Here’s a look at some of the news coming out of Washington at the 26th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapies conference this week:
Abbott’s Absorb stent as good as Xience, maybe better for angina
One-year data on the Absorb stent made by Abbott (NYSE:ABT) shows that the bioresorbable device is the equal of its forebear, the drug-eluting Xience stent, and might be better at reducing angina in patients with coronary artery disease.
The study revealed no major difference in the endpoint of all death, all heart attacks and all revascularization (7.3% for Absorb and 9.1% for Xience) or for the endpoint of target lesion failure (4.8% for Absorb and 3.0% for Xience). Patients in the Absorb cohort also showed a 16.4% rate of reported angina, compared with 25.6% for the Xience arm.
Abbott also announced the launch of its Absorb IV trial examining whether Absorb ) is more cost-effective and delivers higher quality of life than a metallic drug eluting stent.
Read more
St. Jude Medical launches latest Optis platform
St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) said it won CE Mark approval in the European Union and 510(k) clearance from the FDA for the latest version of its Optis platform, designed to integrate optical coherence tomography and fractional flow reserve technology into the workflow for percutaneous coronary interventions.
Read more
Less time on DAPT as safe as longer courses
Treatment with dual anti-platelet therapy for a shorter duration is as safe as longer courses of DAPT, according to a pair of studies presented at TCT. The Security trial showed that DAPT for 6 months offered as much protection from death, heart attack, stroke, stent thrombosis or bleeding as 12 months on the drugs, Dr. Antonio Colombo of the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan. A 2nd study, the Optimize trial, showed that 3 months of DAPT matches the 12-month standard out to 2 years, as reported by Dr. Fausto Feres of the Instituto Dante Pazzanese de Cardiologia in Sao Paolo.
Read more
Stents better than DEBs at treating failed stents
A 2nd drug-eluting stent is superior to drug-eluting balloons in treating in-stent restenosis, according to Ribs IV trial
data presented by Dr. Fernando Alfonso of the Hospital Universitario de La Princesa in Madrid.
Read more
St. Jude Medical reveals positive EnligHTN-III data at 1 year
St. Jude’s EnligHTN renal denervation device showed an average office-measured systolic blood pressure reduction of 23mmHG at 12 months and an average
ambulatory reduction of 10mmHG, with 78% of patients responding to the therapy with at least a 10mmHG reduction.
Read more