This year's Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference drew nearly 12,000 participants from around the world to its annual meeting in Washington, DC. Now in its 17th year, TCT is the world's largest educational event for specialists in interventional vascular medicine. Sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (New York City), the meeting places an emphasis on evidence-based medicine and has become a major forum for important clinical trial presentations in interventional medicine.

Toshiba America Medical Systems (Tustin, CA) exhibited the Aquilion CFX CT scanner for cardiac imaging at TCT 2005.

TCT 2005 featured more than 60 hours of live case studies from 27 U.S. and international centers. Presentation topics included head-to-head comparisons of drug-eluting coronary stents, the safety and efficacy of distal protection devices, comparative studies of stenting versus endarterectomy for carotid stenosis, and procedures for treating abdominal aortic aneurysms.

A TCT 2005 clinical presentation reported the efficacy of the AB5000 circulatory support heart assist device from Abiomed Inc. (Danvers, MA) for improving recovery from cardiogenic shock following a heart attack.