Final recommendations issued Sept. 28 from the Heart Rhythm Society are aimed at providing heart patients with clearer, timelier and more consistent information about the recall process and the performance of pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs).

Offering specific guidance to physicians, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials and members of Congress about performance and advisory issues pertaining to implantable cardiac devices, the final recommendations report also addresses international principles related to device performance.

Expanding their existing strategic collaboration for atherosclerotic plaque analysis, FoxHollow Technologies and Merck & Co. Inc. have announced that FoxHollow will collaborate exclusively with Merck in exchange for $40 million paid by the pharmaceutical company over four years.

Siemens Medical Solutions has released the 4.0 ACUSON Antares ultrasound system, premium edition. Antares 4.0 will feature shared service cardiology applications in addition to the complete range of general imaging applications and advanced clinical applications such as 3D/4D and contrast agent imaging.

Enhanced imaging performance enables physicians to better view disease, even with the most technically difficult-to-image patients, the company says.

Cordis Corp. has launched the CYPHER SELECT Plus Stent, the first third-generation DES, in Western and Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. The company expects to offer the CYPHER SELECT Plus Stent in most markets outside the U.S. and Japan within the next two quarters.

In addition to its flexible stent design and short tip, the CYPHER SELECT Plus Stent Delivery System features the CYPH 2ONIC Hydrophilic Coating Technology, which, Cordis says, making the significantly more lubricious than previous sirolimus-eluting stent delivery systems.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to create a pilot program that will help public and nonprofit healthcare providers establish state and regional broadband networks dedicated to healthcare services, as well as provide funding for these networks to connect to Internet2’s nationwide advanced research and education network.

Drugs traditionally used for the treatment of gastric ulcers could have therapeutic potential in chronic heart failure, according to new research coming out of Japan.

One outcome showed that famotidine appears to reduce left ventricular end-diastolic (LVD-d) and end-systolic (LVD) lengths and reduce BNP (B-type natriuretic peptide) levels.

Johnson & Johnson has filed a $5.5 billion lawsuit against Guidant Corp. in U.S. District Court in New York, claiming that Guidant leaked confidential information to Abbott Laboratories to secure a crucial component of the deal with Boston Scientific, reports Modernhealthcare.com.

IMV ServiceTrak ranked GE Healthcare No. 1 for CT and MR Service in a comparison against five other manufacturers of the modalities.

An independent marketing research firm specializing in medical imaging, IMV conducts its assessment annually and focuses on service response, service quality and remote diagnostics.


Two of the six astronauts from the shuttle mission Atlantis became part of an ongoing cardiovascular study at NASA about four hours after the shuttle landed at the Johnson Space Center early last Friday morning. Imaging their hearts — both pre- and post-flight — with Philips’ iE33, 3-D echocardiography system, investigators for the ongoing research were given just 30 minutes to collect data that will eventually help them determine why loss of heart mass occurs after space flight, and further, how inactivity impacts heart health.

Positive six-month results of Abbott's SPIRIT II clinical trial of the XIENCE V Everolimus Eluting Coronary Stent System were presented at the World Congress of Cardiology conference in Barcelona, Spain. XIENCE V, which has received CE Mark approval, is currently an investigational device in the U.S. and Japan — Abbott says it plans to initiate European launch of the coronary DES in October.

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