March 10, 2011 – Five Methodist Healthcare facilities in San Antonio, Texas, are now using a chest pain management solution to make pre-hospital and emergent electrocardiographs (ECGs) immediately available to cardiologists. The HealthView Chest Pain Management system, from Lumedx, also allows cardiologists to interpret, review and immediately compare them with previous ECGs.

March 10, 2011 – A newly introduced catheter provides a superior answer for percutaneous fluid aspirations and small volume drainage procedures. The Drainer centesis catheter, from Vascular Solutions features large sideholes designed to prevent clogging and provide faster, more reliable drainage.

March 8, 2011 – A new endoscopic vessel harvesting (EVH) has been launched in the United States. The Vasoview 6 Pro, by Maquet Cardiovascular, offers streamlined controls, improved functionality and simplified operation to support positive outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.

Physio-Control has acquired Swedish-based Jolife AB, the developer and manufacturer the automated Lucas Chest Compression System.

Prior to the acquisition, Physio-Control had been the exclusive distribution partner for the Lucas device since 2004. The terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.

Circadian rhythms affect the incidence of coronary stent thrombosis, with more events occurring during the early morning hours, according to new research published in the February 2011 issue of JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.


March 8, 2011 – The expansion of a cloud computing system has been announced at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) in Vienna. TeraRecon is opening a European datacenter for its iNtuition Cloud. This European node will be automatically selected when users access their iNtuition Cloud account from a location closer, in network terms, to the new datacenter, ensuring optimal performance.

March 8, 2011 – Nile Therapeutics is pursuing a new indication for cenderitide, formerly CD-NP. The company is looking to develop the drug as an outpatient therapy to be delivered to acutely decompensated heart failure (ADHF) patients continuously for up to 90 days after discharge from the hospital.

March 8, 2011 – A third-generation bare-metal stent system has received the CE Mark in Europe. Boston Scientific’s Omega platinum chromium coronary stent system is intended to provide interventional cardiologists with improved acute performance in treating patients with coronary artery disease.

March 8, 2011 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced monthly liver enzyme tests are no longer required for those taking Letairis tablets (ambrisentan), made by Gilead Sciences. Ambrisentan is used to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

March 7, 2011 – Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has granted an exclusive license to Santaris Pharma A/S for intellectual property related to the regulation of microRNA for the treatment of cardiovascular disorders.

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