EuroPCR In Brief

MitraClip: Abbott's transcatheter mitral valve repair device kept well within the non-inferiority margin compared to surgery on the composite endpoint of freedom from death, from follow-up mitral valve surgery and from greater-than-mild mitral regurgitation after two years of follow-up, EVEREST II trial investigator Ted Feldman, M.D., NorthShore University Health System, reported May 25 at the EuroPCR conference in Paris. And in a one-year subgroup analysis, there was no statistical difference in safety and similar efficacy outcome in MitraClip patients with either functional or degenerative mitral regurgitation, he said. MitraClip attracted significant attention in March when Feldman reported it has met its one-year non-inferiority efficacy endpoint and 30-day superiority safety endpoint versus open surgery at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting (1"The Gray Sheet" March 22, 2010). The EuroPCR MR subgroup analysis is particularly important, said Michael Weinstein, a J.P. Morgan analyst, because it "suggests that Abbott will be able to target the entire [MR] market, significantly increasing the potential opportunity.