WASHINGTON — The lead-up to the drug-eluting stent (DES) guidance published by FDA earlier this year (Medical Device Daily; March 28, 2008) probably triggered at least a fair amount of anxiety among firms working on new DES products, a fact that was not lost on the organizers of the 2008 edition of Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT 2008). One of the sessions held Wednesday, deemed a hot topic, was titled, "New DES Guidance: Does Preserving Safety Blunt Innovation?" (Medical Device Daily)

WASHINGTON — Bad heart valves are likely to eat up a lot more of the Medicare dollar in times to come, so there is no lack of interest in this area of cardiology among researchers, as was made clear during one of Tuesday's sessions of the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT 2008) conference here. (Medical Device Daily)

WASHINGTON — Just when doctors thought it was safe to go back into the deep waters of the drug-eluting stent (DES) market and leave the shallow end of the stent pool — the part occupied by the bare-metal stent (BMS) — someone with imagination, pluck and a lot of drive makes the shallow end look a lot deeper. (Medical Device Daily)

WASHINGTON — This year's edition of the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference TCT 2008, for short marks the 20th anniversary of the gathering, and the agenda for Sunday's opening day at the Washington Convention Center showed very clearly that the drug-eluting stent (DES) is still a newsmaker despite the slowdown in sales seen over the past two years. (Medical Device Daily)