January 6, 2021 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the designation of breakthrough device to P+F Products + Features GmbH TricValve Transcatheter Bicval Valves System.  

January 6, 2021 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared Ultromics' EchoGo Pro, an artificial intelligence (AI) powered, outcomes-driven, decision support tool to automatically identify coronary artery disease (CAD) in echocardiograms. 

Houston Aortic Symposium: Frontiers in Cardiovascular Diseases

The most popular DAIC content in December 2020 included the Boston Scientific Lotus TAVR valve being taken off the market, CMS approving expanding coverage of LVADs for more Medicare patients and numerous COVID-19 related cardiology stories and videos.

January 5, 2021 — Here is the list of the most popular content on the Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology (DAIC) magazine website from the month of December 2020. This is based on the website’s record 550,357 pageviews for the month. 

1. Image Gallery Showing Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

There was much fanfare over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorizations (EUAs) in December for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines. However, the vaccination program to date has fallen very far short the promises made by the government when the first vaccine was approved, with less than one quarter of the promised vaccine being delivered.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dec. 3, released an interim guidance document  to federal, state, and local jurisdictions on the allocation of initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccines. The document outlines who qualified for the first round of vaccinations with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The priority order is given based on who is most at risk, those who are directly exposed to COVID carriers or patients on a daily bases and essential workers.

December 29, 2020 — Edwards Lifesciences announced Dec. 21 that the first patient was treated in the RESTORE clinical trial, which is evaluating the safety and effectiveness of the investigational Harpoon Beating Heart Mitral Valve Repair System in the United States and Canada. 

The Harpoon transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVR) system uses a less-invasive technique than open-heart surgery in order to treat severe degenerative mitral valve regurgitation. 

December 29, 2020 — Here is a list of the top 10 news stories from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in 2020 that generated the most media coverage worldwide.

December 29, 2020 — Health Canada has approved the expanded use of the Edwards Lifesciences Sapien 3 and Sapien 3 Ultra transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) heart valves for the transfemoral treatment of patients diagnosed with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis who are at low risk for open-heart surgery. 

The Sapien 3 valves are the first transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) systems to have this indication in Canada.

COVID-19 related topics by far out-paced all other topics in cardiology in 2020 on the DAIC website. Several stories topped the list related to the cardiovascular issues with hydroxychloroquine being used as a treatment for the virus. Top new device technologies in 2020 included European approval of the Abbott Tendyne transcatheter mitral valve, FDA approval of Medtronic's new Micra AV pill-sized pacemaker, and FDA clearance of the first drug-eluting stent with short-duration dual-antiplatelet therapy.

Here are the top 25 best performing articles on the Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology (DAIC) website from 2020. This is based on the analytics of DAIC's record 3.3 million pagesviews in 2020:

1. Kawasaki-like Inflammatory Disease Affects Children With COVID-19
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