October 5, 2010 – Data from a prospective study show physicians may benefit from knowing complication rates associated with pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) generator replacement and upgrade procedures. Results from the REPLACE Registry also established new benchmarks for making electrophysiology (EP) device replacement decisions.

October 5, 2010 – Rapid electronic review of children’s heart images by remote specialists can allow for earlier diagnosis and treatment of potentially serious pediatric heart problems. A new study by researchers from Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics found that telemedicine can help children who are far from a specialized medical center.

October 5, 2010 – After a period of capital budget cuts and freezes, hospitals are seeing a thaw in capital expenditures, according to a survey published in the Premier healthcare alliance’s September 2010 Economic Outlook analysis.

October 5, 2010 – A U.S. clinical study evaluating the CrossBoss and Stingray catheters in treating chronically occluded coronary arteries concluded in August and Bridgepoint Medical has asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand the indication for the devices.

October 4, 2010 – Germany will reimburse patients who have a left atrial appendage closure procedure in 2011. The 2011 G-DRG (German Diagnosis Related Group) catalog, recently published on the InEK website, adds the left atrial appendage closure procedure to an existing G-DRG code.

October 4, 2010 - Johnson and Johnson has completed the acquisition of Micrus Endovascular, a developer and manufacturer of minimally invasive devices for hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke. The agreement was first announced on July 12, 2010.

October 4, 2010 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee voted 9 to 0 in favor of approving dabigatran etexilate for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib). An estimated 2.3 million Americans have AFib, and that number is expected to more than double by 2050.

October 4, 2010 – Long-term data from a clinical trial studying the benefits of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy have been published in Circulation.

October 1, 2010 – The Bradenton Cardiology Center is the first clinic in the United States to implant a peripheral self-expanding stent as part of the OSPREY study. The trial, which is evaluating the safety and efficacy of Terumo’s Misago stent system in the superficial femoral artery (SFA), will simultaneously enroll patients in the United States and Japan.

October 1, 2010 – A new Medicare-reimbursable stress test module has been launched that can assess the risk of sudden cardiac arrest. The Microvolt T-Wave Alternans (MWTA) module, by Cardiac Science, integrates with the company’s Quinton Q-Stress cardiac stress systems.

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