Cath Lab Recap: MRI-Ready Devices; Hydrogel Injections; 3D-Printed Stents

The FDA approved Medtronic's suite of cardiac devices that are scannable in both 3 Tesla and 1.5 Tesla MRI machines. Included are the SureScan line of pacemakers, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators, and their accompanying leads.

The agency also cleared St. Jude Medical's PressureWire X Guidewire for use in fractional flow reserve (FFR) measurements. "The improved design and shape retention of the new PressureWire X Guidewire tip allows us to perform FFR measurements in more tortuous anatomies," said Annapoorna S. Kini, MD, of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, in a statement.

Percutaneously delivered, a hydrogel designed to stiffen an infarct region -- thereby limiting left ventricular remodeling and heart failure -- was tied to improvements in ejection fraction in sheep. The hyaluronic acid hydrogel was administered via endocardial injection and guided by fluoroscopy and echocardiography, investigators reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions.

With bioresorbable vascular scaffolds now established, are 3D-printed biodegradable stents the next step? Perhaps, according to Northwestern University researchers who are using a citric-acid based polymer to build stents that are individually tailored to each patient's lesion. "By printing a stent that has the exact geometric and biologic requirements of the patient's blood vessel, we expect to minimize the probability of ... complications," one investigator said as reported by 3ders.org.

Another study in the same journal found a trend toward more ischemia-driven target lesion revascularization with bioresorbable vascular scaffolds compared with second-generation drug-eluting stents. Target vessel failure rates were no different in the long run, however.

Pulmonary vein isolation with a cryoballoon catheter incurred fewer costs down the line from repeat ablations and reinterventions, according to new FIRE AND ICE data presented at the Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society's annual meeting. Compared with radiofrequency ablation catheters, the Arctic Front device catheter was associated with savings of more than $355,000 in the U.S. arm of the trial, MassDevice reports.

FFR derived from coronary CT angiography performed moderately well in detecting ischemia among non-culprit vessels in patients with a recent ST-segment elevation MI (STEMI), a study found. The results do not support routine use of FFR_CT after STEMI, the investigators concluded in JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging.

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