An example of the Acutus Medical AcQMap High Resolution Imaging and Mapping System to guide electrophysiology (EP) cardiac ablations. The electrical mapping of the heart shows irregular atrial fibrillation (AFib) prior to an ablation. 

The system uses a basket catheter with 48 electrodes combined with 48 tiny ultrasound transducers. The basket can be manually rotated around inside the atrium to rapidly “paint” a very accurate combined electro- and anatomical map simultaneously in about five minutes. Conventional EP mapping systems can take 20 minutes or longer to complete the mapping process. The electrodes do not need to contact the walls of the heart because the vendor said they can detect the electrical field created by cardiac contractions. The system has both FDA and European CE mark approvals. 

Related EP Mapping Content:

FDA Clears Second-Generation AcQMap 3D EP Imaging and Mapping Catheter

What is New in Electrophysiology Technologies

Acutus Gains European CE Mark for Suite of Next Generation EP Products

New Technologies to Improve Atrial Fibrillation Ablation

Identifying Hubs of Re-entry Driving Persistent Atrial Fibrillation May Improve Treatment
 

Mechanical engineering Professor Nathan Sniadecki, associate chair for research and infrastructure, mechanical engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, explains his department's development of engineered heart tissue that can beat. The "heart or organ in a dish" technology allows cardiac myocytes to be tested in a lab with various drugs or other influences to see what the impact would be on the heart. 

This technology developed at UW was sent to the International Space Station in 2020 to help evaluate the impact of zero-gravity on the heart. This research plays a critical role in understanding the impact on the human heart in long-duration space flights to places like Mars or beyond. 

The bioengineered tissue is the length of a couple grains of rice set between two posts so the tightening and stretching of cardiac muscles can be measured. 

Read more details in the article Tiny Beating Hearts Created With Stem Cells at the University of Washington.

Tom Jones, M.D., director, cardiac cath labs, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and principle investigator of the Medtronic Harmony transcatheter pulmonary valve trial, explains the differences between the Melody and Harmony valves. He also explains the history of congenital heart transcatheter valve development over the past 20 years and how adult structural heart devices also developed side-by-side with these devices. 

Patients with tetralogy of fallot often received the ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) in an initial surgery and a second surgery in needed later for a pulmonary valve. As valves wear out, additional open heart surgeries are needed. The Harmony and Melody help reduce the number of open heart surgeries in these patients. Jones said the Harmony valve may help reduce or eliminate the need for open heart surgeries.

The Melody was the first transcatheter valve to gain approval for use in the United States. It was designed to treat patients who already had a surgically placed RVOT. The Harmony valve was then developed to address patients who also needed the RVOT. Between the two valves, Jones said the majority of congenital heart issues can now be treat.

Jones said about 40,000-50,000 babies are born each year in the United States with congenital heart defects that the Harmony and Melody valves might be used to help. He said the Melody valve was able to help about 25% of these patients, and the Harmony valve now can help the rest of these patients with a transcatheter solution. 
 

Related Congenital Heart Content:

VIDEO: Harmony Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Has Good Outcomes at 1 Year — Interview with Tom Jones, M.D.

FDA Clears First Device to Treat Right Ventricular Outflow Tract Congenital Heart Disease 

FDA Expands Indication for Melody Transcatheter Valve for Failed Surgical Valves

VIDEO: The Heart Team Approach in Congenital Structural Heart Interventions — Interview with Tom Jones, M.D.

VIDEO: Advances in Congenital Heart Therapy Technologies — Interview with Tom Jones, M.D.

VIDEO: Use of Virtual Reality to Aid Congenital Heart Disease — Interview with David M. Axelrod, M.D.

Medtronic Shares Two-Year Harmony Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Results

Find more congenital heart disease (CHD) content

Tom Jones, M.D., director, cardiac cath labs, Seattle Children’s Hospital, explains the importance of the heart team approach on congenital heart interventions and explains the development of adult congenital interventional specialists. Jones explains the role of pediatric and adult congenital interventionists and structural heart specialists and the importance of the team approach with complex congenital heart patient cases.

