Cardiac cath team gets a new member. Defining a new sub-specialty: interventional echocardiography

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Structural heart procedures are growing, and so is the cath lab team.

For two straight years, Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology (DAIC) magazine has reported from the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) Annual Scientific Sessions on the rise of a new sub-specialty—interventional echocardiography.

Interventional echocardiography crucial to structural heart

Structural heart procedures have seen rapid growth in the cath lab—and have been a featured topic at many of our 2016 regional educational conferences—and for all but the most expert interventionalists, echocardiography plays a big role in those cases.

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Cath innovation: Cardioband repairs first leaky tricuspid

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Valtech Cardio's Cardioband system brings direct annuloplasty to the field of percutaneous coronary intervention—for catheter-based mitral valve repair and now, tricuspid valve repair.

A team from the University Hospital Zurich led by Francesco Maisano, MD recently succeeded in the first ever minimally invasive procedure using Cardioband to repair a leaky tricuspid valve, according to yesterday's press release from the University of Zurich.

The news comes shortly after Valtech shared follow-up data from a multi-center Cardioband Mitral study at the PCR London Valves 2016 conference. Results showed a "significant and consistent reduction in MR" with a "safety profile similar to equivalent transcatheter procedures" according to the session slides.

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Improving adherence to medications for heart failure: Medtronic says their CRT does it

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Despite relatively few strong research studies supporting methodologies for improving adherence to medications for patients with heart failure, Medtronic's recent press release suggests their cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) implants might do the trick.

Medtronic accounced results of a retrospective analysis of administrative claims data of more than 4,500 patients with heart failure at the 2016 Heart Failure Society of America Scientific Meeting, Monday.

The analysis found that the number of patients "fully compliant" to a regimen of guideline-recommended medications "nearly doubled" at twelve months following CRT implants compared to those who did not receive implants.

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Video: researchers use light to defibrillate arrhythmias in mice

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Scientists from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Bonn in Germany have applied advances in optogenetics to terminate arrhythmias in mice.

In a new study published online yesterday in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, authors prove the concept of optogenetic defibrillation, where epicardial illumination can effectively terminate ventricular tachycardia—a potential alternative to implantable defibrillators.

"Strong electrical shocks can damage the heart and cause severe pain," write the authors. "Our results... could potentially be translated into humans to achieve nondamaging and pain-free termination of ventricular arrhythmia."

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