ATLANTA—More research is needed on the relative costs and benefits of using drug-eluting stents (DES) versus bare-metal stents (BMS) in patients who have experienced a STEMI, according to the results based on the DEDICATION trial presented Tuesday at the ACC.10 conference. Slides»
Tuesday, March 16, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Organizers of ACC.10 have highlighted this session as potentially having some practice-changing results. Researchers will present three-year follow up data from the DEDICATION trial, which compared drug-eluting stents (DES) with bare-metal stents (BMS) in STEMI patients. Not everyone is convinced that DES is the way to go in this patient population. We'll see.
Monday, March 15, 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
How do interventionalists stay current on all the exciting research regarding drug-eluting stents (DES)? Well, that is what this session is geared to do!
In many hospitals, the cath lab is the hub around which the practice of cardiology revolves. With our increasingly aging population and epidemic rise in diabetes and obesity, interventional cardiologists are performing more and more coronary interventions. To ensure efficacy and efficiency in the cath lab, physicians must focus on a broad range of areas, including devices, drugs, patient selection and protocols. All of these topics must be considered because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Drug-eluting stents (DES) have proved their worth compared to bare-metal stents in terms of improved restenosis rates. Questions still exist, however, regarding stent thrombosis. In addition, newer generation DES, coupled with new drugs and drug regimens, have made significant progress in reducing adverse events during and after PCI. But cardiologists want to know which DES and which drug regimen are best for their patients? The amount of research being conducted around improving the safety and efficacy of PCI is staggering. Even more impressive, however, is the careful consideration that interventionalists give to the emerging data. ACC.10, which kicks off Saturday in Atlanta, in conjunction with the i2 Summit, is chock full of educational sessions and late-breaking trials piloted by experts trying to determine how best to interpret the latest evidence. Attendees will no doubt hear disagreement, but they also will be treated to thoughtful analyses, robust discussions and honest deliberation. The basis of the next-generation of best practices will be defined. The late-breaking trials alone are worth the price of admission. Most of these trials are comparative studies, pitting one therapy against another. For example, the PLATO trial compared ticagrelor with clopidogrel in patients undergoing CABG. Other trials examine various management strategies for diabetics, intense versus less intense blood pressure control and various atrial fibrillation treatment approaches. In the past few years, there have been dramatic advances in PCI techniques, devices, and medications, with no sign that these will slow down. Guidelines published by the ACC, in conjunction with other societies, are continually being updated as new approaches supplant the old. Within the last few years, changes to guidelines include: • Updated recommendations on using anti-clotting medications, such as clopidogrel, low molecular-weight heparin and bivalirudin, before, during and after PCI; • A recommendation that embolic protective devices be used during PCI or peripheral arterial interventions; and • A recommendation for early follow-up of patients who have PCI of the left main coronary artery. Interventional cardiologists can expect to find many sessions at ACC.10 that will help them improve their daily practice. What's good for the patient is also good for the practice. With decreasing reimbursement and payment increasingly tied to performance, incorporating the latest cutting-edge research into one's practice will go a long way toward ensuring patient safety and practice efficiency. For educational session and late-breaking trial locations as well as other details, consult the session program onsite or visit ACC10.ACC.org. To download a pdf of conference sessions, click here. Click here to download the program to a mobile device or click here from within your mobile browser to download directly. You also can download the final program to your Ebook reader here. Cardiovascular Business News will help you navigate ACC.10. To get our daily news updates of education sessions from ACC.10 delivered to your inbox or mobile device, be sure you're signed up for Cardiovascular Business News at CardiovascularBusiness.com.
At five years, Cordis’ Cypher sirolimus-eluting stents (SES) had a safety record comparable to CABG and superior to bare-metal stents (BMS), and a major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular event (MACCE) rate that was higher than in patients treated with CABG and lower than in those treated with BMS, based on the results of the randomized ARTS II trial.