He also explains the history of interventions and congenital heart disease over the last few decades and how these helped shape transcatheter adult structural heart interventions today. 

Related Congenital Heart Content:

VIDEO: Harmony Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Has Good Outcomes at 1 Year — Interview with Tom Jones, M.D.

VIDEO: Use of Virtual Reality to Aid Congenital Heart Disease — Interview with David M. Axelrod, M.D.

FDA Clears First Device to Treat Right Ventricular Outflow Tract Congenital Heart Disease 

FDA Clears Sapien for Pulmonary Valve

Medtronic Harmony Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Demonstrates Positive Early Clinical Outcomes at One Year

Medtronic Shares Two-Year Harmony Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Results

FDA Expands Indication for Melody Transcatheter Valve for Failed Surgical Valves

Find more congenital heart disease (CHD) content

One of the trends in cardiovascular information system (CVIS) and radiology PACS at the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2021 conference was the deeper integration of third-party image analysis software and artificial intelligence (AI) into these systems. This eliminates software sitting on top of the CVIS or PACS, separate logins or needing to us a different screen or manually transferring information from the third-party app in into the final report.

A good example of this was Siemens Healthineers, which demonstrated a deep integration with Epsilon Imaging’s echocardiography strain imaging analysis software. The integration eliminates the need for a separate login to the software, and automated quantification and images are carried over directly into the syngo echo report.

Strain can be used to assess cardiac function more precisely than regular cardiac ultrasound exams. It has grown in its use for cardio-oncology programs, assessing a baseline cardiac function and the. Performing serial exams over the course of a cancer patient’s chemotherapy. Strain has seen growing interest and has been a hot topic the past couple years at the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) meeting. Interest also has expanded greatly recently with reimbursement now available in the U.S.

Siemens said there also has been increased interest in strain this past year because it can show early indicators of cardiac issues in COVID-19 patients and can be used to help monitor COVID myocarditis patients.
 

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Global Longitudinal Strain Echo Offers Early Detection of Cardiotoxicity Heart Damage From Chemotherapy

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VIDEO: Assessing Cardiotoxicity Response With Cardio-Oncology Echo Imaging — Interview with Federico Asch, M.D.

Assessing Cardiotoxicity Due to Cancer Therapy

Advances in CVIS and Enterprise iImaging at HIMSS 21

VIDEO: Cardiology AI Aggregates Patient Data and Enables Interactive Risk Assessments

Photo Gallery of New Technologies at HIMSS 2021

VIDEO: Importance of Body Part Labeling in Enterprise Imaging — Interview with Alex Towbin, M.D., at HIMSS21

VIDEO: Coordinating Followup for Radiology Incidental Findings — Interview with David Danhauer, M.D., at HIMSS21

A new ultrasound imaging technology that may offer novel ways to diagnose and better understand cardiac diseases using dynamic blood flow imaging. This allows imaging of individual blood cells or contrast bubbles as they travel through the heart and vessels, showing detail in how the blood moves and swirls. These motions, including the formation of vortices, may offer new insight into different disease states and allow earlier diagnosis and a understand better when to intervene.

The examples shown in this short video are from Hitachi and GE Healthcare, both of which have highlighted this technology at the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) annual meetings over the past four years.

Ultrasound vendors use different technology approaches, including vector flow imaging, particle imaging velocimetry and blood speckle tracking. All of them show small lines or arrows to indicate the direction the blood cells or bubbles are traveling, and color codes to indicate velocity. Some vendors offer quantification for some new measures of blood flow, but as of yet, there are no guidelines or standardized indexes as to what these numbers mean.

This technology has been discussed in research sessions at the IEEE and the ASE over the past several years. However, more research is needed to show the prognostic value of the technology. Research to date shows it is possible that the swirling of blood can indicate less efficient flow, which may have implications in the development of heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and advancement of valvular disease. In the coronary arteries, research has shown there may be a connection between sheer stresses and disrupted blood flow in the formation of plaques on artery walls.

Companies that have developed echo blood flow dynamics imaging on their ultrasound systems to date include Hitachi, GE Healthcare, Fujifilm, Mindray and BK Medical. 

