Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSII) (CSI), today announced that it has received FDA clearance for its new ViperWire Advance® Peripheral Guide Wire with Flex Tip for their Peripheral Orbital Atherectomy Systems (OAS). The new guide wire provides physicians with improved flexibility, navigation and ease-of-use—particularly in hard-to-reach, tortuous vessels—when treating arterial calcium associated with peripheral artery disease (PAD).

A randomized trial in Spain found an everolimus-eluting stent (EES) was more effective than a drug-eluting balloon (DEB) in treating patients with drug-eluting stent in-stent restenosis. One year after the procedures, the primary endpoint of cardiac death, MI and target vessel revascularization occurred in 10 percent of the EES group and 18 percent of the DEB group. The difference was statistically significant.

An intraprocedural thrombotic event in a patient with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTEACS) adds approximately $3,600 to hospital costs, according to an economic analysis of the ACUITY trial that was published in the July issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) closed its investigation into Abiomed’s marketing of the Impella 2.5 device without taking any action against the company, according to an Abiomed news release on June 29.

If you work in a cath lab and you would like to make more money, take some pointers from SpringBoard Healthcare’s 2015 survey. The survey results shed light on wage information from directors and managers to nurses and techs.

The FDA approved cangrelor on June 22 for adults undergoing PCI. The intravenous medication is an antiplatelet drug and is intended to prevent blood clots.

Improvements in door-to-balloon times have helped to push down mortality rates and boost outcomes for MI patients, the New York Times reports in part of a series on cardiovascular care in the U.S. The article includes educational slides on heart attacks and PCI treatment.

A stent may not be a commodity in the same sense as silicon dioxide or carbon black. But what hospitals perceive as slight, if any, clinical differences among drug-eluting stents can make them appear so in purchasing decisions.