A major battlefield in the stent wars opens again this week, as thousands of cardiologists and other healthcare providers flock to Washington, D.C., for the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference.

Medical device industry players large and small are busy hawking the results of clinical trials and touting new products — or new versions of older products. TCT 2010, which kicked off yesterday, is slated to run through Sept. 25.