Read more about this technology from ASE 2021 in the article Development of Echo Blood Flow Dynamics Imaging.
 

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Improving Stent Designs With Computational Fluid Dynamics

VIDEO: Editor's Choice of Most Innovative New Cardiac Ultrasound Technology at ASE 2017

Samir Saba, M.D., co-director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Heart and Vascular Institute, and chief, Division of Cardiology, explains the SMART MSP (Multi-Site Pacing) study. This late-breaking clinical trial was presented at the 2021 Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) meeting. It evaluated the safety and effectiveness of multi-site pacing in initial non-responders to conventional cardiac resynchronization therapy with the goal of increasing response cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).

CRT nonresponders make up a sizable minority of patients, about one-third. Saba said this trial, was designed to try and chip away and reduce that number. Multi-site pacing has been debated as alternative to single site pacing for several years and this trial offers additional data in support of MSP.

The trial tested the efficacy and safety of the Boston Scientific Resonate X4 CRT-D system. This device allows multi-site pacing to be turned on or off at any time by the electrophysiologist. In the study, patients who did not respond had the multi-site pacing feature turned on, which resulted in 51% of the nonresponders to respond to therapy. 

Find additional HRS 2021 late breaking trials

Find more EP device news

Find more HRS 2021 conference news

Doctor Andreas Ruck, interventional cardiologist and head of the mitral/tricuspid program, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, explains the latest data on the Boston Scientific Acurate neo2 transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) system. It demonstrated positive procedural performance, including low rates of paravalvular leak (PVL) and permanent pacemaker implementation, in data presented in late-breaking sessions at the EuroPCR 2021 congress. These areas improved from the trials using the first generation valve. 

The Acurate neo2 valve design enhancements include a 60% larger outer sealing skirt to better conform to challenging anatomies to better minimized PVL.

Boston Scientific said the ACURATE IDE pivotal U.S. trial is currently enrolling patients to evaluate the safety of the ACURATE neo2 Aortic Valve System. In April 2021, the company received FDA approval to modify the trial design to study patients with severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis who are at low risk for open-heart surgery, in addition to those at intermediate, high and extreme risk.

Related Acurate neo TAVR Valve Content:

Acurate neo2 TAVR Valve Demonstrate Reduced Paravalvular Leak and Low Permanent Pacemaker Rates 

Boston Scientific Makes a Comeback With Positive Clinical Data for its Second Iteration Acurate neo2 TAVR Valve

TAVR Is Now Dominant Form of Aortic Valve Replacement in the United States

Boston Scientific Launches Acurate neo2 Transcatheter Aortic Valve System in Europe

New Acurate neo Self-expanding TAVR Device Does Not Meet Non-Inferiority Compared to Sapien 3

Acurate neo TAVR Valve Fails to Meet Noninferiority With Medtronic CoreValve Evolut

VIDEO: Interventional Structural Heart Advances Are Rapidly Expanding — Interview with Juan F. Granada, M.D.

Boston Scientific to Acquire TAVR Maker Symetis

Tom Jones, M.D., director, cardiac catheterization laboratories, Seattle Children’s Hospital, explains some of the new technologies being used to treat congenital heart disease. He discusses the recent trial he served as principle investigator for the new Harmony transcatheter pulmonary valve, the development of a bioresorbable transcatheter septal occluder device, development of large bioresorbable stents for use in pediatric cases, and use of virtual and augmented reality to better understand and guide very complex congenital heart procedures. Jones also explains a patient case where a 3-D printed heart and vessels from the patient helped the heart team understand all the options and how to tackle a valve replacement in a child with a single ventricle.

Jones shared some of these advances in congenital heart intervention sessions at the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 2021 meeting. 

Recent Technology Advances in Congenital Heart:

FDA Clears First Device to Treat Right Ventricular Outflow Tract Congenital Heart Disease 

VIDEO: Harmony Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Has Good Outcomes at 1 Year — Interview with Tom Jones, M.D.

