Several late-breaking clinical trials at ACC.22 will likely impact clinical practice. Below are summaries of a few key trials and their takeaways for interventional cardiology and structural heart interventions. 

Sean Pokorney, MD, director of the arrhythmia core lab, Duke Clinical Research Institute, assistant professor of Medicine, Duke University, discusses a late-breaking ACC 2022 study that shows mortality is higher in patients with implantable electrophysiology (EP) device infections where the leads are not explanted.

A Chinese study of 2.8 million participants found that 94% of users flagged for AFib indeed have the heart rhythm disorder.

The study's authors examined data from the DANAMI-3 trial, focusing on such outcomes as all-cause mortality, recurrent MI and target vessel revascularization.

Santiago Garcia, MD, lead author of the study and director of the structural heart program at The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, presented new data from the North American COVID-19 STEMI (NACMI) registry at ACC.22. Severity of heart attacks were reduced in vaccinated patients, with zero deaths in vaccinated patients in 2021.

Steven E. Nissen, MD, chief academic officer of the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, was the lead author on the Apollo Trial, a late-breaking ACC.22 study evaluating the effectiveness of an mRNA drug to suppress lipoprotein(a).

The new international consensus document gives detailed recommendations on when to offer genetic testing for patients and their family members.