May 10, 2010 – A catheter-based procedure is providing relief to patients who suffer from shortness of breath and fluid overload as the result of a severely leaky heart valve, but who are too sick for open-chest surgery. This was the finding of a study presented last week at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 33rd Annual Scientific Sessions.

May 10, 2010 - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) just released a technical correction to the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, which results in payment increases for myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), cardiac computed tomography (CT), and cardiac catheterization codes.


Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) offers a clearer view of transcatheter devices and electrophysiology (EP) procedures from inside the heart.


May 7, 2010 – Findings from the SPIRIT IV trial, one of the largest randomized clinical trials comparing two drug eluting stents with 3,690 U.S.-based patients, were published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine.

May 6, 2010 – Patients who can postpone noncardiac surgery for at least six weeks after receiving a coronary stent are less likely to suffer reduced blood flow to the heart, heart attack and death than those who have surgery sooner. This was the finding of Scottish researchers in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions, an American Heart Association journal.

May 6, 2010 – After entered the Japanese drug-eluting stent market earlier this year, Abbott's Xience V and Boston Scientific's Promus stents picked up share from competitors Medtronic and Cordis, according to the market intelligence firm Millennium Research Group (MRG).

May 5, 2010 - Emergency department use of 256-slice computed tomography angiography (CTA) can help physicians triage patients with indeterminate chest pain without the need for additional diagnostic testing which can be costly and time consuming, according to a study to be presented at the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS) 2010 Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.

May 5, 2010 – A federal jury awarded more than $29.4 million in damages in a patent infringement lawsuit between two interventional cardiology access dressing manufacturers. Marine Polymer Technologies Inc. won its case against HemCon Medical Technologies Inc. April 29 .

May 5, 2010 – Catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia (VT) is one of the fastest growing electrophysiology (EP) procedures, but requires the delivery of robust lesions for clinical success. Stereotaxis Inc. is starting a multicenter clinical study on VT treatment outcomes using its Niobe Magnetic Navigation System.

May 5, 2010 – A new high-definition intravascular imaging system gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance today. LightLab Imaging Inc. said its C7-XR optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system and companion C7 Dragonfly OCT imaging catheter are now available on the U.S. market.

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