Maquet has issued a Class I recall on more than 5,000 intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABPs) in the United States due to a false blood detection alarm and the entrance of fluid into the devices. The IABPs are cardiac assist devices used for patients with acute coronary syndrome or complications from heart failure.

The business of cardiology was at the forefront of discussion at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) Cath Lab Leadership Boot Camp in May. Speakers focused on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), bundled payment models and value-based reimbursement. Here are a few of the lessons attendees took back to their practices.

Survival with favorable quality of life improved among patients with refractory out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation (VF)/ventricular tachycardia (VT) cardiac arrest when they were quickly taken to a cardiac catheterization laboratory (CCL) for extracorporeal life support (ECLS) and revascularization, as opposed to being treated with prolonged resuscitation efforts at the scene of their heart attack, according to new research.

Orsiro drug-eluting stents (DES) outperformed the current standard device for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in a randomized international trial, according to a presentation from the European Society of Cardiology Congress.

Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) demonstrates favorable results when compared to PCI in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D), according to a new study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Self-expanding (SE) stents proved more effective than balloon-expandable (BE) stents for the treatment of atherosclerosis of the iliac arteries and are thus recommended for affected patients, according to researchers who recently compared the two versions among a large group of patients being treated in northern Europe.  

During transcathether aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures, the mitral apparatus may suffer serious, potentially lethal impairment, according to a new case study describes an approach to address the problem through percutaneous management.

Patients demonstrating high platelet reactivity (HPR) on clopidogrel are more likely to suffer stent thrombosis (ST) or MI within two years of stent implantation, according to a new study in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.