TCT 2010: TAVI Takes Center Stage

In the interventional cardiology community, 2010 could certainly be considered a breakthrough year for percutaneous heart valve devices. At two major US cardiology conferences: the American College of Cardiology in the spring, and most recently, the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics symposium, held in September, impressive results from randomized trials of transcatheter heart valve replacement/repair devices set the venues abuzz and had physicians speculating about possible near-term paradigm shifts in the way heart valve disease will be treated. The big questions now are how long it will take before these devices reach the US market, and exactly how many US patients are likely to be implanted once they are available.