Medtronic Harmony Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve Demonstrates Positive Early Clinical Outcomes at One Year

FDA Expands Indication for Melody Transcatheter Valve for Failed Surgical Valves

VIDEO: Use of Virtual Reality to Aid Congenital Heart Disease — Interview with David M. Axelrod, M.D.

Bioresorbable Pulmonary Valve Replacement May Enable Cardiovascular Regeneration

VIDEO: Transcatheter Closure of Holes in the Heart — Interview with Ziyad Hijazi, M.D.

Nemours Children's Health System Uses 3-D Printing to Deliver Personalized Care

Children's Hospital Los Angeles Cardiologist Creates Modified Stent for 18-month-old Using Printed 3-D Model

PolyVascular Awarded $2 Million Small Business Innovation Research Grant to Bring the First Polymer-Based Heart Valve for Children to Clinical Trials

Bioresorbable ASD Occluder Prepares to Enter U.S. Clinical Trial

FDA Approves Abbott's Amplatzer Piccolo Occluder

Critical Need for Pediatric Electrophysiology Devices is Focus of Medical Device Competition 

Lab-created Heart Valves Can Grow With the Patient

SCAI Issues Position Statement on Adult Congenital Cardiac Interventional Training, Competencies and Organizational Recommendations

Abbott Receives European CE Mark for Two Pediatric Heart Devices

ASE Releases Guidelines for Transesophageal Echo in Congenital Heart Disease

Find more congenital heart disease (CHD) content

Ehtisham Mahmud, M.D., division chief of cardiovascular medicine, director of interventional cardiology and the cardiac cath lab at the University of California at San Diego Health, was the principle investigator for a trial that looked at the latest generation of cath lab robotics in a real-world patient population. 

The late-breaking PRECISION GRX Study was presented at the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 2021 meeting. It looked at the use of robotic PCI in real-world patients across a spectrum of lesion complexity. This included use in total chronic occlusions (CTOs), and ostial and bifurcation lesions. 

The robot system allows the operator to sit in a lead-lined booth outside the radiation field to perform the procedures sitting down, and they do not need to wear lead.

Read more on this study — Second Generation Robotic PCI System Performs Well Across Spectrum of Lesion Complexity

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First Robotic Coronary Angioplasties Performed With Robocath System in Germany

Hoag Performs First Robotic Carotid Artery Stenting on West Coast
 

Find more news from the SCAI 2021 virtual meeting

Philippe Géneréux, M.D., director of the structural heart program at Atlantic Health System’s Morristown Medical Center, is the lead author of the new VARC-3 consensus document that defines endpoints and standardizes taxonomy for aortic valve research.[1] This document is important because it acts as a guide so all structural heart research is comparable and using the same terminology. He said this will become more important as long-term outcomes of 5 to 10 years become available and require apples-to-apples comparisons with newer valve technologies.

Key updates in VARC-3 include a new section on hospitalization or re-hospitalization, defining various levels of valve leaflet thrombosis, also known as hypo-attenuated leaflet thickening (HALT), and defining the stages of bio-prosthetic valve deterioration and valve failure. 

The Valve Academic Research Consortium (VARC), founded in 2010, was intended to identify appropriate clinical endpoints and standardize definitions of these endpoints for transcatheter and surgical aortic valve clinical trials. Rapid evolution of the field, including the emergence of new complications, expanding clinical indications, and novel therapy strategies have mandated further refinement and expansion of these definitions to ensure clinical relevance. This document provides an update of the most appropriate clinical endpoint definitions to be used in the conduct of transcatheter and surgical aortic valve clinical research.

Reference:

1. VARC-3 WRITING COMMITTEE: PhilippeGénéreux, Nicolo Piazza, Maria C. Aluc, Tamim Nazif, Rebecca T.Hahn, Philippe Pibarot, Jeroen J. Bax, Jonathon A.Leipsic, Philipp Blanke, Eugene H.Blackstone, Matthew T.Finn, Samir Kapadia, Axel Linke, Michael J.Mack, Raj Makkar, Roxana Mehranl, Jeffrey J. Popmam, Martin B.Leon, et al. Valve Academic Research Consortium 3: Updated Endpoint Definitions for Aortic Valve Clinical Research. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Available online 19 April 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2021.02.038.

