The beauty of novel oral anticoagulants is that they come in fixed doses and don’t require monitoring, as warfarin does. Still, some circumstances warrant an assay, and clinicians should be aware of the potential pitfalls.

Bioresorbable stents, TAVR trials, and keynote speaker Hillary Clinton are high on the must-see list of presentations at this year’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference, according to director Gregg W. Stone, MD. 

Can a little heat really mend a broken heart? Patients with atrial fibrillation were found to have a better mortality rate when sinus rhythm was maintained through radiofrequency ablation (RFA) according to a study published in the September issue of Heart Rhythm.

Codman Neuro, part of DePuy Synthes Companies of Johnson & Johnson, announced regulatory approval from the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), and the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) for the company’s REVIVE SE Thrombectomy Device, a next-generation self-expanding clot removal device intended to restore blood flow in patients with acute ischemic stroke secondary to intracranial occlusive vessel disease.

Claret Medical, Inc., developer of innovative solutions for cerebral protection during structural heart, vascular and cardiac surgery procedures, today announced completion of enrollment in the CLEAN-TAVI clinical trial studying its filter-based cerebral protection system (CPS). The trial was designed as a first-of-its-kind, randomized controlled trial powered to definitively demonstrate the importance of cerebral protection in reducing the number and volume of new cerebral lesions created by debris lodged in the brain as a result of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).

The American Heart Association has made improvements to guideline adherence in the treatment of atrial fibrillation a priority, according to a paper published Sept. 2 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association released guidelines in 2007 advising physicians to delay surgery following a cardiac stent placement. But, did they help reduce major adverse cardiac events (MACE) following these secondary surgeries? 

Administering an antiplatelet agent to patients with STEMI in an ambulance was safe but was no more effective at improving coronary reperfusion than treatment in the hospital, based on results from the ATLANTIC trial. Early administration may prevent stent thrombosis, though.