Vivek Reddy, M.D., director of cardiac arrhythmia services and professor of medicine, cardiology, Mount Sinai Hospital, N.Y., discusses advancements in leadless pacemaker technology at the 2017 Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) annual meeting. He explains the pros and cons of leadless pacemaker technology as it stands today. One of the issues is that leadless pacing is currently limited to single chamber pacing, while most patients require dual chamber pacing. Reddy discusses the technology that currently has U.S. FDA market clearance, the Medtronic Micra, and new technologies in development to overcome the limitations the Micra.

Read the related articles “Leadless Endocardial CRT Pacing Effective for Heart Failure Patients,” and “New Data Showcases Long-term Benefits of Nanostim Leadless Pacemaker.”

Hugh Calkins, M.D., FACC, FAHA, FHRS, director of cardiac arrhythmia services and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, discusses advancements in AF ablation at the 2017 Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) annual meeting. Read about the new AF expert consensus statement released at HRS 2017.

Related Content:

VIDEO: Current State of Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Technologies — Interview with Hugh Calkins, M.D.,

New Technologies to Improve Atrial Fibrillation Ablation

Landmark CABANA Trial Confirms Ablation Equal To or Superior to Drug Therapy

VIDEO: Cryoballoon Ablation Best Practice Guidelines — Wilber Su, M.D.

This video, provided by Medtronic, demonstrates the implantation of Micra transcatheter pacing system (TPS). The device is a leadless pacemaker for single chamber pacing and eliminated the need for a surgical pocket or transvenous leads. The design concept is to simplify pacemaker implantation and eliminate the need for leads, which open the patient up to additional device and infection complications. 

Watch the VIDEO “Current State of Leadless Pacemaker Technology,” an interview with Vivek Reddy, M.D., at the Heart Rhythm Society 2017 meeting.

Related Micra Leadless Pacemaker Content:

FDA Clears Medtronic Micra AV to Treat AV Block

New Pacemaker Technologies

Novel Mechanical Sensor in Medtronic Micra Transcatheter Pacing System Detects Atrial Contractions, Restores AV Synchrony

New Algorithms in Medtronic Micra Pacemaker May Improve Synchrony and Cardiac Function in AV Block

FDA Approves World's Smallest Pacemaker for U.S. Patients

Safety, Performance of the World's Smallest Pacemaker Reinforced in Real-world Patients

One-Year Results for Micra TPS Pacemaker Trial Presented at ESC 2016

Leadless Pacemaker Gains Medicare Reimbursement

Wireless and Leadless Pacemaker Being Developed by Texas Heart Institute With Federal Grant

Tom Kloetzly, sales and marketing VP for Shimadzu Medical Systems USA, explains the evolution of Shimadzu Corporation since its founding 142 years ago. Kloetzly focuses on the Trinias Interventional X-ray line shown at RSNA 2016. Kloetzly states “A key feature of Trinias, is the ability to image from fingertip to fingertip during a transradial approach which makes for much shorter hospital stay with the patient up and moving almost immediately after the procedure. Features Like RSM-DSA, a type of motion correction subtraction, eliminates patient movement during acquisition while STENTVIEW, is an enhanced visualization during stent placement in real-time." For more information: www.shimadzu.com/med/products/angio/index.html.

A discussion with William O'Neill, M.D., FACC, FSCAI, medical director of the Center for Structural Heart Disease at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit. He presented a late-breaking study on the outcomes for 15,259 U.S. patients with acute MI in cardiogenic shock supported with the Impella percutenous ventricular assist device. Read more about the Detroit Cardiogenic Shock Initiative.

A discussion with Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) President Michael Gold, M.D., Ph.D., director of cardiology and associate dean at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), at the American College of Cardiology 2017 annual meeting. He discusses advances to treat atrial fibrillation, new ablation and electro mapping technologies and innovations in implantable devices.

Read the article "What is New in Electrophysiology Technologies."
 

Stephen Ellis, M.D., professor of medicine and director of interventional cardiology at Cleveland Clinic, discusses the two year outcomes of the ABSORB III trial of Absorb vs. Xience. The late-breaking trial was presented at ACC 2017. Read the article on the ABSORB III results.  Watch a VIDEO with Gregg Stone, M.D., "Poor Outcomes for Bioresorbable Stents in Small Coronary Arteries."

Michael Reardon, M.D., professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, discusses the positive results of the SURTAVI trial that were presented at ACC.17. Reardon was the principal investigator for the SURTAVI trial. Read the article "TAVR Stands Equal to Surgical Valve Replacement." 

Pam Rush, RN, MS, clinical program director, cardiovascular service line, and Craig Strauss, M.D., MPH, medical director, explain how Minneapolis Heart Institute (MHI) achieved significant savings by leveraging analytics software for reductions in patient complications, better vendor negotiations and other areas. Read the article “Advanced Analytics Software for Cardiology.”

Learn more about the different aspects of the structural heart team at Minneapolis Heart Institute in these videos:

VIDEO: Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement Planning — Interview with Joao Cavalcante, M.D., director of structural heart CT and cardiac MRI

VIDEO: Conscious Sedation for TAVR Procedures — Interview with  Mario Goessl, M.D., Ph.D., director of research and education at the Minneapolis Heart Institute
 

This video, provided by Tryton, demonstrates the implantation of the Tryton Side Branch Stent. It became the first bifurcation stent cleared by the FDA in March 2017. The stent is deployed in the side branch artery using a standard single wire balloon-expandable stent delivery system. A conventional drug eluting stent is then placed in the main vessel. Read the articles "FDA Clears First Dedicated Coronary Bifurcation Stent" and "New Designs May Ease Bifurcation Stenting."
 

