Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH expressing his opinion on the impacts of air quality on CV health.

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Electrophysiology

Kardium’s Quarter Billion Dollar PFA Raise

Developing the best pulsed field ablation system in the world isn’t cheap, and Kardium’s new $250M financing round signals that the company now has enough funding to pursue that mission to its fullest.

• Kardium is the developer of the Globe Pulsed Field System which uses an innovative design to provide ablation for atrial fibrillation.
• The Globe System consists of a 122-electrode array catheter and software that enables rapid pulmonary vein isolation, high-definition mapping, and ablation anywhere in the atrium all with the same catheter.
• The company had previously raised $220M over five funding rounds, so the new investments more than double its total raised in just one go (Now $470M).

The fresh funding round follows impressive clinical data from Kardium’s PULSAR study presented at HRS 2025 that demonstrated the Globe System’s effectiveness and safety.

• The Globe System had a 100% acute procedural success rate.
• 78% of paroxysmal AF patients were free from atrial arrhythmia at 1 year.
• The procedure only took 96 minutes on average, with ablation lasting 25.5 minutes.
• On top of that, the study showed no device-related primary safety events.

Kardium now aims to use the funding to fully build out its regulatory approval process and  commercialization infrastructure.

• The company will establish a clinical support and commercial team while expanding its manufacturing facilities in preparation for the Globe System’s launch later this year.
• It will also enable Kardium to run further clinical research for additional applications and expanded indications for its PFA platform.

Considering the hype around PFA, Kardium’s newfound financial base will help support its competition with industry giants that already have regulatory approval like…

• Medtronic’s PulseSelect system (CE mark and U.S. FDA approval).
• Boston Scientific’s Farapulse system (CE mark and U.S. FDA approval).
• Johnson & Johnson MedTech’s Varipulse platform (CE mark and U.S. FDA approval).
• Abbott’s Volt Pulsed Field Ablation System (CE Mark approval).

The Takeaway

It’s rare to see an independent medtech company perform so well in the early stages of product development, so Kardium’s trial results and funding success speak volumes to investor confidence. How Kardium will perform in a crowded market remains to be seen, but early data and investor funding both suggest a lot of potential on the horizon.

5,600 Ways to Improve Your Cardiac Ultrasound Workflow

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Explore Vitrea Advanced Visualization

Discover Canon Medical Healthcare IT’s suite of advanced imaging workflows designed to increase efficiency in cardiovascular imaging, and facilitate the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. These cutting-edge tools support the delivery of faster, more accurate care while integrating seamlessly into clinical workflow

Cracking the Code of ECG Analysis with Monebo’s AI Genetic Algorithm

How do you teach a computer to recognize the complex patterns in an ECG signal? Discover how Monebo found the answer by blending human expertise and a little evolutionary magic in this article that breaks down the advantages of genetic algorithms in ECG analysis.

The Wire

• T2D’s Arrhythmia Link: iRhythm released two large-scale real-world studies of over 30M U.S. adults, finding that cardiac arrhythmias are common and occur early in T2D patients, especially those with chronic kidney disease. Among 8.8M T2D patients studied, over 1.1M developed major arrhythmias, with 47% occurring after diabetes diagnosis (median 496 days). In T2D+CKD patients, 21% developed arrhythmias, often before serious cardiovascular events. These findings suggest arrhythmias are early complications requiring proactive screening rather than treating late-stage symptoms.

• Ablation or AAD for AFib? Catheter ablation (CA) could be more effective than lifestyle modification plus antiarrhythmic drugs (LFM+AAD) for patients with atrial fibrillation and obesity. After 12 months of surveillance, a JACC study found that CA achieved superior AFib freedom rates (73.0% vs 34.6%) even though the LFM+AAD group showed significant metabolic improvements including greater weight loss (-6.4kg vs -0.35kg) and reduced HbA1c. Researchers suggest a combo of both could help support the best long-term outcomes.

