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."

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.  

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.

A discussion on the adoption rate of FFR-CT with Dr. Campbell Rogers, chief medical officer of HeartFlow. It is the first vendor to gain FDA approval for noninvasive, virtual fractional flow reserve measurements derived from cardiac computed tomography scans. Read the article "Clinical Applications of FFR-CT."
 

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. 

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.

DAIC Editor Dave Fornell offers his choices for the most innovative new interventional cardiovascular technologies presented on the expo floor and in sessions at the 2015 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting. 

Guillaume Baillaird, CEO of ControlRad Systems, described how his company's technology can significantly reduce radiation dose to staff and patients during angiography procedures.

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."
 

Dr. Stephen Worthley, Ph.D., director of the cardiac cath labs at Royal Adelaide Hospital at the University of Adelaide in Australia, and co-principal investigator of Medtronic's recently launched international drug-filled stent (DFS) clinical trial, explains DFS the new technology. This was among the top innovations presented at the 2015 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) annual meeting.

Dean Kereiakes, M.D., medical director of The Christ Hospital Heart and Vascular Center, and a lead investigator for both the ABSORB and SYNERGY stent trials, discussed the latest developments in bioresorbable stent technology. Bioresorbable stent technology was among the top innovations presented at the 2015 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) annual meeting. Read the article "FDA Approves First Totally Bioresorbable Stent."

Interview with James Min, M.D., Professor of Radiology and Medicine and Director of Dalio Institute of Cardiovascular Medicine, Weill Cornell, New York Presbyterian Hospital.  Watch the VIDEO “Early U.S. Experience With FFR-CT in Evaluating ED Chest Pain Presentation.” A discussion with Simon Dixon, M.D., MBChB, on the use of fractional flow reserve-computed tomography (FFR-CT) to evaluate chest pain patients in the emergency departmenat Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich. Read the article "What is New in FFR Technology."
 

Interview with Steve Goldstein, M.D., director, noninvasive lab, Medstar Washington Heart Institute, Washington, D.C., on the uses of echo guidance for interventional procedures in the cath lab. He spoke with DAIC Editor Dave Fornell at ASE 2015.

Interview with Ted Feldman, M.D., FACC, MSCAI, FESC, cardiac cath lab director, Evanston Hospital, North Shore Health System, and principle investigator, Everest II MitraClip U.S. pivotal trial, at the Transcatheter Valve Therapies 2015 meeting. Watch the VIDEO “Advances and Future Directions for Transcatheter Valves.”

Treating Mitral Regurgitation in High Risk PatientsUsing the MitraClip — article by Allen Atchley, M.D.
 

Interview with Charanjit Rihal, M.D., chief of cardiology and professor of medicine, Mayo Clinic, at the Transcatheter Valve Therapies (TVT) 2015 meeting in Chicago. He presented a session on how transcatheter septal occlduers used for ASDs, PFOs and VSDs can be used to seal paravalvular leaks around surgical or transcatheter valve replacements to imporve hemodynamic flow. 

Hear the latest trends and news on interventional cardiology from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2015 meeting in an interview with John Reilly, M.D., FACC, vice chairman of cardiology, Ochsner, New Orleans, and chairman of PR, SCAI.

Doug Drachman, M.D., Mass General Hospital Institute of Heart, Vascular and Stroke Care, explains how to prevent and manage access site complications, use of vascular closure devices and how to aid patient ambulation following PCI.

DAIC Editor Dave Fornell offers his choices of the most innovative new cardiovascular technologies discussed in sessions and shown on the expo floor at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2014 meeting.

John Stevens, chairman and CEO of HeartFlow, explains his company's computed tomography (CT)-based fractional flow reserve (FFR) assessment technology, which may eliminate the need for catheter-based FFR measurements.