Boston Scientific has financial results for the fourth quarter and full year, which ended Dec. 31, 2009, indicating a reduction in net losses for both.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School have built targeted nanoparticles that can cling to artery walls and slowly release medicine, which could be an alternative to drug-eluting stents in some patients with cardiovascular disease, according to research published in the Jan. 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The everolimus-eluting stent is better than the second-generation paclitaxel-eluting stent (Taxus Liberte, Boston Scientific) in unselected patients undergoing PCI in terms of safety and efficacy, concluded the COMPARE trial that was published Jan. 7 in Lancet. Based on these findings, the authors suggest that paclitaxel-eluting stents should no longer be used in everyday clinical practice.
Due to stronger sales, Boston Scientific has booked large (unaudited) net gains in the 2009 third quarter, which ended Sept. 30.
Since the FDA approved the Taxus Liberte Atom 2.25 mm paclitaxel-eluting stent in May, Boston Scientific has gained about 8 percent of the market, according to Jeff Mirvis, vice president of marketing. The company highlighted the Taxus Liberte family of stents, as well as next-generation stents, at the 21st annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference.
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Interventional radiologists have found that a subgroup of patients with critical limb ischemia, the most severe form of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), may avoid amputation through the use of drug-eluting stents on the smaller arteries below the knee, according to a study released at this week’s Society of Interventional Radiology's (SIR) Annual Scientific Meeting in Tampa, Fla.
Monday, March 15, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Each year at the ACC meeting, program planners pour through abstracts to include in the late-breaking clinical trials sessions. This year, they picked 30 abstracts out of more than 100 that were submitted. Many of the late-breaking selections promise to be game-changers. If you want to get a sense of what your future practice might look like, you need to sit in on this session.
Sunday, March 14, 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
This is one of those sessions that examines both sides of various topics including stents, pharmacological strategy and thrombus aspiration. Attendees can expect vigorous debate, with convincing evidence on both sides.
Written by Justine Cadet
Washington, D.C.—David J. Cohen, MD, director of cardiovascular research at St. Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Mo., evaluated the economics of drug-eluting stents (DES) versus bare-metal stents (BMS), along with what has recently changed in clinical practice to influence their costeffectiveness, during a session on Feb. 22 at the annual conference of the Cardiovascular Research Technologies.
As heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S., technological advances pertaining to the treatment and prevention of heart disease, such as drug-eluting stents, have led to better patient care, but also have added to the rise of healthcare expenditures, according to the 33rd annual trend report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Written by David Smith, MD
There are cases presented to all physicians when we have to balance benefits of a particular treatment with concerns around safety for certain patients. In interventional cardiology, we see this dilemma with drug-eluting stents (DES). While this technology provides effective therapy for many patients with ischemia-inducing coronary lesions, there are certain patient groups that encounter problems for different reasons.
Boston Scientific's Promus and Abbott's Xience V, two everolimus-eluting coronary stent systems used to treat coronary artery disease, have received approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for marketing and distribution rights throughout Japan.
Boston Scientific has received CE Mark for the Promus Element everolimus-eluting coronary stent system, its third-generation drug-eluting stent (DES) technology.
Johnson & Johnson, parent company of the stentmaker Cordis, has reported a slightly higher net income, despite a decrease in sales in the third quarter of 2009, which ended Sept. 30.
The Harvard Clinical Research Institute (HCRI) has reported that the first patients have been enrolled in the DAPT [dual-antiplatelet therapy] Study, marking the official initiation of the four-year clinical trial to investigate the duration of dual-antiplatelet therapy following drug-eluting stent (DES) implantations.
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Middle age introduces itself in many ways; one is atrial fibrillation (AF). My onset of AF seems to have coincided with a mountain bike accident in the woods of North Carolina that resulted in some cracked ribs.
The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
A new hospital breaking ground usually isn’t breaking news. But the vision of patient care at one new facility, tentatively named Palomar Medical Center West (PMC West), is currently illegal under California state law.