Abbott announced it has initiated a U.S. pivotal clinical study evaluating the safety and effectiveness of a modified version of its Amplatzer device designed to correct patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), a common congenital heart defect.

September 1, 2017 — Apixaban lowers the risk of stroke compared to warfarin in anticoagulation-naïve patients with atrial fibrillation scheduled for elective cardioversion, according to late-breaking results from the EMANATE Trial presented in a Hot Line LBCT Session at ESC Congress. Rates of bleeding were similar between the two groups.

September 1, 2017 — Biotronik recently announced data from the BIOFLOW-V randomized trial comparing Orsiro and Xience drug-eluting stents (DES) with 12-month target lesion failure (TLF) as the primary endpoint proving non-inferiority.

Cardiologists are constantly on the lookout for new methods to examine the heart using new imaging technology advances. Many of the limitations in echocardiography has been due to the limits of image processing speeds. This has limited the image quality based on how much data can be processed and rendered on the ultrasound system screen in real time.