Payam Dehghani, M.D.,  FRCPC, FACC, FSCAI, co-director of Prairie Vascular Research and associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan, explains the findings of the North American COVID-19 Myocardial Infarction (NACMI) Registry. He presented this late-breaking study data at the at the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 2021 meeting.

The study found one third of patients will die who have COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) and suffer a ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI), which is alarming high as compared to four-in-100 patients using a pre-pandemic control group.

 The prospective, ongoing observational registry was created under the guidance of the SCAI, Canadian Association of Interventional Cardiology (CAIC) and American College of Cardiology (ACC). The initial results of the registry were published in the Journal for American College of Cardiology (JACC) on April 27, 2021.

Important key findings from the registry data include:
   • Minorities were disproportionally affected: 55 percent of the STEMI patients had minority ethnicity, which was about evenly divided between Hispanics and blacks.
   • In-hospital mortality was high: 33 percent (4 percent for controls without COVID).
   • Symptoms were unique: majority (54 percent) presented with respiratory symptoms (shortness of breath) rather than chest pain.
   • Significant proportion of COVID-positive patients presented with high-risk STEMI: cardiogenic shock (18 percent) and cardiac arrest (11 percent), which may explain the high fatality rate.
   • Primary angioplasty remained the dominant revascularization modality during the pandemic with small treatment delays (at about 15 minutes). 
   • Diabetics are known to have some of the worst outcomes if they contract COVID, and this was reflected in the study, with 45 percent of patients having diabetes. 

Read more in the artice Third of COVID Patients With STEMI Heart Attacks Die.

Find more COVID-19 news and video

SCAI 2021 Late-breaking Clinical Study Results

Find more news from the SCAI 2021 virtual meeting

Ashwin Nathan M.D., a cardiology fellow at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, presented a late-breaking study on the socioeconomic and geographic access to transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) programs at the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 2021 Scientific Sessions.

The findings reveal inequitable access to TAVR programs for non-metropolitan or lower income areas across the country. Between 2012 and 2018, 554 hospitals developed new TAVR programs including 543 (98%) in metropolitan areas, and 293 (52.9%) in metropolitan areas with pre-existing TAVR programs. Compared with hospitals that did not start TAVR programs, hospitals that did start TAVR programs treated patients with higher median household incomes (difference $1,305, 95% CI $134 to $12,477, p=0.03). Furthermore, TAVR rates per 100,000 Medicare beneficiaries were higher in areas with higher median income, despite adjusting for age and clinical comorbidities.

The authors also acknowledge that increasing access to TAVR and structural heart programs will require foresight into how clinical trials and approval for procedures and technologies at hospitals are distributed.

Read more about this study

Find more news from the SCAI 2021 virtual meeting

Corindus, a Siemens Healthineers company and a developer of vascular robotics, recently launched a new set of automated robotic movements in the technIQ Series designed for the CorPath GRX System.

Kate Drake, director of marketing for Corindus, talks with DAIC Editor Dave Fornell about how this software automation provides advanced device manipulation during complex coronary and peripheral procedures in the cath lab.

Corindus has added automated movements for catheter spin, wiggle, dotter and constant speed to help navigate tight lesions and tortuous anatomy.

Drake also discusses the first use of telerobotic procedures with the Corindus system, where the operator was 32 km away from their patient.

For more information: Corindus.com 

Related Corindus Robotic System Content:

First-in-Human Telerobotic Coronary Intervention Procedures Published in EClinicalMedicine

Final Results of the Multicenter PRECISION GRX Study of the CorPath in a real-world population across a spectrum of lesion complexity — SCAI 2021 late-breaker

Corindus Vascular Robotics to Be Acquired by Siemens Healthineers

Corindus CorPath GRX Used in Live Complex Robotic-Assisted Coronary Intervention at EuroPCR 2019

Reducing Physician Radiation Dose With Robotics

Corindus Seeking Neurovascular Intervention Clearance for CorPath GRX Vascular Robotic System

Corindus CorPath Used in World's First-in-Human Telerobotic Coronary Intervention

Hoag Performs First Robotic Carotid Artery Stenting on West Coast

Find more information on robotic systems for the cath and EP labs

Here are two quick clinical examples of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) lung imaging and cardiac imaging using a GE Vscan Air device. The examples show an abnormal lung image with B-lines. The second clip shows a healthy heart in a parasternal color Doppler image.

