Hospitals ranked in the top 50 for cardiology and heart surgery by U.S. News and World Report appear no better at performing PCI than unranked hospitals, according to an analysis of more than 500,000 procedures performed at 654 hospitals.

PCI of chronic total occlusions (CTOs) can be safely performed by expert operators and provides significant benefit to patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) or diabetes, according to a series of studies published Nov. 13 in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.

Scaffold discontinuity, malapposition and neoatherosclerosis were found to be the leading mechanisms behind very late scaffold thrombosis (VLScT) in cardiac patients implanted with bioresorbable devices, investigators from the INVEST registry have reported.

Recent studies have shown robotic PCI to be a feasible way to treat coronary artery disease. But at the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference Oct. 30, Ryan D. Madder, MD, took the conversation a step further: Will it eventually be possible to perform “tele-stenting” over long distances?

Research presented Nov. 2 at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics scientific symposium in Denver demonstrates patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) and abnormal fractional flow reserve (FFR) derive better clinical outcomes with PCI at similar cost to medical therapy alone.

An image-guided cardiac device designed to repair the mitral valve while a patient’s heart is still beating could provide a safe, effective alternative to traditional open heart surgery, according to research presented Nov. 1 at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting in Denver.

Differences in exercise duration for patients with stable angina who received either PCI or a placebo treatment were not statistically significant, according to research presented Nov. 2 at the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium and published simultaneously in The Lancet.

Interventional cardiologists are exposed to chronic low-dose radiation, which can lead to adverse health conditions. At a Nov. 1 presentation at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium in Denver, Wieneke Vlastra, MD, reported a 20 percent decrease in radiation exposure for operators when a lead-free disposable pad was placed on the patient.