How about a 16-item approach to quality measurement in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)? “By selecting a comprehensive portfolio of carefully selected metrics balanced for their complementary strengths and weaknesses, the elusive resolution may be achievable,” cardiologists suggested in JAMA Cardiology.
The first remote robot-assisted PCIs have been performed in India with operators 20 miles away from their patients. (MassDevice)
HeartFlow Planner, a pre-procedural virtual modeling tool, was approved by the FDA, HeartFlow announced.
Structural valve deterioration occurred in more than 10% of transcatheter aortic valve replacement cases at one German center. Smaller prosthetic valves, valve-in-valve procedures, and oral anticoagulation were risk factors. (EuroIntervention)
Nitinol stents with low chronic outward force may have an advantage in de novo superficial femoral artery lesions, as the Biotronik Pulsar stent had a 26% mean restenosis rate at 1 year versus 35% for a high chronic outward force stent (LifeStent) in the BIOFLEX COF trial, reported at the CIRSE meeting in Barcelona.
A Tendyne prosthesis for transcatheter mitral valve replacement in the setting of severe mitral annular calcification worked for nine patients, although one had left ventricular outflow tract obstruction from the procedure and two died by 12 months. (Journal of the American College of Cardiology)
Medtronic’s IN.PACT AV drug-coated balloon was better than percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in treating restenotic arteriovenous fistulae, with higher primary patency rates through 6 months in IN.PACT AV Access trial results announced by the manufacturer.
Source: MedicalNewsToday.com
