Which stories, features and interviews captured the attention of the cardiovascular community across 2023? Read our summary of the trending stories from across the Cardiovascular News network throughout the year.
What were your highlights? Leave a reply in the comment box at the foot of the page with your comments.
“No stroke is innocent”: Why stroke matters for TAVI patients
With the use of embolic protection devices during transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) procedures increasingly in the spotlight, Cardiovascular News spoke to some of Europe’s foremost experts in stroke to understand the neurovascular risks during TAVI procedures, and how this devastating outcome impacts patients and their loved ones.
The interventional cardiology trials to watch in 2023
Turning the clock back to the start of the year, interventional cardiology experts Mirvat Alasnag (King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia), Roxana Mehran (Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, USA) and Suzanne Baron (Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, Burlington, USA) gave their predictions for the practice changing trials to emerge throughout the year.
TAVI pioneers discuss the past, present and future of transcatheter therapy
Looking beyond the 20-year anniversary of TAVI, Cardiovascular News spoke to two pioneers of the procedure, Alain Cribier (University Hospital of Rouen, Rouen, France) and Michael Reardon (Academic Institute Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, Houston, USA) to reflect on the procedure’s wide-reaching impact on the treatment of aortic disease.
REVIVED-BCIS-2 results challenge “long-held beliefs” on myocardial viability testing prior to PCI
Analysis from the REVIVED-BCIS-2 trial presented at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 2023 Scientific Session (4–6 March, New Orleans, USA), in which investigators assessed the effect of myocardial viability, functional recovery and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on clinical outcomes in the trial, found that assessing myocardial viability does not aid the selection of patients who will benefit—or not—from PCI for the treatment of severe ischaemic cardiomyopathy.
Ten-year data from the NOTION trial—the longest-running clinical trial to date to compare outcomes among low-risk patients randomised to undergo either TAVI or surgical valve replacement (SAVR) for aortic stenosis—have shown that patients undergoing TAVI had a similar risk of all-cause mortality, stroke and myocardial infarction (MI) as those treated surgically.
ESC and EAPCI publish renal denervation consensus statement
Renal denervation represents another treatment option in patients with uncontrolled resistant hypertension and may be used in selected patients deemed intolerant to antihypertensive drugs, a statement issued by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Council on Hypertension and the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI) in February concluded. This was seen as a significant milestone for proponents of the technique, for which two devices gained US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in November 2023.
Transfemoral TAVI device gains US FDA breakthrough status for aortic regurgitation
Genesis MedTech announced in August that its J-Valve transfemoral (TF) system had been granted breakthrough device designation by the US FDA for the proposed indication of the treatment of severe aortic regurgitation.
PCI improves angina symptoms without medication in ORBITA-2 trial
PCI relieves stable chest pain and improves exercise capacity among patients taking little or no chest pain medication, results of the ORBITA-2 trial, presented at the American Heart Association’s 2023 Scientific Sessions (11–13 November, Philadelphia, USA) show.
Five-year PARTNER 3 results “reaffirm” role of TAVI as alternative to surgery in low-risk patients
Five-year data from the PARTNER 3 trial, which randomised low surgical risk aortic stenosis patients to receive either transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) with the Sapien 3 (Edwards Lifesciences) device or surgery, showed equivalent performance between the two treatments against its composite endpoint of death, stroke or rehospitalisation at TCT 2023 (23–26 October, San Francisco, USA).
A comparison of two latest-generation self-expanding and balloon-expandable transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) systems has found comparable rates of all-cause mortality and heart failure hospitalisation between the two devices, but a higher rate of disabling stroke with the self-expanding device.