• egnite’s New Research Suite: egnite launched the CardioCare Research Suite, an AI-driven platform designed to improve patient identification for cardiovascular clinical trials. The system utilizes AI to analyze hospital data and is currently supporting ten major trials. Early integrations of the CardioCare suite have shown a significant impact, with over 50% of identified patients previously unseen by specialists, 25-50% of consents sourced through the platform, and substantially less coordinator workload.

• EVOQUE Works, With a Catch: A real-world study confirmed Edwards’ EVOQUE transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement system is effective for treating severe tricuspid regurgitation, but comes with a significant risk of pacemaker implantation. At the study’s 30-day follow-up, 98.4% of patients achieved significant TR reduction, with marked improvements in functional class (79.7% vs. 20.2% in class I-II) and kidney/liver function. However, 18.9% required permanent pacemakers, particularly those with baseline conduction issues.

• The Unicorn BABICORN: The BABICORN procedure was successfully performed for the first time in an 85-year-old woman undergoing valve-in-valve TAVR with high coronary obstruction risk. The procedure combined electrosurgical traversal and laceration of both aortic valve leaflets, followed by balloon modification and valve deployment. Applying the technique successfully preserved coronary flow in both of the patient’s arteries and demonstrated the possibility of double leaflet modification before self-expanding valve implantation.

• No Difference in Surgery or FT: According to a recent RCT, there’s no clear winner when it comes to urgent surgery versus fibrinolytic therapy for treating symptomatic left-sided prosthetic valve thrombosis. The study examined 79 patients with symptomatic left-sided prosthetic valve thrombosis over 6 years and found that primary efficacy outcomes were similar between both groups. However, surgery had significantly more safety complications including more deaths (7 vs. 1), while 25% of FT patients had residual valve dysfunction.

• Intraosseous vs. Intravenous: A JAMA analysis of over 700 cardiac arrest cases revealed no survival difference between intraosseous and intravenous epinephrine administration routes. Using propensity score weighting methodology, researchers found identical hospital discharge survival rates of approximately 5.3-5.7% regardless of delivery method. As a result, emergency medical services can confidently use either route based on clinical circumstances and provider expertise, allowing for flexibility in resuscitation protocols.

• The Cardiologist’s Diet: A Columbia University cardiologist developed the “work diet” after discovering unexpected 8-pound weight gain. His approach involves eating nutritiously during weekday work hours, combining breakfast and lunch through intermittent fasting, and consuming protein-rich snacks at 11 a.m. He avoids office treats, reasoning that indulgent foods provide minimal satisfaction during stressful work periods. The best part? His diet allows for flexible eating at dinners and on weekends while emphasizing Mediterranean diet principles.

• Eko’s CMS Success: Notching a financial victory, Eko Health’s SENSORA platform is now included in Medicare’s reimbursement framework at $128.90 per use under a Category III CPT code (APC 5734). The FDA-cleared platform integrates with Eko’s digital stethoscopes to provide real-time analysis of structural murmurs, low ejection fraction, and atrial fibrillation during routine examinations. Clinical validation studies demonstrated 85% sensitivity for HF detection and doubled sensitivity for structural murmur identification compared to standard auscultation.

• Hordaland Hypertension Study: The Hordaland Health Study revealed striking sex differences in cardiovascular outcomes when it comes to patients with long-term hypertension. The study followed 2k patients for 27 years and found that women with elevated blood pressure at age 42 showed significantly increased odds of arterial stiffness later in life (RR: 4.62). On the other hand, men demonstrated no such association despite higher baseline hypertension rates. These findings emphasize the critical importance of aggressive blood pressure management in midlife women.

• PPIs May Increase Hypertension: A comprehensive analysis of menopausal women from the Women’s Health Initiative reveals significant cardiovascular implications for proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy. The study followed 64k women and demonstrated that PPI use increases hypertension risk by 17% compared to non-users, with duration-dependent escalation reaching 28% for prolonged use exceeding three years. A possible mechanism for the increased risk is that PPIs may impair nitric oxide production by suppressing gastric acid conversion of dietary nitrites.

