The patent foramen ovale (PFO) is frequently associated with cryptogenic stroke. PFO is present in about 25 percent of the population, but is not harmful to the vast majority. Even as the evidence surrounding this congenital condition expands, practitioners find themselves clashing on if and how to treat this common heart defect.

To optimize outcomes for PCI procedures, new technologies have emerged to assist interventionalists with clinical decision making and patient selection. With fractional flow reserve (FFR) gaining more adoption since the release of the FAME trial in 2009, physicians are now exploring newer complimentary intravascular imaging technologies, such as optical coherence tomography (OCT). To assess the impact in U.S. cath labs, five interventional cardiologists discussed the practice management considerations. Sponsored by an educational grant from St. Jude Medical.

Abiomed, a developer of heart support technologies, has narrowed its net losses in the 2011 fiscal year, partly due to double-digit revenue increases with the Impella heart pump in the 2011 fiscal fourth quarter and year, both of which ended March 31.

Peri-procedural risk of events seems to be higher in women who have carotid artery stenting than those who have carotid endarterectomy, whereas there is little difference in men, according to a substudy of the CREST trial published May 6 in Lancet Neurology.

Abbott Vascular is voluntarily recalling 500 units of its MitraClip mitral valve repair system (Evalve), which is used to reduce mitral regurgitation and as an alternative to open-heart surgery for certain patients, after the company found problems with its delivery catheter system.

BALTIMOREThere is no evidence of correlation between pre-procedural brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels, change in BNP levels and clinically important reduction in systolic blood pressure following renal artery stenting, based on the late-breaking HERCULES trial presented May 5 at the 2011 Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) scientific sessions. However, the RX Herculink Elite renal stent system (Abbott Vascular), which is not FDA approved, was shown to be safe.

Among patients with stable coronary artery disease undergoing PCI, less than half were receiving optimal medical therapy (OMT) before PCI and approximately two-thirds were receiving OMT at discharge following PCI, with relatively little change in these practice patterns after publication of the COURAGE trial, according to an observational study published May 11 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

BALTIMOREEndovenous stents in the femoropropliteal veins are safe and effective; however, the natural history of stenting in the venous circulation is different than arterial stents, according to the late-breaking EVISTA-DVT trial presented May 6 at the 2011 Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) scientific sessions.