Patient-Specific Quantitative In-Vivo Assessment of Human Mitral Valve Leaflet Strain Before and After MitraClip Repair.

Purpose: Mitral regurgitation (MR) is a highly prevalent and deadly cardiac disease characterized by improper mitral valve (MV) leaflet coaptation. Among the plethora of available treatment strategies, the MitraClip is an especially safe option, but optimizing its long-term efficacy remains an urgent challenge.

Methods: We applied our noninvasive image-based strain computation pipeline [1] to intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography datasets taken from ten patients undergoing MitraClip repair, spanning a range of MR etiologies and MitraClip configurations.

The Market Reacts Quickly: Changes in Paclitaxel Vascular Device Purchasing Within the Ascension Healthcare System.

Background: A meta-analysis of trials in endovascular therapy suggested an increased mortality associated with treatment exposure to paclitaxel. Multiple publications and corrections of prior data were performed, and the United States Food and Drug Administration has issued multiple advisories regarding paclitaxel use. We analyzed how this controversy impacted device purchasing and related utilization patterns in the period immediately following publication of the meta-analysis.