July 1, 2015 - CardiAQ Valve Technologies (CardiAQ) announced that its second-generation transcatheter bioprosthetic mitral heart valve was successfully implanted as a compassionate treatment. The device was placed into a 72-year-old male suffering from severe mitral regurgitation (MR 4+) with multiple co-morbidities and ineligible for alternate treatment modalities.
The procedure was performed at the Tor Vergata Hospital in Rome, Italy, by an experienced heart team led by Director of Cardiology Francesco Romeo, M.D., and interventional cardiologist Gian Paolo Ussia, M.D., also including cardiac surgeon Giovanni Ruvolo, M.D., anesthesiologist Pasquale De Vico, M.D., and echocardiographer Valeria Cammalleri, M.D. Interventional cardiologist Lars Sondergaard, M.D., (Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark) and cardiovascular surgeon and inventor of the CardiAQ TMVI technology Arshad Quadri, M.D., (St Francis Hospital, Hartford, CT) also participated.
"We have now performed three CardiAQ TMVI [transcatheter mitral valve implantation] cases (2 transapical and 1 transseptal) at Tor Vergata with excellent results, reducing the severe MR to trace and with no mitral or outflow tract gradients," said Ussia, who is primary investigator at the Rome Hospital. "We are convinced that these new procedures will in the future represent a substantial treatment improvement for our patients with mitral valve disease. Our heart team is excited to be a part of these groundbreaking clinical trials."
The CardiAQ device is a self-conforming, self-anchoring technology for nonsurgical transfemoral-transseptal percutaneous TMVI.
For more information: www.cardiaq.com
October 23, 2026 
