TCTMD’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories for October 2024

Almost all of our top 10 stories this month stemmed from TCT 2024, with three early TAVI trials making the list, as well as our coverage of ECLIPSE, PEERLESS, ACURATE IDE, and more. Two stories from the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) 2024 meeting earlier in the month also made the cut: one on an analysis of redo TAVI procedures and another on a worrying link between male surgeons and outcomes for female CABG patients. 

1. EARLY TAVR Breaks New Ground for Preemptive Treatment of Asymptomatic AS

While discussions about the lack of a mortality effect will continue, some say the findings may be enough to change guidelines.

2. ECLIPSE: Orbital Atherectomy No Better Than Balloon Angioplasty in Calcified Lesions

Specialty technologies are still needed for select patients, but balloons can do the job with “meticulous” planning and imaging.

3. Protecting Coronary Access After TAVI: Valve Choice Clues From CAVEAT

Evolut Pro/Pro+ valves had the lowest rate of cannulation, but next-gen devices are poised to overcome access challenges.

4. TAVR UNLOAD: No Rush to Do TAVI in HFrEF Patients With Moderate AS

Select patients with moderate AS may benefit, but in general it’s okay to wait for severe stenosis, the presenter said at TCT 2024.

5. PEERLESS: FlowTriever Tops Catheter-Directed Thrombolysis for Acute PE

The trial adds much-needed randomized data to an area where it’s been lacking. Questions about methods muddy interpretation.

6. ACURATE IDE Trial Misses Primary Endpoint in All-Risk TAVI Patients

The result calls into question the prospects of FDA approval for the Acurate neo2 valve, which is already in use globally.

EACTS 7. TAVI Explant Complications a ‘Big Issue’ as Procedure Numbers Climb

New single-center data should spur surgeons to be active in lifetime management conversations at the outset.

8. Colchicine Surprise: No Help Post-MI, Large CLEAR SYNERGY Trial Shows

The study conflicts with two prior trials showing a benefit and may warrant colchicine’s reconsideration in the guidelines.

9. EVOLVED: Early AVR Fails to Help Asymptomatic AS Patients With Fibrosis

In this underpowered trial, using CMR to guide AVR timing did not nudge the primary endpoint, but did trim AS hospitalizations.

10. EACTS In-Hospital Mortality Higher When Female CABG Patients Have Male Surgeons

The single-center report echoes the findings of larger studies and supports efforts to increase gender diversity among surgeons.

*****

Find more of our coverage of TCT 2024 by visiting our conference page, or by watching our Beyond the Data video interviews, hosted by Mamas Mamas, BMBCh, DPhil (Keele University/Royal Stoke University Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent, England), or tuning into the October edition of the Heart Sounds podcast.