SAN FRANCISCOStarting a transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) program at a hospital will require wisdom, education and a team-based approach, Augusto D. Pichard, MD, director of the Washington Hospital Center Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, said during a twilight session Nov. 10 at the 23rd annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference. Pichard informed the audience of what it takes to start and maintain a TAVI program, and said that above all, it will require team work.

ORLANDO, Fla.Thomas R. Aversano, MD, prinicipal investigator of C-PORT, spoke with Cardiovascular Business about his randomized trial, which evaluated the safety of elective PCI in higher volume facilities with and without surgical backup. The findings were presented as a late-breaking clinical trial Nov. 14 at the 2011 American Heart Association conference.

SAN FRANCISCO--Rotablation followed by implantation of a drug-eluting stent (DES) in patients with complex, calcified lesions was not superior to standard balloon angioplasty and reduced the stents efficacy, according to study results from the ROTAXUS trial released Nov. 11 at the 23rd annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT). Nonetheless, the clinical trials study chair and panelists agreed that rotablation should continue to play a role in the treatment of complex, calcified patients.

Optical coherence tomography of the performance of the first and second generation of the drug-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffolds.Source: European Heart JournalSAN FRANCISCO--In a first-in-man clinical trial, a drug-eluting stent (DES) with a bioabsorbable polymer was shown to be non-inferior to a standard DES with a durable polymer in patients with coronary lesions. Ian Meredith, director of MonashHeart and Executive Director of Monash Cardiovascular Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia, presented the results Nov. 11 at a late breaking clinical trial press conference at the 23rd annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT).

SAN FRANCISCOIn a head-to-head comparison, the Resolute zotarolimus-eluting stent (Medtronic) and Xience V everolimus-eluting stent (Abbott Vascular) performed almost identically in terms of safety and efficacy for treating patients with complex lesions,  according to data from the TWENTE trial presented at a late breaking clinical trial session Nov. 11 at this years Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference.

SAN FRANCISCOThe cost effectiveness of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) compared with surgical aortic valve replacement depends on whether TAVI is performed via the femoral artery or transapically, through a small incision in the chest, according to a late-breaking clinical trial that evaluated the data from Cohort A of PARTNER, presented Nov. 10 at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference.

SAN FRANCISCOCoronary thrombectomy as an adjunct to PCI was not associated with a significant reduction in infarct size compared with a control group but it was associated with a significantly higher rate of ST-segment elevation resolution, Anna Sonia Petronio, MD, of the cardiothoracic and vascular department at the University of Pisa, Italy, said Nov. 10 at the 2011 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics' late-breaking clinical trial press conference.

SAN FRANCISCOThe 23rd annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference was in full swing on Nov. 9, but David J. Cohen, MD, already had his eyes on the 2012 event. In a presentation on the cost-effectiveness of PCI compared with CABG, he said that results favored bypass surgery, especially when looking at high-risk patients with multivessel acute coronary syndromes. He proposed that five-year results from the SYNTAX trial, due in 2012, will show an even stronger advantage for CABG.