An estimated 3 million individuals in the U.S. live with a condition called atrial fibrillation, or AFib, with some estimates projecting that number being closer to 6 million when taking unknown and undiagnosed cases into account.
An estimated 3 million individuals in the U.S. live with a condition called atrial fibrillation, or AFib, with some estimates projecting that number being closer to 6 million when taking unknown and undiagnosed cases into account.
Findings of a clinical study demonstrated that the use of an antibiotic-eluting envelope placed around a cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) during implantation reduced the incidence of major infections by 40 percent compared implantation without the antibacterial envelop. The study, called the Worldwide Randomized Antibiotic Envelope Infection Prevention Trial (WRAP-IT; NCT02277990), evaluated the safety and efficacy of the Medtronic TYRXTM Absorbable Antibacterial Envelope in adult patients at 181 centers in 25 countries with 776 implanting physicians.
Although relatively rare, there have been several case reports of COVID-19 infection causing acute myocarditis. These patients have required IV inotrope therapy and sometimes short-term veno-arterial ECMO support for bi-ventricular shock. Such was the case with a 64-year-old female patient from San Antonio who was successfully treated at Baylor University Medical Center.
Lipoprotein (a), also known as Lp(a), has been long suspected to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Some studies have estimated that 20% of the Caucasian U.S. population may have increased CVD risk due to elevated plasma Lp(a) levels. However, until recently, a lack of robust assays to measure Lp(a) levels has prevented scientific consensus on the nature of Lp(a)-associated risk.
Findings from REPRISE III (The Repositionable Percutaneous Replacement of Stenotic Aortic Valve through Implantation of Lotus Valve System—Randomized Clinical Evaluation), as published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, present new insights around incidence and proposed predictors of pacemaker implantation and pacemaker dependency after TAVR.