Ventricular pressure–volume (PV) analysis is the reference method for the study of cardiac mechanics. Advances in calibration algorithms and measuring techniques brought new perspectives for its application in different research and clinical settings. Simultaneous PV measurement in the heart chambers offers unique insights into mechanical cardiac efficiency. Beat to beat invasive PV monitoring can be instrumental in the understanding and management of heart failure, valvular heart disease, and mechanical cardiac support. This review focuses on intra cardiac left ventricular PV analysis principles, interpretation of signals, and potential clinical applications.

The clinical implications of hypertension in addition to a high prevalence of both uncontrolled blood pressure and medication nonadherence promote interest in developing device-based approaches to hypertension treatment. The expansion of device-based therapies and ongoing clinical trials underscores the need for consistency in trial design, conduct, and definitions of clinical study elements to permit trial comparability and data poolability. Standardizing methods of blood pressure assessment, effectiveness measures beyond blood pressure alone, and safety outcomes are paramount. The Hypertension Academic Research Consortium (HARC) document represents an integration of evolving evidence and consensus opinion among leading experts in cardiovascular medicine and hypertension research with regulatory perspectives on clinical trial design and methodology. The HARC document integrates the collective information among device-based therapies for hypertension to better address existing challenges and identify unmet needs for technologies proposed to treat the world’s leading cause of death and disability. Consistent with the Academic Research Consortium charter, this document proposes pragmatic consensus clinical design principles and outcomes definitions for studies aimed at evaluating device-based hypertension therapies.

Calcified lesions often mean percutaneous intervention results are suboptimal and increase the risk of procedural complications and future adverse events. Available plaque-modifying devices rely on tissue compression or debulking, with the intention of fracturing calcium and facilitating optimal stent deployment. In contrast, coronary intravascular lithotripsy delivers unfocused, circumferential, pulsatile mechanical energy to safely disrupt the calcium within the target lesion. The present review summarises the evidence available so far on this therapy and includes a practical description of the components and function of the Shockwave Intravascular Lithotripsy System (Shockwave Medical).

Post-percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) fractional flow reserve (FFR) <0.90 is common and has been related to impaired patient outcome. The authors sought to evaluate if PCI optimization directed by intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in patients with post-PCI FFR <0.90 could improve 1-year target vessel failure (TVF) rates. In this single-center, randomized, double-blind trial, patients with a post-PCI FFR <0.90 at the time of angiographically successful PCI were randomized to IVUS-guided optimization or the standard of care (control arm). The primary endpoint was TVF (a composite of cardiac death, spontaneous target vessel myocardial infarction, and clinically driven target vessel revascularization) at 1 year. A total of 291 patients with post-PCI FFR <0.90 were randomized (IVUS-guided optimization arm: n = 145/152 vessels, control arm: n = 146/157 vessels). The mean post-PCI FFR was 0.84 ± 0.05. A total of 104 (68.4%) vessels in the IVUS-guided optimization arm underwent additional optimization including additional stenting (34.9%) or postdilatation only (33.6%), resulting in a mean increase in post-PCI FFR in these vessels from 0.82 ± 0.06 to 0.85 ± 0.05 (P < 0.001) and a post-PCI FFR ≥0.90 in 20% of the vessels. The 1-year TVF rate was comparable between the 2 study arms (IVUS-guided optimization arm: 4.2%, control arm: 4.8%; P = 0.79). There was a trend toward a lower incidence of clinically driven target vessel revascularization in the IVUS-guided optimization arm (0.7% vs. 4.2%, P = 0.06). IVUS-guided post-PCI FFR optimization significantly improved post-PCI FFR. Because of lower-than-expected event rates, post-PCI FFR optimization did not significantly lower TVF at the 1-year follow-up.