The shorter a patient’s hospital stay after elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), the better, according to recent research out of the U.K. that linked longer lengths of stay to an increase in unplanned readmissions and healthcare costs.

Forearm blood flow is preserved two decades after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery using radial artery grafts, Australian researchers reported in a letter published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

A press conference at the 2018 Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting in San Diego on Tuesday, Sept. 25, morphed into a discussion about the future of bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS) and whether it’s worth pursuing bioresorbable stent technology at all.

Acute coronary syndrome patients who were given a loading dose of atorvastatin before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) experienced a 28 percent reduction in major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) over the following 30 days, according to a secondary analysis of the randomized SECURE-PCI trial published in JAMA Cardiology.

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided stent implantation offers improved clinical outcomes for heart patients over a traditional angiography-guided approach, researchers from China reported at this week’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) meeting in San Diego, California.

A novel, polymer-free amphilius-eluting stent known as the “Cre8” was proven noninferior to the latest-generation permanent polymer drug-eluting stent in the first large-scale trial of its kind, according to research presented at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s 30th annual TCT conference in San Diego.

SAN DIEGO — The ultra-thin Orsiro drug-eluting stent (DES) maintained superior outcomes at two years of follow-up in a head-to-head trial against Abbott’s Xience stent, according to results presented this weekend at Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics 2018 and published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.