CardioExchange Archive

January 21st, 2014

Dangerous Rapid Calcification Observed In Pediatric Patients After Aortic Valve Replacement

Larry Husten, PHD

Pediatric cardiac surgeons at Boston Children’s Hospital are warning the medical community about a potentially fatal problem in children and young adults who received a bioprosthetic valve manufactured by Sorin. The surgeons initially became concerned when a young, asymptomatic patient died suddenly after her valve underwent rapid calcification, only 7 months after a routine follow-up echocardiogram found […]

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January 20th, 2014

FDA Grants Earlier Than Expected Approval for Medtronic’s CoreValve

Larry Husten, PHD

The FDA today approved Medtronic’s CoreValve transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) system for patients with severe aortic stenosis who are unable to undergo conventional open-heart surgery. The approval came several months ahead of expectations and without an FDA advisory panel meeting. The approval was based largely on results from the Extreme Risk Study of the CoreValve […]

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January 9th, 2014

Hospital Quality Helps Explain Some Racial Disparities in CABG Outcomes

Larry Husten, PHD

It has long been known that racial disparities exist in health care. A large body of research has found that nonwhite patients have worse outcomes than whites. But it has been difficult to understand the underlying reasons for these disparities.  Now a new study offers evidence that, at least in the case of bypass surgery, […]

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December 3rd, 2013

Stents Lose in Comparisons with Surgery and Medical Therapy

Larry Husten, PHD

Despite the enormous increase in the use of stents in recent decades, there is little or no good evidence comparing their use to the alternatives of CABG surgery or optimal medical therapy in patients also eligible for these strategies. Now two meta-analyses published in JAMA Internal Medicine provide new evidence that the alternatives to PCI […]

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December 3rd, 2013

Estimating Prosthesis-Patient Mismatch for Patients Undergoing Bovine Pericardial AVR

Jyothy Puthumana, MD,MS

Jyothy Puthumana discusses his research group’s Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging study, for which they compared prosthesis-patient mismatch prevalence and its impact on survival.

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November 27th, 2013

Physicians Report Alarming Increase in LVAD Pump Thrombosis

Larry Husten, PHD

Cardiac physicians from three top institutions report an abrupt and highly troubling increase over the last two years in the incidence of pump thrombosis in patients who have received the HeartMate II left ventricular assist device (LVAD) manufactured by Thoratec. The current investigation, published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, was initially prompted by an observed […]

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November 18th, 2013

Replacement Versus Repair for Mitral Valve Regurgitation

Larry Husten, PHD

Surgery is thought to be life-saving for people who have ischemic mitral regurgitation, but it is unknown whether surgical repair or surgical replacement of the mitral valve is the better procedure. Repair is thought to result in fewer preoperative deaths and replacement is thought to have better long-term outcomes with a reduced incidence of recurrent […]

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November 7th, 2013

Internal Mammary Artery Grafting During CABG: How Common, How Effective?

Mark Hlatky, MD

Mark A. Hlatky discusses his research group’s analysis of the prevalence and effectiveness of internal mammary artery grafting during CABG procedures performed in Medicare patients.

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October 29th, 2013

Pivotal Results for Medtronic’s CoreValve

Larry Husten, PHD

Key data on what will likely be the second transcatheter aortic valve to gain approval in the U.S. were presented today at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2013 Conference in San Francisco. Jeffrey Popma, co-principal investigator of the trial, presented the major results from the CoreValve U.S. Pivotal Trial in patients who were too ill or frail for traditional open […]

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October 25th, 2013

FDA Approves Abbot’s MitraClip for Patients at Prohibitive Surgical Risk

Larry Husten, PHD

The FDA today approved Abbott’s catheter-based MitraClip device for patients with significant symptomatic degenerative MR who are at prohibitive risk for mitral valve surgery. The company said it would launch the device immediately in the United States. The device is the first percutaneous nonsurgical therapy approved for the treatment of mitral valve disease. Surgery remains the option […]

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