An interview with Jonathan Leipsic, M.D., FSCCT, chairman of the department of radiology, St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada, at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) 2016 meeting. Leipsic is heavily involved with the procedural planning and anatomical assessments for TAVR and clinical trials for new transcatheter mitral valves and annulus repairs. 

Read the related article "The Essentials of Structural Heart Imaging."

Watch the related VIDEO "The Essentials of CT Transcatheter Valve Imaging."
 

An interview with Matthew Budoff, M.D., FACC, director of cardiac CT, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, Calif., at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) 2016 meeting. Budoff explains how CT calcium scoring can be used to assess patients risk for coronary disease and if they should be on statin therapy.  Read the 2017 article "Screening for Heart Disease May Lead to Prevention, Better Treatments."

Related CT Calcium Scorining Content:

VIDEO: New Cholesterol Guidelines Support CT Calcium Scoring for Risk Assessment — Interview with Matthew Budoff, M.D.

CT Calcium Scoring Becoming a Key Risk Factor Assessment

ACC and AHA Release Updated Cholesterol Guidelines for 2018

VIDEO: CT Calcium Scoring to Screen For Who Should Take Statins — Interview with Matthew Budoff, M.D.

VIDEO: The History of CT Calcium Scoring — Interview with Arthur Agatston, M.D.

An interview with Ricardo Cury, M.D., director of cardiac imaging, Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) 2016 meeting. Cury was instrumental in the development of the new Coronary Artery Disease — Reporting and Data System (CAD-RADS) scoring system now used to help standardize the radiological assessment of coronary artery disease.  The scoring system is similar to other radiology standard assessment scoring systems, including BI-RADS used for breast imaging and LUNG-RADS use for assessment of lung diseases. The goal of the CAD-RADS is to make radiology coronary plaque assessments in computed tomography (CT) scans more uniform and reproducible. 

Read the article "Multi-Society Group Releases CAD-RADS for Standardized Coronary CT Angiography Reporting." 

Link to the CAD-RADS Coronary Artery Disease e Reporting and Data System expert consensus document of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed
Tomography (SCCT), the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging (NASCI), and endorsed by
the American College of Cardiology (ACC).

ACC link to a table outlining the CAD-RADS scoring system:
http://imaging.onlinejacc.org/content/9/9/1099/T2

Interview with Stephen Little, M.D., medical director of the Valve Clinic at the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, at the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) 2016 annual meeting. He explains the technologies his center is using to aid transcatheter structural heart procedure navigation, including TAVR, transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR), LAA occlusion, and septal defect occlusions. Read the article “Requirements for Interventional Echocardiographers.” Also, watch the VIDEO "What is Required for Interventional Echo - Discussion With Rebecca Hahn."

Interview with MD Buyline clinical analysts Jon Brubaker and Sabrina Newell at the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) 2016 annual meeting. They highlighted trends they have seen in cardiac  strain imaging, 3-D echo, bubble contrast, interventional echo, structural heart, and point-of-care ultrasound.  Read the article on trends from Brubaker and Newell - "Top Trends in Cardiac Ultrasound at ASE 2016."

This is an animation, supplied by Gore, demonstrated how the Cardioform Septal Occluder is implanted for the transcatheter closure of ASDs or PFOs. It is a permanent implant consisting of a wire frame covered with a thin ePTFE membrane. The wire frame is made of a nitinol alloy. Read more about closing holes in the heart.

Read about the FDA additional PFO closure indication approval in April 2017.  

MD Buyline market analyst Jon Brubaker explained the new technology and trends he saw on the show floor at ACC.16. 

Healthcare reform is changing the way you provide care. With a focus on cost efficiency and quality, tracking utilization and efficient inventory management are big opportunities in your cardiovascular suite to help you manage costs and support patient safety initiatives. See how using the right tool for the right supply is key to demonstrating ROI. Watch a webinar on cath lab inventory tracking — Stop the Emotional Stocking! Revitalize your Cath Lab.

David Holmes, M.D., professor of medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and consultant, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, shares details from his presentations at American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2016 regarding the Watchman left atrial appendage (LAA) occluder. The big news from ACC regarding LAA occluders was his presentation of real-life experience of centers using the Watchman outside of trials. 

Chandan Devireddy, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta and an investigator in the PARTNER trials, discusses the positive late-breaking PARTNER II and IIA data presented at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2016 meeting. Among the key measures in these trials was the stroke rate, which is now the same as surgery.

Gregg Stone, M.D., director of cardiovascular research and education at Columbia University Medical Center / New York-Presbyterian Hospital, explains ABSORB Trial data showing bioresorbable stents had poor outcomes in small coronary vessels. This might be included as a restriction in the instructions for use of the Abbott Absorb stent, which is currently pending FDA final review.  Read the related article "Questions Remain on Future of Bioresorbable Stents." Also, read the article "FDA Approves First Totally Bioresorbable Stent."

Dr. Vinod Thourani, M.D., professor of surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine and a co-investigator for the PARTNER II Trial, discusses the biggest news item from American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2016 meeting — the Sapien 3 TAVR device performed better that surgical aortic valve replacement in a TAVR vs. SAVR comparison for the first time. 

Don Woodlock, vice president and general manager of cardiology IT for GE Healthcare, highlights four new innovations related to Centricity Cardio Enterprise. Link to GE Healthcare's Interactive, Digital Guide for Centricity Cardio Enterprise

Examples of technologies on the market and a discussion of what to look for in PACS and CVIS workflow efficiencies with Ascendian Healthcare Consultant Jef Williams. Editor Dave Fornell takes viewers on a tour of key workflow improvements offered by health IT vendors at HIMSS 2016. Read the article "10 Questions to Ask When Purchasing a Cardiovascular Information System."
 

John Showalter, M.D., CHIO, University of Mississippi Medical Center, explains how he created population health monitoring programs to help identify high-risk patients that should receive extra attention to reduce readmissions.

He said electronic medical record data can be mined for information by smart computer algorithms to identify risk factors beyond clinical vital signs and test results. For example, if a heart failure patient has several doctor visits in his medical record for things that might be related to his heart failure symptoms, but there was failure for patient followup leading to a hospital admission. The algorithm also looks at things like the patient's address and its distance to their pharmacy, their socio-economic level and if they have a car and drive. He said these non-clinical factors outside of the hospital can have major impact on the ability of the patient to maintain medication compliance to help keep them out of the hospital. 

Related Heart Failure Content:

VIDEO: Cutting Heart Failure Length of Stay With Information Technology at Mercy Health System

3 New Approaches to Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions

Device Technologies to Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions

New Heart Failure Devices and Drugs to Treat Heart Failure
 

ITN/DAIC Editor Dave Fornell shows his choices for some of the most innovative new imaging technologies on the expo floor at Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2015 meeting.

Interview with Jon Brubaker, MBA, RCVT, ultrasound technology analyst, MD Buyline, explains the trends and new technology he saw at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2015 meeting.

Tom Watson, clinical analyst for MDBuyLine, and DAIC Editor Dave Fornell discuss some of the new cardiovascular and interventional cardiology technology trends at the 2015 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) annual meeting.

Robert Schwartz, M.D., medical director at the Minnesota Heart Institute, explains new applications for denervation therapies for hypertension, heart failure and other disease. 

Find more content on renal denervation.

Sunil Rao, M.D., associate professor of medicine and a member in the Duke University Clinical Research Institute, a leading proponent of radial access offers insights as to where radial access is at in the United States. Radial access is rapidly growing and was a topic of late-breaking trials presented at the 2015 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) annual meeting. Read the article "Radial Access Adoption in the United States."