Philips Healthcare recently installed an Allura Xper FD 20/20 biplane angiography X-ray system at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, with a National Basketball Association (NBA) theme to put children at ease prior to and during interventional radiology procedures.

April 12, 2012 - Edwards Lifesciences Corp. said a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel will review the company's request to expand the indication for the Sapien transcatheter aortic valve to high-risk surgical patients. The premarket approval (PMA) application is set to be reviewed June 13, 2012. Edwards submitted a PMA application in April 2011 based on data from the high-risk cohort (Cohort A) of the PARTNER Trial, for approval of this therapy in the treatment of patients with severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis who are at high risk for surgery.

April 12, 2012 — The Maryland General Assembly set a high bar for the nation and showed its commitment to patients by passing legislation establishing an independent review of the placement of stents in heart patients to ensure consistency with guidelines developed by the American College of Cardiology and other organizations, the Maryland Chapter of the American College of Cardiology said.

Accustomed to paper-based workflow processes and legacy single-modality solutions, most cardiology departments lag several years behind radiology in their adoption of cardiovascular image and information management systems (CIIMS). After providers have met the requirements for the first stages of meaningful use through their electronic medical record (EMR) implementation, the CIIMS market will likely start to benefit from IT stimulus funding starting in 2014.

April 11, 2012 - The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a proposed rule that would delay, from Oct. 1, 2013 to Oct. 1, 2014, the compliance date for the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition diagnosis and procedure codes (ICD-10).

April 9, 2012 — Thoratec and the U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) announced a recent Class 1 recall of the HeartMate II left ventricular assist device (LVAD) because detachment of the bend relief from its intended position around the proximal outflow graft may allow the graft to kink or deform, resulting in reduction of blood flow. The kink also may cause pump/graft thrombosis or perforation of the outflow graft. Additionally, the metal end of the bend relief may be sharp and cause erosion and cutting of the outflow graft.

April 6, 2012 — Crux Biomedical announced that a recently completed pivotal trial of its Crux Vena Cava Filter (VCF) System with bi-directional retrieval was presented at the 2012 Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) Annual Scientific Meeting, March 24-29, in San Francisco. Vena cava filters are designed to trap blood clots that can lead to potentially fatal pulmonary embolisms (PE) among patients at risk. In the study, deployment and retrieval each were achieved with a 98 percent success rate.