Medtronic Names New Chief Scientific, Medical, and Regulatory Officer
This appointment adds to Dr. Mauri's prior responsibilities as chief clinical and regulatory officer, aligning and integrating the company's scientific, medical, clinical research and regulatory affairs under her leadership. It leverages her deep expertise and understanding of the interaction between patients and medical technology to accelerate innovation that puts patients first. |
Emergency: Climate Crisis!
The Lancet, along with over 220 medical journals, today posted an editorial about the largest, most serious, health threat known to us today. It's not heart disease, or cancer, or COVID-19. It's climate change! And it can't be cured by angioplasty or surgery or chemo. In the words of Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, "The COVID-19 pandemic will end, but there is no vaccine for the climate crisis." |
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Medtronic Announces FDA Approval of Next-Gen TAVR System
VP/CMO Dr. Jeffrey Popma stated in the press release: "The self-expanding, supra-annular Evolut platform has evolved considerably over time and has brought heart teams innovative features like recapturability, an expanded size matrix, and advanced valve sealing to help minimize paravalvular leak. Today, the Evolut FX system further refines a trusted platform with key product and procedural enhancements that make the self-expanding system easier to use with enhanced visualization capabilities for orientation and depth, |
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1st Patient Enrolled in DEFINE GPS Study
This global, multi-center, prospective, randomized controlled study will enroll up to 3,200 patient at 100 sites to answer the question: Does guidance by instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) measurements co-registered on the angiogram demonstrate superior outcomes and improve the cost-effectiveness of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures to open blocked coronary arteries? |
2-Year Data for Evolut Confirms TAVR Non-Inferior to SAVR in Low Risk Patients Confirming the preliminary data that was previously presented at the 2019 Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology, the complete data from over 1,400 patients enrolled in the Evolut Low Risk Trial was presented (virtually) at this year's EuroPCR meeting by John K Forrest, MD, FACC, FSCAI.
The result: the primary endpoint of all-cause mortality or disabling stroke at two years was 4.3% for TAVR versus 6.3% for surgery (p<0.0001 for non-inferiority). |
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TAVI Evolut Pro+ System Receives CE Mark in Europe
The system includes 4 valve sizes with an external pericardial tissue wrap that provides advanced sealing for the largest annular range (for self-expanding TAVI technology) on the market. The approval follows a recent indication expansion for the Evolut platform in Europe for patients with severe aortic stenosis who are at a low risk of surgical mortality and patients with bicuspid aortic valves who are at intermediate, high and extreme risk of surgical mortality. |
FDA OK to Philips Azurion SmartCT Imaging Software
SmartCT is a key component of Philips Azurion Image Guided Therapy System, providing interventionalists with CT-like 3D images (Cone Beam CT) to support diagnosis, therapy planning, treatment and follow-up for interventional procedures. |
Transcatheter Harmony Pulmonary Valve Gets OK from FDA
The Harmony is the 1st minimally invasive therapy created to treat patients with a specific type of congenital heart defect of the right ventricle, one of the four chambers of the heart, which makes it difficult for blood to travel from the heart to the lungs. |
*COVID-19* Cardiac Arrest Deaths at Home in NYC
Have Increased By a Startling 800%
There's been a 50% or more drop in the number of people receiving emergency treatment for heart attacks in many hospitals. Physicians have been speculating why this might be. Now frightening numbers from New York City's overwhelmed emergency medical system may provide part of the answer: hundreds of people a day have been dying of cardiac arrest in their homes, an eight-fold increase over the same period last year. |
*COVID-19* Doctors Say: Don't Sit Out a Heart Attack at Home
Since the onset of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, hospital emergency departments have seen a precipitous drop in the number of heart attack patients presenting for treatment. Not getting treated means heart muscle dies. What should patients do? |
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Patients Are Talking About... |
- I had radial angiography 2 days ago...it was a fascinating experience and was able to watch part of the procedure. I feel fantastic, have no "heart ache" or any problems with my arm.
- I can't afford my post-stenting meds, where can I find help paying for Plavix or Effient?
- I'm 64. After 4 stents and 2 heart attacks since Dec. 2008, I'm as physically active or more so than ever. I plan to hit 4,000 miles on my bike this year. I've hiked/climbed at 13,000 feet.
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Patients
Are Reading About... |
Radial Hospital Locator
A list of physicians and hospitals offering the transradial (wrist) approach to angiograms, angioplasty and stent procedures. |
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Read patient stories and Learn about medications after stenting, symptoms and complications, care giving, taking charge of your health, communicating with your cardiologist and much more in our Patient Center. |

see
video clip:
" The 1st Angioplasty" |
ANGIOPLASTY
AT 40: 2017
marked the 40th anniversary of coronary angioplasty. In
1977 in Zurich, Switzerland, a young physician named Andreas
Gruentzig inserted a catheter into a patient's
coronary artery and inflated a tiny balloon, successfully
opening a blockage and restoring blood flow to a human
heart. |
Today over
two million coronary angioplasties are
performed worldwide each year and angioplasty has become the gold standard for emergency heart attack treament. |
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