When treated for ischemic left ventricular dysfunction, patients who underwent CABG reported better quality-of-life compared with guideline therapy patients at different time points throughout follow-up of nearly five years. The CABG group also had lower depression scores.

GE Healthcare has installed Cath Lab Efficiency Manager at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, MO , a new analytical tool that analyzes the performance of an interventional lab providing hospitals with important data they can use to identify areas of improvement.  Cath Lab Efficiency Manager provides a near-real-time dashboard which displays measures of inefficiency and identifies the factors impacting performance. The tool visualizes where changes can be made to help increase productivity and help improve patient care.

Abbott announced today the start of the ABSORB IV clinical trial, which will test whether its Absorb Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS) is more cost-effective and offers a higher quality of life than a best-in-class, permanent, metallic drug eluting stent. Absorb is the world's first drug eluting BVS and functions like a metallic stent by opening up blocked blood vessels in the heart and restoring blood flow. However, unlike a metallic stent, Absorb completely dissolves over time after doing its job. ABSORB IV is designed to enroll approximately 3,000 people with coronary artery disease, mostly in the United States.

If you want your cath lab to run efficiently and safely, you need a director with clear vision and the ability to take charge, even—make that especially— in times of strife, a physician leader said Sept. 13 at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics scientific session.

The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) has named Lisa Olson, PhD, as its new executive director. Olson brings deep experience and expertise in the cardiovascular field and a vision for continuing to advance SCAI’s mission.

Amaranth Medical, a privately held medical device company, announced the initiation of patient enrollment in multiple centers in Colombia, South America in MEND-II, a clinical trial to assess safety and feasibility of the Company's FORTITUDE(R) Sirolimus-Eluting Bioresorbable Scaffold in patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease. As seen with the first generation scaffold, preliminary patient results using optical coherence tomography (OCT) following implantation show that the scaffolds were fully apposed to the vessel wall achieving optimal acute lumen gain.

Drug-eluting balloons rather than drug-eluting stents may have a place in certain clinical scenarios, cardiologists said Sept. 14 during a press conference at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics scientific session.

Google Glass one day could become an interventional cardiologist’s new best friend, based on a demonstration Sept. 15 at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics scientific session that showed how the technology was used during a transradial PCI.