The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) weighed in on the ongoing debate regarding the long-term safety of paclitaxel-coated balloons and stents on Jan. 25, largely agreeing with the FDA’s stance that the benefits of such devices appear to outweigh the risks until more information becomes available.

LEIPZIG and MARLBOROUGH, Mass. (January 22, 2019) — Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) today announced diabetic subanalysis results from the IMPERIAL trial in which patients treated with the ELUVIA™ Drug-Eluting Vascular Stent System demonstrated statistically significant lower rates of target lesion revascularization (TLR) and stent thrombosis when compared to those treated with the Zilver® PTX® Drug-Eluting Peripheral Stent. 

A survey of cardiovascular fellows-in-training (FIT) offered insight into why women at that career stage are less likely to pursue interventional cardiology—a subspecialty that ranks among the lowest in all of medicine in terms of female representation.

Rivaroxaban failed to reduce the rate of early graft failure following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery compared to aspirin monotherapy, researchers reported in a substudy of the COMPASS trial published Jan. 14 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

One in five patients who required emergency surgery to correct complications caused by diagnostic angiography or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) died within 30 days, researchers reported in a single-center study from Germany.

Despite recent clinical trial evidence suggesting the outcomes of unprotected left main PCI rival those of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), very few unprotected left main PCIs are performed in everyday clinical practice in the United States.

For-profit and not-for-profit healthcare facilities may value the health of their cath lab employees differently. Without a clear indication of the bottom-line impact, some hospitals may be forgoing protective equipment and sacrificing the long-term health of their workers. Should the C-suite prioritize worker health when allocating investment dollars? 

Outpatient centers across three states may have upcoded patients from stable angina to unstable angina to mask their use of inappropriate percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), according to a report published Dec. 17 in JAMA Internal Medicine.