Vein Stenting Trial and Interventional MRI Suite Headline SIR 2026 in Toronto

A randomized trial of stenting for a long-term complication of deep vein thrombosis and the launch of an MRI-guided procedure suite were among the main items at the Society of Interventional Radiology's (SIR) 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting, which runs April 11 to 15 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

C-TRACT results presented

The C-TRACT trial (Chronic Venous Thrombosis: Relief with Adjunctive Catheter-Directed Therapy) was presented at the meeting on April 13 and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, according to SIR. The society said the trial received its primary support from the National Institutes of Health, with additional support from the SIR Foundation, and was co-led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. SIR described the presentation as the first public release of the results.

The randomized, multicenter trial enrolled 225 patients with moderate to severe post-thrombotic syndrome at 29 institutions, SIR said. One group received blood thinners and compression treatment plus placement of stents in blocked veins that drain blood from the leg; the control group received blood thinners and compression without stenting.

According to SIR, patients in the stent arm showed significantly greater improvement in post-thrombotic syndrome severity than those in the control arm, along with improvement in self-reported quality of life through six months. At the start, 93% of patients had disease classified as severe on the Venous Clinical Severity Score; at six months, 40% of patients in the stent arm did, the society said.

"This study suggests that even severe PTS is, in fact, a treatable condition in many patients," said Suresh Vedantham, the study's principal investigator and a professor of radiology at WashU Medicine Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, in the SIR release. SIR said about 600,000 Americans experience a deep vein thrombosis each year and that approximately 40% of them will develop post-thrombotic syndrome.

An MRI suite built for procedures

On the exhibit floor, Cook Medical and Siemens Healthineers unveiled an integrated interventional MRI (iMRI) suite. The companies said it combines MR imaging, MR-conditional interventional devices, suite planning guidance and clinical education to help hospitals adopt MRI-guided procedures without ionizing radiation. Cook's devices are designed to work with the Magnetom Free.XL MRI system from Siemens Healthineers, according to the release.

The companies said the suite will use SIR's VIRTEX clinical data registry and analytics platform to capture data and help develop evidence-based protocols. They named Indiana University as an iMRI Center of Excellence in the US and said possible uses include biopsy and ablation in the liver, kidney and prostate, as well as some oncology and pediatric applications.

"MRI offers unique advantages for image-guided intervention, particularly for procedures involving soft tissue," said Pete Yonkman, president of Cook Medical and Cook Group. Cook said the two companies first joined forces on the suite in September 2025.