A long-term follow-up of patients who underwent cardiac surgery in Sweden found there was no association between red blood cell storage times and estimated mortality at 30 days, two years and 10 years.

The FDA approved the Sapien XT transcatheter heart valve on Oct. 15 for aortic valve-in-valve procedures.

Patients at high risk for bleeding who underwent PCI had better outcomes if they received a polymer-free umirolimus-coated stent compared with a bare-metal stent, according to a randomized, double blind trial.

After two years of follow up, patients with peripheral artery disease who received a drug-coated balloon had significantly higher primary patency and a significantly lower rate of clinically driven target lesion revascularization compared with patients who received conventional percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA).

The lead author of a recent trial that led to an FDA notification of potential issues with bioprosthetic aortic valves reiterated that the findings related to neurologic events were preliminary and inconclusive.

A randomized trial found that patients with diabetes and coronary artery disease who underwent PCI and received paclitaxel-eluting stents had a significantly higher 1-year rate of the primary outcome of target-vessel failure compared with patients who received everolimus-eluting stents.

After a year of follow-up, patients with STEMI who received thrombus aspiration during PCI had similar results in the primary outcome of cardiovascular death, recurrent MI, cardiogenic shock or class IV heart failure compared with patients undergoing PCI alone, according to a prospective, randomized trial.

Providing ranolazine to patients with chronic angina and incomplete revascularization after undergoing PCI did not reduce the composite end point of ischemia-driven revascularization or hospitalization without revascularization, according to a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.