Kavitha Chinnaiyan, M.D., FACC, FSCCT, associate professor, Oakland University, William Beaumont School of Medicine, Royal Oak, Mich. She presented at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) 2018 meeting. 

She explains how noninvasive fractional flow reserve computed tomography (FFR-CT) is being used at Beaumont to assess patients presenting with chest pain. FFR-CT has been used to triage these patients faster than doing a series of troponin tests, keeping patients overnight for a nuclear scan or sending them for a diagnostic angiogram. Most patients can be discharge is a fraction of the time compared to these other standards of care. Chinnaiyan also showed examples of FFR-CT, CT angiograms and cath lab invasive angiograms of the same lesions to show the correlation between the different modalities. Some examples show what appears to be a severe lesion, but FFR-CT shows acceptable blood flow past lesions so no revascularization was required.

Related FFR-CT Content:

Clinical Applications of FFR-CT

VIDEO: Implementation and the Science Behind FFR-CT — interview with James Min, M.D.

VIDEO: Early U.S. Experience With FFR-CT in Evaluating ED Chest Pain Presentation — interview with Simon Dixon, M.D.

VIDEO: Status of FFR-CT Adoption in the United States — interview with Campbell Rogers, M.D.

A discussion with Gianluca Pontone, M.D., Ph.D., FSCCT, director of cardiovascular MRI, Centro Cardiologico Manzino, Milan, Italy, at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) 2018 meeting. He said CT can be comparable to the gold-standards of nuclear and MRI perfusion depending on the scanner used to acquire the images. 

Read the article "CT Perfusion Imaging Ready for Mainstream." 

An interview with Patrick Serruys, M.D., Ph.D., Imperial College London, principal investigator of the SYNTAX III Trial presented earlier this year as a late-breaker at EuroPCR. He presented the trial again at the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) 2018 meeting. 

He explains how noninvasive fractional flow reserve computed tomography (FFR-CT) was used in the study and compared to invasive angiography and pressure wire based FFR. Serruys, a well-known pioneer in interventional cardiology, had high praise for FFR-CT after seeing it in real-world cases. He said the technology can be used to better select patients who undergo cardiac CT scans to determine who needs to be revascularized in the cath lab. This can reduce the current issue where a lot of patients who have antomical diease on CT imaging turn out to not have a severe enough lesion to require stenting.

Read the article "SYNTAX III Revolution Trial Shows CT-FFR Could Replace Cine-angiography in Coming Years."

Ori Ben-Yehuda, M.D., executive director of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation Clinical Trial Center, discusses the latest data from clinical trials focusing on transcatheter tricuspid valve repair (TTVR) technologies, at the 2018 Transcatheter Valve Therapies (TVT) annual meeting in Chicago.

Related Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Content

Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation Enrolls First Patient in TRILUMINATE Tricuspid Repair Trial

Positive, Sustained Improvement at One Year in SCOUT I Transcatheter Tricuspid Repair Trial

Gate Bioprosthesis Used in Canada's First Transcatheter Valve Replacement for Tricuspid Regurgitation

VIDEO: Tricuspid Valve Imaging and Interventions Developing Hand-in-hand 

VIDEO: Mitral and Tricuspid Valve Repair Technologies

Partho Sengupta, M.D., DM, FACC, FASE, chief division of cardiology, director of cardiac imaging, West Virginia University Heart and Vascular Institute, explains how artificial intelligence is being integrated into echocardiography and used to mine big data to better assess patients at the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) 2018 meeting. 

Watch the VIDEO: Ultrasound's Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Echo, with Senguta at the ASE 2017 meeting

Malissa Wood, M.D., co-director of the Corrigan Women’s Heart Health Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, explains the need for and how to create a women’s cardiovascular health center, during the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) 2018 meeting. 

Learn more about Mass General's cardio-obstetrics program. 

Related Women's Heart Health Content:

Diagnostic Differences in Women’s Heart Health

VIDEO: Differences in Cardiac Complications and Presentation Between Men and Women — Interview with Cindy Grines, M.D.

VIDEO: Creating a Cardio-Obstetrics Team — Doreen DeFaria Yeh, M.D.

