June 14, 2010 – A self-expanding, polymer-free, drug-eluting peripheral stent has been submitted for premarket approval (PMA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Cook Medical submitted the PMA for its Zilver PTX Drug-Eluting stent, which is intended for use in the superficial femoral artery (SFA).
June 14, 2010 – A new Internet, cloud-based, 3-D advanced visualization and decision support system aids physicians in endovascular case planning, The software was released this week at the Society for Vascular Surgery’s 2010 Vascular Annual Meeting in Boston.
June 14, 2010 – Common cardiac imaging techniques, images and videos of echocardiography are available using an interactive learning and reference iPhone application. Modality Inc. released its Echocardiography Atlas application during the American Society of Echocardiography 21st Annual Scientific Sessions, June 13-15 in San Diego.
June 11, 2010 - Web-based advanced visualization tools are no longer limited by remote access and today provide solutions as robust as their workstation-based counterparts.
June 11, 2010 – Heart attacks declined by 24 percent within a large, ethnically diverse, community-based population since 2000. The relative incidence of serious heart attacks that do permanent damage also declined 62 percent, according to a Kaiser Permanente Division of Research study in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
June 11, 2010 – A new drug-eluting stent (DES) was launched this week in the European Union and other CE mark countries. The Taxus Element Paclitaxel-Eluting Coronary Stent System is Boston Scientific’s third-generation DES technology and incorporates a platinum chromium alloy with a new stent design and catheter delivery system.
June 11, 2010 – A multicenter, randomized trial planned in the United States will compare laser ablation followed by adjunctive balloon angioplasty as compared to balloon angioplasty alone in treating to treat in-stent restenosis (ISR) in arteries above the knee. There is no device currently cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat ISR.
June 10, 2010 – There is currently no proven therapy to reduce infarct volume, but a pilot study demonstrated use of mild hypothermia (below 35 C) in ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients prior to performing an angioplasty may help. Results showed a 38 percent preservation of heart tissue as compared to angioplasty alone. The study was presented last week at EuroPCR.
June 10, 2010 – The single-use EZ Steer bi-directional catheters are now cleared for reprocessing through Ascent. The reprocessing of this device enables electrophysiology (EP) labs to save money and reduce waste, saving up to 50 percent of the cost of the original device while diverting single-use devices from landfills.
