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TCT to feature pharmacology in PCI, valvular interventions and more
SAN FRANCISCO — The Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics Scientific Symposium, to be held here from Wednesday to Sunday, will feature a vast array of scientific data related to interventional cardiology, the meeting’s course directors said during a press conference.
The meeting will include nearly 200 sessions, more than 1,000 lectures and approximately 40 live cases, and will feature nearly 1,600 faculty from 67 countries, Roxana Mehran, MD, professor of medicine and director of interventional cardiovascular research and clinical trials at the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said during the press conference.
The presentations include 12 late-breaking trials, 16 late-breaking science presentations, 36 high-impact clinical research presentations and nearly 1,000 posters and other oral presentations, she said.
“We are going to be very, very rich in content this year, as we have been in years past,” she said.
New collaboration
A notable initiative of this meeting is a collaboration with VEITHSymposium, whose audience is traditionally vascular surgeons, Ajay J. Kirtane, MD, SM, associate professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, said during the press conference.
“We’ve decided to work together, so a lot of the vascular sessions at TCT and also at VEITHSymposium will be done together,” he said. “This is unique because it is hard for interventional societies to work with surgical societies. This is something we’re proud of.”
Cutting-edge science
The theme of the first day of late-breakers, Thursday, is pharmacotherapy in PCI, highlighted by the TWILIGHT trial, Kirtane said.
“This is a trial looking at abbreviated duration of dual antiplatelet therapy for patients who are either at high bleeding risk or high ischemic risk,” he said. “There has been a lot of emphasis on trying to shorten the duration of dual antiplatelet therapy. This is important to patients because they may be predisposed to bleeding or they may develop bleeding later. This study assesses whether stopping aspirin is safe and effective compared to a standard strategy of continuing aspirin and ticagrelor (Brilinta, AstraZeneca).”
IDEAL LM and ONYX ONE also examine a reduced DAPT strategy, the former in patients with a stent in the left main artery and the latter in patients with a contemporary drug-eluting stent, he said.
The second day of late-breakers, Friday, focuses on patients with valvular heart disease, Mehran said.
One highlight is SCOPE I, “the very first randomized trial looking at two different valve types in patients with severe aortic stenosis,” she said. “We have always had a single valve type against surgery or the standard of care. This one is of two top-notch valves, Acurate Neo (Symetix/Boston Scientific) and Sapien 3 (Edwards Lifesciences). I am very excited to see this.”
Also of note, there will be a CT substudy of PARTNER 3 to examine subclinical leaflet thrombosis in transcatheter and surgical aortic valves, Mehran said.
The theme on the third day of late-breakers, Saturday, is long-term follow-up, Kirtane said, noting that presentations will include 3-year follow-up from the COAPT trial of transcatheter mitral valve repair (MitraClip, Abbott) among patients with HF and functional mitral regurgitation, 5-year follow-up from the PARTNER 2A study of TAVR vs. surgical AVR among patients with severe aortic stenosis and 5-year data from EXCEL, a trial of PCI vs. CABG among patients with complex multivessel disease.
Saturday will also include a substudy from COMPLETE on optimal revascularization timing; the main results, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, “showed a huge benefit of complete revascularization of a patient who comes in an acute MI and multivessel disease, but the big question for all of us is, when should this complete revascularization occur?” Mehran said. “Should it be in-hospital? Should it be 30 days or later on?”
The fourth day of late-breakers, Sunday, will include data on cost and quality of life.
“I am so glad to see that Suzanne Baron, MD, MSc, is going to be showing us the importance of cost savings and health outcomes of patients, both from the COAPT study of mitral valve repair and the TAVR study PARTNER 3,” Mehran said. “TAVR has now been expanded for use in low-risk patients. Is it cost-effective? Does it have an important health status outcome?”– by Erik Swain
Disclosures: Kirtane reports he received institutional research grants from Abbott Vascular, Abiomed, Boston Scientific, Cath Works, Medtronic, Philips, ReCor Medical, Siemens and Spectranetics. Mehran reports she has financial ties with Abbott Vascular, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Boston Scientific, Claret Medical, CSL Behring, Daiichi Sankyo/Eli Lilly, Elixir Medical, Janssen Scientific Affairs, Medscape/WebMD, Medtronic, Novartis, OrbusNeich, Philips/Spectranetics/Volcano, PLx Pharma, Roivant Services, Sanofi Aventis, Siemens Medical Solutions and Watermark Research Partners; she is an unpaid consultant for Regeneron; and her spouse is a consultant for Abiomed and The Medicines Company.