<p style="margin: 0in 0in 6.0pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; color: black;">The<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.healio.com/cardiac-vascular-intervention/percutaneous-coronary-intervention/news/online/%7B017de4fa-8917-41b8-9768-580603205b00%7D/bivalirudin-patents-upheld-by-federal-court" target="_blank">patents for bivalirudin</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(Angiomax) were upheld by a federal court following a prior ruling that they were invalid. Drugmaker the Medicines Company says it is “now considering all … options with respect to Hos<a name="_GoBack"></a>pira, Mylan, and other generics.”</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6.0pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; color: black;">The<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.meddeviceonline.com/doc/st-jude-medical-continues-physicians-patients-responding-therapies-0001" target="_blank">SyncAV<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></a><a href="http://www.meddeviceonline.com/doc/st-jude-medical-continues-physicians-patients-responding-therapies-0001" target="_blank">software<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></a>won FDA approval for real-time optimization of cardiac resynchronization therapy, coming less than a month after earning Europe’s CE Mark.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6.0pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; color: black;">When compared with carotid endarterectomy, carotid artery stenting was associated with more ipsilateral stroke and death over the long-term in a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early/2016/07/12/STROKEAHA.116.013018.abstract" target="_blank">Swedish registry study</a>.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6.0pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; color: black;">High-risk and inoperable patients had good safety outcomes after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/cardiology/pci/59038" target="_blank">Sapien 3</a>. Transfemoral TAVR had the upper hand for survival.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6.0pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; color: black;">Stenting<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ccd.26634/abstract" target="_blank">coronary bifurcation lesions</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>with bioresorbable vascular scaffolds had “acceptable” rates of 1-year target lesion failure, according to a study. However, the investigators attributed the 2.5% incidence of scaffold thrombosis to “low incidence of intravascular guidance and postdilation resulting in a higher likelihood of scaffold underexpansion and malapposition, further supporting the importance of meticulous implantation technique.”</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6.0pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; color: black;">Inaccurate<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/ehr/researchers-doc-note-accuracy-higher-paper-records-vs-newly-implemented-ehrs" target="_blank">medical documentation</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>was more common in electronic health records than in paper charts, a study suggests. Aortic stenosis and atrial fibrillation were among the diagnoses that were compared.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6.0pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; color: black;">QRS duration was similar in Asian and white patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, a study reported, whereas among those with reduced ejection fraction,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2016/07/11/heartjnl-2015-309212.abstract" target="_blank">Asians had longer QRS</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>duration. “The implications for ethnicity-specific QRS duration cut-offs in clinical decision-making require further study,” the authors concluded.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 6.0pt 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; color: black;">Terumo acquired Sequent Medical and its<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.massdevice.com/terumo-closes-280m-sequent-medical-buyout/" target="_blank">Web aneurysm embolization device</a>. This stent-like nitinol mesh has CE Mark in Europe and is undergoing a trial for FDA approval.</span></p>