March/April 2009

Digital Edition
Wound Dressing Complements Invasive Vessel Closure
The SafeSeal Hemostasis Patch topical wound dressing is designed to decrease the time it takes to control bleeding from the puncture made into a blood vessel to perform an endovascular procedure.
StarClose SE Vascular Closure System Offers Ergonomic Design
Abbott's StarClose SE Vascular Closure System, a next-generation vessel closure device, is engineered to enable fast and secure closure of the femoral artery access site following a catheterization procedure.
FemoStop Femoral Compression Systems Now Feature Integrated Manometer
RADI Medical Systems Inc. offers its line of FemoStop Femoral Compression Systems that are now sold with an integrated manometer, along with the FemoStop arch, dome, belt and hemostatic dressing. Formerly, the FemoStop manometer was attached and transferred from patient to patient.
St. Jude Medical Announces U.S., European Approval of Vascular Closure Device
October 14, 2008 - St. Jude Medical Inc. said today at TCT 2008 that the FDA and European CE Mark approval of the Angio-Seal Evolution Vascular Closure Device.
CT Software Enables Dose Lowering by 70 Percent
December 30, 2008 - Sapheneia, a global, ISO-certified imaging services company specializing in diagnostic and analytical image processing solutions, signed an agreement with Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, allowing Karolinska University Hospital to use and evaluate the Sapheneia Clarity CT Solution to lower radiation dose exposure to patients during diagnostic image studies.
FDA Grants Marketing Approval to NaviStar ThermoCool Catheter for Atrial Fibrillation
February 6, 2009 - Biosense Webster Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, today said the FDA granted market approval to the NaviStar ThermoCool Catheter for the treatment of drug refractory recurrent symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, when used with compatible 3D electroanatomic mapping systems.
Vascular Solutions Offers Minnie Support Catheter
Vascular Solutions’ Minnie support catheter is designed to provide superior guidewire support and exchange for complex interventions, with versions designed for use with 0.014-inch, 0.018-inch and 0.035-inch guidewires.
ScImage Features New Reporting Module for Echocardiography
ScImage's reporting module PICOM Structured Reportware (PicomSR) for echocardiography combines structured reporting elements along with voice recognition, delivering a pre-populated report that the technician can start by importing elements such as procedure descriptions, indications, measurements, observations during procedure and simple findings from the modality.
Strategies, New Technologies Aid Lead Management
Management of implanted leads for pacemakers and defibrillators is a growing concern among physicians with more than 2 million Americans relying on a pacemaker or defibrillator to regulate their heart beat and that number growing each year. The lead is the most vulnerable part of an implantable device and the most common component to fail.
Remote Monitoring Helps Clinicians Deliver More Efficient Care
With the healthcare industry striving for greater efficiency at virtually every level, it shouldn’t be a surprise that hospitals and clinics are increasingly turning to manage patients with implantable cardiac devices remotely, including implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillators (CRT-Ds) and pacemakers.
New Transcatheter Tools Change How Structural Heart Issues Are Treated
The dividing line between the jobs performed by cardiac surgeons and interventionalists will become increasing blurred in the near future as transcatheter heart valves and PFO occluders replace open-heart surgery. These nonsurgical structural heart treatment techniques were among some of the most exciting trends at TCT 2008, which was highlighted by nearly 40 sessions on these subjects.
Telecardiology Growth Mainly in Infant Congenital Heart Disease
Congenital heart disease contributes to more than 30 percent of infant mortality in the U.S., so time is essential in diagnosing and treating these conditions in newborns. However, most hospitals do not have pediatric cardiac specialists on staff who can diagnose and suggest courses of treatment, which is why telecardiology has bloomed in this field.
The Washington Hospital Upgrades Heart and Vascular Center
The Washington Hospital, an acute care facility serving primarily an elderly patient population, performs approximately 4,300 cardiac and vascular procedures annually. Due to a recent expansion, The Washington Hospital’s Heart and Vascular Center needed to upgrade its equipment and its critical information systems.
Planning is Key to Reducing Door-to-Balloon Time
Door-to-balloon time can be used as a quality measure for hospitals in their level of excellence in caring for patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). It can also be used as a conceptual framework for thinking about quality improvement, differences between outcomes-focused and process-focused quality programs.
GE Helps Build a Data Driven EP Program at John Muir Health
The Cardiac Rhythm Center at John Muir Health in the San Francisco Bay area of California performs electrophysiology (EP) procedures on a system that integrates diagnostic and therapeutic devices, workstations, data repositories and reporting functions.