The GE Healthcare Vscan Air is a cutting-edge, wireless pocket-sized ultrasound that provides crystal clear image quality, whole-body scanning capabilities, and intuitive software. The pocket-sized ultrasound system was originally introduced in 2010, and as of early 2021, there are over 30,000 Vscan systems in use. The new Vscan Air features a wireless ultrasound probe.

Read more in the article GE Healthcare Unveils Vscan Air Wireless Handheld Ultrasound

Find more POCUS news and video

Interview with Scott E. Kasner, M.D., who served as the principle investigator for the Gore Cardioform REDUCE trial, and just published an update in March 2021 looking at the five-year outcomes of patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure vs. antiplatelet therapy for cryptogenic stroke.[1]  Kasner is the chief of the Division of Vascular Neurology, vice chair for clinical affairs for the department of neurology, and Ruth M. and Tristram C. Colket, Jr. President's Distinguished Professor of neurology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He also is the director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. 

The findings show continued benefit and safety of PFO closure out to five years. The initial REDUCE trial results were presented as a late-breaking trial in 2017 and showed benefit to PFO closure and led to the U.S. FDA clearance of the Gore Cardioform PFO Occluder devices. It became the second PFO occluder cleared for use in the United States along with the Abbott Amplatzer. 

He said an important part of the a PFO closure program is to have close collaboration between the interventional cardiologists and neurologists for patient selection, therapy and followup. Kasner said like any procedure, it is also important to have enough volume for one or two cardiologists to become proficient at the PFO occluder procedure. 

Related PFO Closure Content:

VIDEO: How Transcatheter PFO Closure Can Reduce Cryptogenic Stroke — Interview with John Rhodes, M.D.

Gore Cardioform ASD Occluder Receives FDA Approval

VIDEO: Transcatheter PFO Closure to Prevent Stroke and Migraines — Interview with Carey Kimmelstiel, M.D.

SCAI Offers Recommendations for Safe Use of PFO Closure Technologies

VIDEO: An Overview of PFO Closure to Treat Cryptogenic Stroke — Interview with Karen Orjuela, M.D.

VIDEO: Demonstration of a Transcatheter PFO Occluder Implantation

VIDEO: Transcatheter Closure of Holes in the Heart — Interview with Ziyad Hijazi, M.D.

PFO Closure Shows Positive Results from REDUCE Clinical Study

VIDEO: PFO Closure Found Beneficial for Cryptogenic Stroke — Presentation of RESPECT Trial results by John Carroll, M.D.

Reference:

1. Five-Year Outcomes of PFO Closure or Antiplatelet Therapy for Cryptogenic Stroke. N Engl J Med/ Published March 11, 2021. 384:970-971. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2033779

An emotional reunion with COVID-19 patient Crystal Gutierrez and the clinicians and cardiologist who saved her life at HCA Houston Healthcare Medical Center and Houston Heart. Gutierrez, a young mother who earlier in 2020 fell seriously ill from the effects of COVID-19 after delivering her son Matthew, spent 152 days in the hospital fighting again and recovering from COVID. Due to profound respiratory failure, she was put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy to take over the oxygenation of her blood from the lungs, and to unload the work of the heart by circulating her blood. The ECMO procedure was performed by Keshava Rajagopal, M.D., Ph.D., at Houston Heart.

Crystal was reunited February 12, 2021, with the doctors and nurses of HCA Houston Healthcare Medical Center and Houston Heart who helped to save her life. 

DAIC's focus is coverage of cardiovascular technologies like ECMO, but this video drives home the message that these technologies are used to save lives and the work by clinicians and cardiologists has a profound effect on patients and their families. This is an impact is often academic in discussion and is rarely seen by people who do not work directly with patients in hospitals. 

