results from the phase 3 study released in January found no issues with safety, but the trial did not reach its primary efficacy endpoint of a consistent reduction in systolic blood pressure. Despite not being successful in terms of its efficacy endpoint, conference co-chair Prediman K. Shah, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, said the results will provide insight into what role renal denervation may play in patient with uncontrolled hypertension.

CORP-2 (Colchicine for Recurrent Pericarditis): This trial assessed the efficacy and safety of colchicine in 240 patients with two or more episodes of pericarditis. The participants received standard therapy and were then randomized to treatment with either colchicine or placebo. Based on the study data, the colchicine group experienced better outcomes. To date, there is no agreed upong optimal therapy, said Robert Siegel, MD, conference co-chair and director of the Cardiac Noninvasive Laboratory at Cedars Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles.

STS (Society for Thoracic Surgeons)/ACC Transcatheter Valve Therapy (TVT) Registry outcomes: Unlike clinical trials involving a limited number of patients with severe aortic stenosis who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), the registry now has 7,000 of TAVR patients at 224 different sites. About 20 percent of the participants were considered inoperable and the remainder were considered high-risk. Investigators will discuss one-year outcomes, including survival, stroke, days in the hospital and the need for reintervention.

There will also be several other presentations on TAVR, including data comparing CoreValve (Medtronic) and Sapien (Edwards Lifesciences) devices.

“I think this is a unique meeting just because we have randomized trials on the CoreValve, we have randomized trials comparing the CoreValve to the Edwards Sapien valve, and then we have the huge national registries, all of them being reported at the same meeting,” said TCT (Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics)@ACCi2 Chair Cindy Grines, MD, of the Detroit Medical Center Cardiovascular Institute.