Week in Review: Patient injuries lead to recall | SAVR bests TAVR | Key takeaways from AHA 2024 | FDA clears AI screening tool

Vessel harvesting devices from Getinge have been recalled due to pieces breaking off during medical procedures. In some cases, surgeons were unable to retrieve the broken pieces. 

TAVR patients in this study were treated with early-generation devices that have since been updated, but researchers still believe their data are relevant to today's care teams.

Hadley Wilson, MD, spoke to Cardiovascular Business at the three-day event to discuss key late-breaking studies and trends. Topics included new drug treatments, AI and much more.

J.D. Corl, MD, shared his experience using two new IVL catheters from Shockwave Medical to treat patients with heavily calcified peripheral arteries. He considers both new devices a significant upgrade. 

Researchers took a closer look at the effectiveness of redo TAVR, implanting Sapien 3 valves into a variety of explanted CoreValve and Evolut valves.

Medtronic has launched new research into AI's potential to identify patients with severe aortic stenosis and other worrying symptoms. The company hopes to overcome longstanding health disparities and reach individuals who may otherwise go untreated.

Deepak Bhatt, MD, MPH, MBA, spoke to Cardiovascular Business about the growing importance of evaluating coronary inflammation in heart patients. There has been an explosion of interest in this area since the FDA's 2023 clearance of colchicine.

SCAI celebrated cardiologists William W. O'Neill, MD, and Cindy L. Grines, MD, for the important roles they played in the development of primary PCI. “It was challenging,” Grines explained. “We had the pharmaceutical industry that was anti-primary angioplasty and we had a lot of our own colleagues that were anti-primary angioplasty."

Ultromics designed EchoGo Amyloidosis to evaluate routine echocardiogram results for signs of cardiac amyloidosis. It received the FDA's breakthrough device designation back in 2023.

Treating patients younger than 65 with TAVR is associated with certain risks for heart teams to consider. Fortunately, researchers found, care teams appear to be choosing patients wisely.