VIDEO: Sex Differences in Diagnosing Heart Disease in Women — Interview with Doreen DeFaria Yeh, M.D.

Find more articles on women's heart issues in the Women's Cardiovascular Health channel

Michael Lanspa, M.D., director of critical care echocardiography services, Intermountain Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, explains the training initiatives by the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) for point-of-care ultrasound. Lanspa serves on the educational committees for ASE, the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and the Society of Critical Care Medicine. 

POCUS has seen a big expansion in cardiology to better assess patients before sending them for more advanbced imaging or tests. POCUS is also seeing widespread expansion in many other areas of healthcare, especially in emergency medicine.

POC ultrasound was discussed as one of the big recent developments at ASE 2018. 

VIDEO: Imaging COVID-19 With Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS)

VIDEO: Automated Cardiac Ejection Fraction for Point-of-care-ultrasound Using Artificial Intelligence
 

This is an example of the a mitral valve with regurgitation imaged with 3-D echocardiography using the Siemens SC2000 cardiac ultrasound system. The first video clip shows the 3-D anatomy of the heart, the mitral valve, its leaflet cusps tabled and the left ventricular outflow track (LVOT) of the aortic valve. The second clip shows how the software can automatically extract and quantify the regurgitant volume. The last clip shows an isolation of the mitral valve and the regurgitant jet, showing the exact location of the source, which can be used aid surgical planning. This video was shot at the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) 2018.

Find additional technology video clips, video interviews and news from ASE.

This is a demonstration of the the Philips TrueVue photo-realistic rendering and lighting source technology. This example highlights a transcatheter ASD closure with two Amplatzer occluders. The technology allows users to changing the lighting conditions to improve contrast. The light source can also be moved around to change the shadows and add more depth perception. The light source also can be pushed through the tissue to back light the anatomical structures, as shown in this example at the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) 2018 meeting. The backlighting confirms a gap at the top of the image where part of the septal defect remains exposed. 

Find more videos and news from ASE 

A new clinical trial at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is examining an implanted device that uses vagus nerve stimulation to help stroke patients regain motor function. The Vivistim device is similar to a pacemaker, which uses leads to electrically stimulate the brain. 

Read the article "New Therapy Rewires the Brain to Improve Stoke Recovery."
 

ITN Associate Editor Jeff Zagoudis explores how the mobile stroke unit (MSU) program at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Ill., is changing the paradigm of care for stroke patients in the western suburbs of Chicago and beyond. 

Realted Mobile Stroke Content:

Northwestern Medicine Mobile Stroke Unit Delivers Life-Saving Care 30 Minutes Sooner

NewYork-Presbyterian Expands Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit Fleet

Northwestern Medicine has purchased several smaller Chicago suburban hospitals in the past few years to expand its healthcare system. This has enabled these smaller community hospitals to offer new, cutting-edge cardiovascular medical technologies much sooner than might have otherwise been possible due to its association with Northwestern Medicine's luminary Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute in Chicago. Central DuPage Hospital is one of the newer hospitals in the network and now offers transcatheter aortic valve replacements (TAVR), transcatheter leadless pacemakers, minimally invasive left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusions and the latest surgical valve replacement technologies. 

Related Northwestern Medicine TAVR Content:

Hospital Consolidation May Increase Access to TAVR, New Cardiac Technologies

Northwestern Medicine Celebrates 2000th Transcatheter Heart Valve Procedure

VIDEO: Cath Lab Tour at Northwestern Medicine's Central DuPage Hospital

Northwestern Medicine Mobile Stroke Unit Delivers Life-Saving Care 30 Minutes Sooner

360 View of a Cath Lab at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital

A discussion with Ron Waksman, M.D., associate director of the division of cardiology and director of cardiovascular research and advanced education at MedStar Heart Institute, and professor of medicine (cardiology) at Georgetown University. He explained the ongoing clinical trials using near infrared spectroscopy to detect lipid rich plaque in the coronary arteries. He spoke to DAIC at the 2018 American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting.

Find out the late-breaking results of the LRP Study in a VIDEO with Waksman at TCT 2018. 