Your Cardiology Data is Valuable. Put it To Work.

See how one major Midwest health system’s decision to implement Merge Cardio transformed physician and staff workflows, improved data entry speed and accuracy, and increased cost savings.

Identify and Treat Cardiovascular Disease

Complex care pathways make getting patients to the next step a challenge. See how Tempus Next, an AI enabled care pathway platform, helps providers identify and reduce under treatment in cardiovascular disease by adding an intelligent layer onto their routinely generated EHR data.

Revolutionize Your Cardiac CT Workflow — See It LIVE at SCCT 2025!

Be among the first to experience next-gen CV imaging at Booth #315 during SCCT 2025. Sign up now to find out how Circle CVI’s software enables lightning-fast LAAC, TAVR, and TMVR workflows while providing more accurate heart function insights, and clinician-controlled plaque quantification.

The Resource Wire

• Heartflow Roadmap Analysis For Efficient Care: As Coronary CT scan volumes increase, your entire reading team needs to deliver efficient and consistent reads. Good thing Heartflow’s Roadmap Analysis can help you maintain accuracy and increase CCTA read speeds by up to 25%, with even level 3 readers seeing real efficiency benefits.

• Relieving The Burden of Post-Processing: With the advent of advanced imaging technologies like CCTA come added burdens to technologists and diagnostic imaging centers. See how PIA can relieve the burden of post-processing, saving you time while helping your bottom line.

• Echo Automation’s Big Impact: Improving clinician efficiency and quality is the goal for most AI solutions, but we rarely see AI achieve both. See how Juntendo University’s Dr. Nobuyuki Kagiyama achieved both of those goals, while reducing sonographer fatigue in the process.

• Automate Your Echo Reporting: It’s a good feeling when your echo report is already 83% complete before you even sit down to work on it. See how Centricity Cardio Enterprise’s echo automation features make this “good feeling” an everyday occurrence in this quick GE HealthCare demo video.

• LVAD Therapy Receives 1A Recommendation for Inotrope-Dependent Patients: The U.S. joint societies of the AHA/ACC/HFSA have given LVAD therapy a 1A Recommendation for heart failure patients dependent on intravenous inotropes or who cannot be weaned from temporary mechanical circulatory support. As both the strongest class of recommendation and highest level of evidence, a 1A Recommendation indicates LVAD therapy is supported by strong data and the benefits far outweigh the risks.

• The Hidden Costs of Delaying Cardiac MRI Adoption: Despite being the gold standard for functional cardiac imaging, many hospitals remain slow to adopt it. From missed revenue to lost patients, the impact goes far beyond the scan. Read about the real clinical and financial risks of falling behind.

• A Better Way to Coordinate Post-Stroke Care: Think your EHR messaging system might be holding back your post-stroke care? See how UC San Diego Medical Center streamlined its neuro and EP teams’ post-stroke workflow with Viz Connect, and the impact it had on cardiac monitor placements in inpatient and outpatient settings.

• Discover Innovation in Intervention: Explore how the AGENT™ Drug-Coated Balloon from Boston Scientific is advancing U.S.-based treatment options for patients with coronary artery disease. Rx Only. (Sponsored by Boston Scientific)

The Industry Wire

1. Certain hormone therapies could increase breast cancer risk.
2. There might be no safe amount of processed meat to eat.
3. Could cheese and milk be to blame for bad dreams?
4. Senate passes reconciliation bill in 51-50 vote.
5. CMS sued over Trump administration’s ACA final rule.
6. Astrana Health closes $708M acquisition of Prospect Health.
7. Pennant extends reach in California with home health deal.
8. HHS wants to give CMS 340B oversight.
9. Centene pulls guidance amid ACA risk-adjustment.
10. Air pollution linked to lung cancer-driving DNA mutations.