Cardiology in review: 2015

In 2015, the SPRINT Research Group showed the advantage of intensively controlling systemic blood pressure. Are the leads of pacemaker going to be their vestigial remnant? - A rapidly advancing technology is showing success with Micra and Nanostim. Similarly, ABSORB III showed favorable results for bioresorbable scaffolds for noncomplex coronary lesions. Once again, the trial of routine aspiration thrombectomy with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) versus PCI alone in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) trial failed to show the benefit of manual thrombus aspiration in acute STEMI. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Class 1 recalled rotawires because wire fracture affected rotablation. Proton pump inhibitors demonstrated reduction in the gastrointestinal bleeding in postmyocardial infarction patients on antithrombotics and concomitant nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs use. The antidotes for newer oral anticoagulants are significant achievements of this year (REVERSE AD, ANNEXA-A, and ANNEXA-R). The FDA approval of proprotein convertase subtilisin-Kexin type 9 drugs for cholesterol lowering is a remarkable development. Selexipag is now approved for treatment of pulmonary hypertension. Different approaches of atrial fibrillation ablation were compared in substrate and trigger ablation for reduction of atrial fibrillation trail part II. High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I assays are a new hope for decision making in suspected acute coronary syndrome