David Lanfear M.D., FACC, head of advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, discusses LVAD support technologies at the 2018 American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting. Read the article “Device Technologies to Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions.” Watch the VIDEO “Technologies to Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions,” an interview with William Abraham, M.D., The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Additional articles and videos on Henry Ford Hospital 

A discussion with Doreen DeFaria Yeh, M.D., associate director, Massachusetts General Hospital Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program and MGH Cardiovascular Disease and Pregnancy Service, at the 2018 American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting. Yeh explains the differences between men and women for the clinical presentation of heart attacks and other causes for chest pain.  

Related Women's Heart Health Content:

Diagnostic Differences in Women’s Heart Health

VIDEO: Differences in Cardiac Complications and Presentation Between Men and Women — Interview with Cindy Grines, M.D.

DAIC's Women's Cardiovascular Health Channel

VIDEO: How to Build a Successful Women’s Heart Center — Interview with Malissa Wood, M.D.

VIDEO: Creating a Cardio-Obstetrics Team — Doreen DeFaria Yeh, M.D.

A discussion with Hitinder Gurm, M.D., MBBS, FACC, professor, internal medicine, and associate chief clinical officer, University of Michigan Health System, at the 2018 American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting.  For more information, read the article "Understanding Contrast-Induced Nephropathy." He discusses various strategies to help reduce iodine contrast use in the cath lab to better protect patients from CIN.

Related CIN Content:

Sliding Scale Hydration Washes Out Contrast-Induced Kidney Complications

Contrast-Induced Kidney Injury Prevented With RenalGuard in REMEDIAL III Trial

VIDEO: Strategies to Avoid Acute Kidney Injury Caused by Cath Lab Contrast — Interview with Roxana Mehran, M.D.

VIDEO: Combating Contrast Induced Nephropathy in the POSEIDON Trial — Presntation by Sonjot Brar, M.D.

An economic analysis of the DEFINE-FLAIR study comparing FFR vs. iFR, found a cost savings of nearly $900. The late-breaking session was presented at the 2018 American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting by Manesh Patel, M.D., investigator and member of the study steering committee, and chief, division of cardiology, Duke University. Read more about the economic study.

Related FFR vs. iFR Content:

VIDEO on the 2017 results of the DEFINE-FLAIR and SWED-HEART iFR vs. FFR trials

iFR More Cost-Effective Than FFR in PCI Guidance 

Easier to Use iFR Equal to Outcomes of FFR in Coronary Lesion Evaluation

New Technology Directions in Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR)

VIDEO: iFR Equal to FFR Outcomes in Coronary Lesion Evaluation

European Society of Cardiology Incorporates iFR Technology Into Updated Revascularization Guidelines

Sammy Elmariah, M.D., MPH, interventional structural heart disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the progression of using transcatheter heart valves to replace surgical valves at ACC.17. See the following related content for other insights into transcatheter aortic valve replacement technology:

• VIDEO: Clinical Outcomes With the Lotus TAVR Valve

• CoreValve TAVR System Shows Strong Long-Term Performance in Clinical Trials

• VIDEO: TAVR For Asymptomatic Severe Aortic Stenosis

• VIDEO: Conscious Sedation for TAVR Procedures

• VIDEO: Transcaval Access in TAVR Procedures

The father of transradial artery access, Ferdinand Kiemeneij, M.D., Ph.D., interventional cardiologist, The Netherlands, explains how and why he first implemented the use of radial access and explains how the technique expanded beyond his cath lab to spread around the world. Read the article "Transradial Access Celebrates 25 Years". Watch the VIDEO "New Frontiers in Radial Access."

Keep up to date on radial access news with DAIC's radial access channel. 

American Heart Association (AHA) released a scientific statement Feb. 1, 2018, linking breast cancer and cardiovascular disease. Laxmi Mehta, M.D., author of the scientific statement and director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Program at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, discusses a case from her center as an example of how the subspecialty of cardio-oncology is helping patients.

Read the article “AHA Puts New Focus on Where Heart Disease and Breast Cancer Treatment Meet.”

Watch the "VIDEO: Assessing Cardiotoxicity Response With Cardio-Oncology Echo Imaging."