The National Cheng Kung University Heart Science and Medical Devices Research Center (NCKU HSDMRC) and the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA, jointly carried out a cardiac assist device implantation on a calf in October.

AccessClosure Inc. announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied a request by St. Jude Medical Inc. to rehear an appeal on a double patenting ruling concerning its U.S. Patent No. 7,008,439 (the “Janzen ’439 patent"), covering technologies to close holes in arteries.


For patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) who are not experiencing a heart attack and an abnormal stress test, treatment of their narrowed arteries by the common procedure of angioplasty may not provide additional benefits compared to drug therapy alone.


The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized updates to payment policies and payment rates for services furnished under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) on or after Jan. 1, 2014.


The human body begins to adapt to microgravity of low Earth orbit shortly after launch, according to surgeon astronaut Lee Morin, M.D., Ph.D., and astronaut mission specialist, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston. Morin visited the International Space Station in 2002 as part of the STS-110 Atlantis space shuttle crew.

Interventional cardiologists at Mount Sinai Hospital are the first in the world to use a newly U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved device for the treatment of severely calcified coronary arteries before the placement of a cardiac stent to open a blocked artery.

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