April 18, 2007 — Boston Scientific Corp. says the FDA has cleared the new Acuity steerable left ventricular lead device, for use with cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers, both of which treat heart failure.

The product, which the company plans to launch in July, features a deflectable tip for precise placement of the lead even in difficult-to- access branch vessels on the left side of the heart, the company said in a statement.

April 18 — Cordis Corp. and ClearStream Technologies Group, plc, announced today the signing of a definitive distribution agreement whereby Cordis will market ClearStream's most advanced percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) balloon catheters under the brand names SLEEK and SAVVY LONG PTA Balloon Dilation Catheters.

The SLEEK and SAVVY LONG peripheral balloons will be marketed by the Cordis Endovascular division of Cordis Corp. The companies expect the products will be commercially available in countries outside the U.S. starting in the second quarter of 2007.

April 18, 2007 — Associated Press reports that on Tuesday U.S. marshals and FDA investigators began seizing heart valves and other implantable medical devices made from cow and pig tissue by a New Jersey company because of concerns about their sterility.

April 18, 2007 — Telzuit Medical Technologies Inc., Orlando, FL, has announced it has been successful in running its STATPATCH Holter Monitor software on various Windows-Mobile devices. The company is now testing these devices with the "STATPATCH" on human test subjects to ensure that it works for a 24-hour period and receives the data from the patch correctly and consistently.

April 17, 2007 — E-Z-EM Inc. has announced it has received 510(k) clearance from the FDA for its EmpowerMR injector system — the company's first product for the magnetic resonance (MR) imaging market.

EmpowerMR has the same easy-to-use interface and robust safety features as the company's other Empower injector line. EmpowerMR also employs several innovative features designed to cope with the problem of electrical interference in the magnetic field of the MR scanner.

April 17, 2007 — Boston Scientific Corp. said Monday that regulators have lifted a warning about quality-control problems at a Minnesota plant that makes defibrillators and pacemakers, enabling the company to resume seeking approval for new devices to correct abnormal heartbeats, the AP reported.

April 17, 2007 — Canadian researchers have learned that about one quarter of heart failure patients have moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea and they also have significantly higher death rates than those without sleep apnea.

Dr. Hanqiao Wang and colleagues at the University of Toronto in Ontario conducted a study of 164 patients who were referred to the Heart Failure Clinic of Mt. Sinai Hospital between 1997 and December 2004. Standard sleep tests were performed to diagnose sleep apnea.

April 17, 2007 — Signalife has announced it has hired a new distribution organization for its Fidelity 100 product line. The group consists of independent distributor reps for cardiac rhythm management products (ICDs and pacemakers).

April 17, 2007 — ZOLL Medical Corp. announced the top winners of the ZOLL CPR Challenge that took place in the company's booth during the recent EMS Today Conference and Expo 2007 in Baltimore, including two youths who out-performed many professionals in the hour in which they competed. Two-hundred and forty-five (245) attendees performed more than 40,000 chest compressions over the course of the conference.

April 16, 2007 - Volcano Corp. asserts this week that data from the COURAGE and SPIRIT trials presented last month at ACC suggest the need for more detailed imaging and diagnosis to optimize stent placement with technologies such as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and fractional flow reserve (FFR).

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