Structural Heart Disease

Structural heart diseases include any issues preventing normal cardiovascular function due to damage or alteration to the anatomical components of the heart. This is caused by aging, advanced atherosclerosis, calcification, tissue degeneration, congenital heart defects and heart failure. The most commonly treated areas are the heart valves, in particular the mitral and aortic valves. These can be replaced through open heart surgery or using cath lab-based transcatheter valves or repairs to eliminate regurgitation due to faulty valve leaflets. This includes transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Other common procedures include left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion and closing congenital holes in the heart, such as PFO and ASD. A growing area includes transcatheter mitral repair or replacement and transcatheter tricuspid valve repair and replacement.

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Balloon-expandable TAVR valves linked to superior 1-year outcomes

Asian patients are rarely represented in large TAVR trials, the authors wrote, so they focused on nearly 1,200 patients from South Korea to provide a fresh perspective. 

João Cavalcante, MD, Minneapolis Heart Institute, spoke at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2023 meeting to try and get more radiologists interested in cardiac imaging to help fill the rising need for cardiac imagers on structural heart teams and a growing number of other types of heart and acute care teams.

Filling the crucial role of multimodality imagers on the heart team

João Cavalcante, MD, spoke at RSNA 2023 about key topics and tried to get more radiologists interested in cardiac imaging.

AFib before and after TAVR linked to significant risks

The new study included data on patients who presented for TAVR with preexisting AFib as well as those who developed new-onset AFib after the procedure. 

sonographer echo

Good to great: 5 ways to help sonographers deliver better echocardiograms and improve the diagnosis of severe AS

Sponsored by Medtronic

Hospitals should be making every effort to help sonographers deliver better, more accurate echocardiograms and improve the diagnosis of severe aortic stenosis. If you take care of your sonographers, your sonographers will take care of you. 

Medtronic Evolut FX TAVR valve

‘A huge victory for patient care’: Next-gen TAVR valve helps cardiologists target more patients

Sponsored by Medtronic

“The Evolut FX system is an improvement over previous Evolut system devices and it delivers better overall results to our patients,” says interventional cardiologist Guilherme Attizzani, MD. “It is an ideal solution for a majority of our patients.”

heart surgery surgeons

Early survival data favor valve-in-valve TAVR over redo SAVR—long-term data flip the script

Valve-in-valve TAVR outperforms redo SAVR for the first six months after treatment, according to a new meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Cardiology. Then, however, things begin to shift.

deep-penetrating acoustic volumetric printing 3D printing

New 3D-printing technique shows early potential to help heart patients

“We can reach tissues, bones and organs with high spatial precision that haven’t been reachable with light-based printing methods," one researcher explained. 

SavvyWire OpSens TAVR guidewire owned by Haemonetics

New 3-in-1 TAVR guidewire capable of hemodynamic measurements, LV pacing impresses cardiologists

The company behind the new technology was recently acquired for approximately $253 million. 

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