Ted Bosworth

WASHINGTON, DC — Atherectomy has no advantage over conventional balloon angioplasty for the treatment of severe calcified lesions, according to unexpected results from the largest trial of the procedure ever conducted.

WASHINGTON — A variety of stent designs have tried and failed to reduce the number of stent-related adverse events over time, but now a new device with a unique design has shown some initial promise in addressing that weakness.

WASHINGTON — Colchicine does not protect against major cardiovascular adverse events after an acute myocardial infarction, according to a multinational placebo-controlled trial of more than 7000 patients.

There was no meaningful protection from major cardiac events after MI, reported investigators of the multinational placebo-controlled trial that is challenging common clinical practice.

WASHINGTON, DC — Large-bore mechanical thrombectomy is superior to catheter-directed thrombolysis for pulmonary embolism , according to a randomized trial comparing the two interventions.

The first transcatheter aortic valve replacement device designed specifically to control aortic regurgitation performs well at 2 years in advance of randomized trial, reported investigators.

For ventricular tachycardia after myocardial infarction, outcomes are better with upfront catheter ablation than drug therapy, which is typically used first, the multinational VANISH2 trial shows.

For patients with atrial fibrillation who need protection from stroke and other complications after ablation, left atrial appendage closure rivaled oral anticoagulation in a randomized trial.

The addition of linear ablation plus ethanol infusion to pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) improves control of persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) better than PVI alone, a multicenter randomized trial shows.

BOSTON — Requests for a medical waiver to avoid a second COVID-19 vaccine dose or a booster after cutaneous reactions to the first dose are not justified on the basis of risk, according to an analysis of several large sets of data presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.