Edwards Lifesciences Corp. announced strategic clinical and regulatory milestones for its Edwards Pascal transcatheter valve repair system at the EuroPCR annual course, May 20-23 in Paris, France. New 6-month data from the CLASP study of the Pascal system were presented by Konstantinos Spargias, M.D., from the Hygeia Hospital in Athens, Greece. In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved CLASP IIF, a prospective, multicenter, randomized, controlled pivotal trial studying the PASCAL system.

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have demonstrated that stem cells derived from the placenta known as Cdx2 cells can regenerate healthy heart cells after heart attacks in animal models. The findings, published in the May 20 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), may represent a novel treatment for regenerating the heart and other organs.

A newly released expert consensus statement proposes a classification schema for cardiogenic shock (CS) that will facilitate communication in both the clinical and research settings. The document was published online in the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI)’s Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions journal, and is endorsed by the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.