Many hospitals now "clap out" severe COVID patients at discharge. It has become a sort of rite of passage in honor of these patients overcoming adversity and surviving a very dangerous bout with the pandemic virus. It is also often a moral boost to clinicians who participate, having helped the patient fight and survive. 

As of the publication of this video on DAIC Feb. 16, 2021, more than 487,000 Americans have died from the COVID-19. Worldwide there have been more than 2.41 million deaths.

Read more in the article COVID Mother Reunited With Caregivers After Saving Her Live With ECMO.
 

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Robert Kowal, M.D., chief medical officer of the Medtronic cardiac rhythm and heart failure division, said there has been a large increase in interest in remote monitoring and programing capabilities of implantable electrophysiology (EP) devices since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Cardiologists are looking for ways to care for their patients without the need to have them come into the office for close, personal meetings and interrogation of their implanted EP devices. Remote monitoring of these devices has been around for a decade and the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) urged use of this technology in a 2015 consensus statemement. However, it has been COVID that has really pushed clinicians and patients to use this technolgy to its fullest as a way to watch patients closely from a distance and not require them to have to come into the office. It also enables EP practices to reprogram devices or alerts remotely where ever the have access to an internet connection. 

Find more EP news and video

This is an example of the Siemens Corindus CorPath Cath lab robotic system being used for a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) stent implant simulation on the expo floor at the 2019 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting. The system is mounted to the rail of the cath lab patient table and is manually loaded with catheters. The operator sits in a lead-lined booth outside the radiation field of the C-arm and uses joysticks to manipulate the catheters and advance them through vessels. The operators has the same controls for contrast and C-arm movement as they do using the tableside controls.

The main advantages of this systems are very precise catheter movements and removing the operator from the radiation field, so they can perform the procedure sitting down and without the need to wear heavy protective aprons.

The system is being tested to enable remote expert operators at one hospital to use high speed internet connections to perform a robotic PCI at another hospital many miles aways.
Read more 

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VIDEO: Standardizing PCI Through Smart Robotic Procedural Automation

Final Results of the Multicenter PRECISION GRX Study of the CorPath in a real-world population across a spectrum of lesion complexity — SCAI 2021 late-breaker

First-in-Human Telerobotic Coronary Intervention Procedures Published in EClinicalMedicine

Robocath Successfully Carries Out First Robotic Coronary Angioplasties in Humans

Corindus Vascular Robotics to Be Acquired by Siemens Healthineers

Corindus CorPath GRX Used in Live Complex Robotic-Assisted Coronary Intervention at EuroPCR 2019

Stereotaxis Announces Next-generation Robotic Magnetic Navigation and Imaging Systems

Reducing Physician Radiation Dose With Robotics

Corindus Seeking Neurovascular Intervention Clearance for CorPath GRX Vascular Robotic System

Corindus CorPath Used in World's First-in-Human Telerobotic Coronary Intervention

Robots in the Cath Lab

Oussama Wazni, M.D., section head, electrophysiology, Cleveland Clinic, discusses the results of the recent STOP AF First and Early AF trials. Both showed effectiveness in using early catheter ablation rather than drugs in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients. Both trials used cryo-ballon ablation, but Wazni said it is translatable to use of all cather ablation technologies.

Wazni a principal investigator for the STOP AF First trial and he shares information on the Early AF trial presented as a late-breaking study at the 2020 American Heart Association (AHA).

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VIDEO: Early Ablation Improved Outcomes in Atrial Fibrillation Patients —interview with Oussama Wazni, M.D.

Esophageal Cooling May Help Prevent Injury From Cardiac Ablations

VIDEO: Top New EP Technologies at Heart Rhythm Society 2020 — Interview with Andrew Krahn, M.D.

Biotronik Partners With Acutus Medical to Offer More Efficient Arrhythmia Diagnosis and Treatment

Contact Force Sensing Catheter Improved Outcomes in Persistent Atrial Fibrillation Ablation

New Technologies to Improve Atrial Fibrillation Ablation

VIDEO: Current State of Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Technologies, an interview with Hugh Calkins, M.D., at HRS 2017.

Find more EP technology news and video