Machine learning is now being commercialized in medical imaging products designed to help improve workflow efficiency and augment the clinical user, not replace them. Steve Holloway with the U.K.-based healthcare market intelligence firm Signify Research discussed the expanding roles of artificial intelligence in imaging applications at the 2017 HIMSS healthcare IT conference. Read the article from HIMSS 2017 "How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Medical Imaging."

This video, provided by Medtronic, demonstrates the CardioInsight electro-anatomical mapping system. It was cleared by the FDA in early 2017. It uses an ECG lead vest to noninvasively create a 3-D electrophysiology (EP) electro-map of the heart to help identify arrhythmia and plan catheter ablation procedures. Read the related article on the technology. 

ITN and DAIC Editor Dave Fornell takes a tour of some of the most innovative new technologies being displayed on the expo floor at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2016 meeting. For key take away trends at RSNA, watch the video "Key Trends, New Technology at RSNA 2016."

Mahadevappa Mahesh, MS, Ph.D., chief physicist and professor of radiology and radiological science at Johns Hopkins Hospital, explains the basics of medical imaging dose monitoring technologies. This includes monitoring and recording software meet new Joint Commission requirements, state dose laws and to improve patient safety regarding X-ray radiation exposure. Read the article “The Role of Dose Tracking Systems in Radiation Safety Programs.”

Mark Michalski, M.D., director of the Center for Clinical Data Science at Massachusetts General Hospital, explains the basis of the utilization of artificial intelligence (aka deep learning and machine learning) in radiology. He also explains where things are at in development of these neuro networks at RSNA 2016. Watch the VIDEO “Examples of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging Diagnostics.” 

At RSNA 2016, the key buzzwords were “deep learning,” “machine learning” and “artificial intelligence.” Vendors and major academic centers are developing a wide array of artificial intelligence neuro networks to aid radiologists in clinical diagnosis and clinical decision support. Here are two examples of how the IBM Watson system examines a mammography and cardiac patient imaging studies. Watch the VIDEO “Development of Artificial Intelligence to Aid Radiology,” an interview with Mark Michalski, M.D., director of the Center for Clinical Data Science at Massachusetts General Hospital, explaining the basis of artificial intelligence in radiology.

Corindus Vascular Robotics received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance for its CorPath GRX, the second generation of its vascular robotic system. The system builds upon the original CorPath platform, adding a significant number of key upgrades that increase precision, improve workflow and extend the capabilities and range of interventional procedures that can be performed robotically. These features include Active Guide Management, which enables control of the guide catheter along with robotic control of the guidewire and balloon or stent catheter, with 1 millimeter advancement, from the Control Console. This precise positioning will enable physicians to adjust guide catheter position during PCI procedures, and may expand use of CorPath to more complex cases. The new system also features a completely redesigned Bedside Unit, featuring an Extended Reach Arm and a touchscreen display to streamline workflow.

The CorPath GRX was displayed for the first time at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2016 conference. Read more about the FDA approval.

A discussion with Juan Granada, M.D., about transcatheter mitral valve advancements and device challenges at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2016 annual meeting. Granada is executive director and chief scientific officer of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation's Skirball Center for Innovation. There is a big movement toward transcatheter interventions for the mitral valve after the major success of and rapid expansion of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) technology. However, he said the mitral valve anatomy is much more complex and it is not as simple as using a TAVR valve in the mitral position. 

Related TMVR Content:

VIDEO: Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement Planning — Interview with Joao Cavalcante, M.D.

Advances and Future Directions for Transcatheter Valves

Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement Devices in Development

Interventional Imagers: The Conductors of the Heart Team Orchestra

VIDEO: The Importance of the Neo-LVOT in Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement  — Interview with Dee Dee Wang, M.D.

VIDEO: Transcatheter Structural Heart Procedure Navigation Technology Advances  — Interview with Stephen Little, M.D.

Recent Advances in Transcatheter Valve Technology

Abbott Begins Tendyne Transcatheter Mitral Valve U.S. Pivotal Trial

VIDEO: The Essentials of CT Transcatheter Valve Imaging — Interview with Jonathon Leipsic, M.D.,

New LAMPOON Technique Reduces LVOT Obstruction in Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement

A discussion with guidewire expert Dimitri Karmpaliotis, M.D., Ph.D., FACC, about the basics of interventional guidewire design and function. He is, assistant professor of medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, and director of chronic total occlusion (CTO), complex and high-risk angioplasty program at the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy, NewYork Presbyterian Hospital. He spoke with DAIC at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2016 annual meeting.

Related Interventional Guide Wire Content:

Understanding the Design and Function of Guidewire Technology

Guidewire Product Comparison - create a free login tyo access

The Basics of Guide Wire Technology

DAIC Guidewire News Channel 

A discussion with Todd Brinton, M.D., about the newly FDA-cleared Shockwave Medical Lithoplasty System, at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2016 annual meeting. Brinton is clinical associate professor and adjunct associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford University Medical Center. Read the article “FDA Clears Lithoplasty Balloon That Shatters Calcified Lesions With Ultrasound.”