Cath Lab Recap: More CRT Software; Bivalirudin Patent Kerfuffle

The patents for bivalirudin (Angiomax) were upheld by a federal court following a prior ruling that they were invalid. Drugmaker the Medicines Company says it is "now considering all ... options with respect to Hospira, Mylan, and other generics."

The SyncAV software won FDA approval for real-time optimization of cardiac resynchronization therapy, coming less than a month after earning Europe's CE Mark.

When compared with carotid endarterectomy, carotid artery stenting was associated with more ipsilateral stroke and death over the long-term in a Swedish registry study.

High-risk and inoperable patients had good safety outcomes after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with the Sapien 3. Transfemoral TAVR had the upper hand for survival.

Stenting coronary bifurcation lesions with bioresorbable vascular scaffolds had "acceptable" rates of 1-year target lesion failure, according to a study. However, the investigators attributed the 2.5% incidence of scaffold thrombosis to "low incidence of intravascular guidance and postdilation resulting in a higher likelihood of scaffold underexpansion and malapposition, further supporting the importance of meticulous implantation technique."

Inaccurate medical documentation was more common in electronic health records than in paper charts, a study suggests. Aortic stenosis and atrial fibrillation were among the diagnoses that were compared.

QRS duration was similar in Asian and white patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, a study reported, whereas among those with reduced ejection fraction, Asians had longer QRS duration. "The implications for ethnicity-specific QRS duration cut-offs in clinical decision-making require further study," the authors concluded.

Terumo acquired Sequent Medical and its Web aneurysm embolization device. This stent-like nitinol mesh has CE Mark in Europe and is undergoing a trial for FDA approval.

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