Interventional Cardiology

This cardiac subspecialty uses minimally invasive, catheter-based technologies in a cath lab to diagnose and treat coronary artery disease (CAD). The main focus in on percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) to revascularize patients with CAD that is causing blockages resulting in ischemia or myocardial infarction. PCI mainly consists of angioplasty and implanting stents. Interventional cardiology has greatly expanded in scope over recent years to include a number of transcatheter structural heart interventions.

Thumbnail

Coronary atherectomy is effective in treating severe coronary lesions—but it’s hardly used

A review published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions Jan. 24 suggests adjunctive coronary atherectomy is a clinically useful and effective tool for treating severely calcified coronary lesions—but, in reality, it’s rarely used.

Thumbnail

New Cardiac Cath Lab Embraces Enterprise Imaging

Sponsored by Sectra

When the cardiac and neurovascular catheterization lab at Riverside University Health System Medical Center (RUHS-MC) treated its first patient last February, the opening represented many things to many people.

Thumbnail

World’s 1st completely robotic heart slated for transplant by 2028

In just eight years, the world’s first completely robotic “hybrid” heart will be ready for transplant, according to the Daily Mail.

Thumbnail

Repeat revascularization after PCI, CABG carries poor prognosis

Repeat revascularization isn’t a rare occurrence after PCI or CABG, according to a study of patients with left main coronary artery disease—but it can raise a person’s risk of cardiovascular death by as much as four times.

Thumbnail

DCD donor hearts could help ease organ shortages

Experts at Massachusetts General Hospital have successfully performed five CV transplants using Donation after Circulatory Death donor hearts—the largest number of adult DCD heart transplants ever completed in the U.S.

Thumbnail

Retooling Recovery: Emerging Evidence Sparks Interest in Enhanced Surgical Protocols

After a slow start, cardiac ERAS is gaining traction in some U.S. hospitals. Proponents explain how to overcome resistance. 

Hep C hearts safe for transplant, study says

Hepatitis C-positive donor hearts are a viable long-term option for patients in need of a heart transplant, researchers confirmed in JAMA Cardiology Dec. 18.

Thumbnail

Heart transplant patients fare worse in areas with high levels of air pollution

Heart transplant patients who live in areas with high levels of air pollution had a 26% higher risk of mortality due to infection in a recent study of nearly 22,000 patients in the U.S.