5 topics to watch at TCT 2017

The 29th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium kicks off in Denver in less than two weeks.

In preparation, Gregg W. Stone, MD, co-director of medical research and education at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, provided some expected highlights of this year’s session Oct. 16 during a press briefing.

Here’s a rundown of what Stone believes will be the most significant presentations at TCT, which takes place Oct. 29 through Nov. 2:

• A cost-effectiveness analysis of transcatheter aortic valve replacement in patients at intermediate risk.
• The largest randomized trial to date of patients with cardiogenic shock. Researchers will compare culprit lesion-only revascularization to multivessel revascularization.
• A thematic session including three randomized trials of short-term dual antiplatelet therapy, weighing the hemorrhagic and ischemic risks of different strategies.
• ORBITA—the first sham-controlled trial of PCI versus optimum medical therapy. It contains only 200 patients but is powered to show differences in exercise duration and quality of life.
• The four-year data from the ABSORB II trial comparing bioresorbable stents and metallic stents. Stone noted it’s the longest-term randomized trial on this topic, and the bioresorbable scaffold isn’t absorbed until three years. Therefore, this will be the first chance to see how much benefit, if any, is seen in patients after the scaffold is absorbed.