HRS 2018 Roundup: Device-related blood clots with Boston Scientific ’ s Watchman implant

Data from a study of device-related blood clots and the Watchman cardiac implant made by Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX), presented today at the annual meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society in Boston, indicate the need for aggressive management of patients at risk for device-related thrombosis. There were 74 incidences of DRT in 65 of the 1,739 Watchman patients examined in the study, or 3.7%; eight of those patients had multiple DRTs and two experienced embolic events (0.45%). There was no significant difference in mortality between patients with DRT and those without, according to the study. Lead author Dr. Vivek Reddy, of New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital, told MassDevice.com that the overall incidence of DRT for Watchman in the study was 3.7% using the FDA-approved strategy for anti-coagulation drugs. The surprise, Reddy told us, was the high rate of ischemic stroke in the DRT population. “It’s surprising, not from a patho-physiological conceptual perspective, but it’s surprising because when we looked at this very early in Protect AF, again a small number of the patients in a relatively small follow-up, we did see that the subsequent stroke rate was a little bit higher, but certainly nothing like this,” he said. “We knew it was important, we knew that you had to do surveillance, we knew that if you see it you need to treat it, but we didn’t expect it to be this high. “I think what this tells me, is that one has to be aggressive abo...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Cardiovascular Apple Bardy Diagnostics Boston Scientific Fitbit HRS 2018 Impulse Dynamics Imricor Medical Systems Inc. medicalgorithmics Medtronic Preventice samsung Source Type: news