The vast majority of patients who had a successful result with the percutaneous MitraClip device did not need mitral valve surgery three years after their procedure, and many benefited from significantly improved function of the left ventricle (commonly known as reverse remodeling), according to data presented this week at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s (CRF) nineteenth annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) symposium in Washington, D.C.

Researchers at TCT 2007, the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), will present new studies evaluating a rapidly advancing field within interventional cardiology: percutaneous procedures to repair and replace defective heart valves.

Infants and children receiving artificial heart-valve replacements face several repeat operations as they grow, since the replacements become too small and must be traded for bigger ones. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have now developed a solution: living, growing valves created in the lab from a patient's own cells.

Mayo Clinic researchers discovered it is safe - and much more convenient and less costly -- for many patients to undergo coronary angiography and elective valve surgery on the same day, it is reported in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.