Balloon Angioplasty News and Research

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Balloon Angioplasty is a procedure to enlarge the opening in a blood vessel that has become narrowed or blocked by plaque (a buildup of fat and cholesterol on the inner wall of the blood vessel). A small balloon is filled with air inside the blood vessel to push the plaque against the blood vessel wall and increase the opening.

UCLA engineers and physicians develop PAD treatment device to prevent thrombosis

A fortuitous discovery that grew out of a collaboration between UCLA engineers and physicians could potentially offer hope to the nearly 10 million Americans who suffer from peripheral arterial disease.

26 Nov 2009

Cardiovascular Systems commences patient enrollment in CALCIUM 360° clinical trial

Cardiovascular Systems, Inc., announces the first patient enrollment in its prospective, randomized CALCIUM 360° clinical trial, part of the company’s 360° Clinical Series. The CALCIUM 360° study will evaluate the treatment of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) behind and below the knee using CSI’s Diamondback 360® PAD System, a minimally invasive catheter for treating PAD anywhere in the leg.

19 Nov 2009

John Simpson named the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus for his invention

Back in the 1970s, while watching an angioplasty to widen clogged coronary arteries, John Simpson, Ph.D., M.D., thought there had to be an easier way to perform the procedure.

31 Oct 2009

CIHR and CMAJ honour eight Canadian Health Researchers

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) today honoured eight outstanding Canadian individuals and teams with the first ever CIHR-CMAJ Top Canadian Achievements in Health Research Awards, which recognize and celebrate Canadian health research and innovation excellence.

29 Sep 2009

Cook Medical launches the CE Marked Zilver PTX Drug-Eluting Peripheral Stent for treating PAD

In a breakthrough development that could dramatically reduce the number of leg amputations and painful bypass graft surgeries performed annually on European patients, a first-of-its kind drug-eluting stent for a widespread form of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is now available to physicians throughout the European Union.

21 Sep 2009

New Technology Showcase highlighting life science technologies to be featured

LifeScience Alley announced today that eight life science organizations from around the United States and Canada will be exhibiting cutting-edge technologies at the association’s Annual Conference on Dec. 9 as part of the New Technology Showcase.

3 Sep 2009

Pre-hospitalization strategies will bring down mortality rate of patients with heart disorders

Mortality rate following a heart attack has fallen by more than 50% in Europe over the past 25 years. However, because only minor advances in the medical treatment of AMI are expected over the next decade, it is through organisational changes in the pre-hospital phase that mortality rate will continue this decline to below 5%.

2 Sep 2009

Immediate catheterization not always better for ACS patients

For some patients with acute coronary syndromes, the strategy of immediate intervention at a medical center does not appear to result in differences in outcomes in comparison with an intervention performed the next working day, according to a study in the September 2 issue of JAMA.

1 Sep 2009

University of Maryland researchers perform a genome-wide association study of ADP-stimulated platelet aggregation

Patients with a certain genetic variation who received the antiplatelet drug clopidogrel had a decreased platelet response to treatment and among those who had percutaneous coronary intervention (procedures such as balloon angioplasty or stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries) had an increased risk of having a cardiovascular event in the following year than patients who did not have this variant, according to a study in the August 26 issue of JAMA.

25 Aug 2009

First patient enrolled for IDEV Technologies' SUPERB clinical trial

IDEV(R) Technologies, Incorporated, (IDEV) an emerging leader in the development and marketing of minimally invasive medical technologies, today announced that the first patient was enrolled in the Company's FDA-approved multi-center clinical trial of its self-expanding SUPERA(R) stent, a novel stent platform designed for the treatment of biliary and peripheral artery disease (PAD) in the superficial femoral artery (SFA).

25 Aug 2009

Cardiovascular Systems' revenues in fourth-quarter of 2009 increases to $15.7 million

Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. (CSI), a medical device company developing and commercializing innovative interventional treatment systems for vascular disease, today reported financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended June 30, 2009.

19 Aug 2009

New drug promises to reduce damage from a heart attack

Research into a new drug by Australian heart experts has found that it can dramatically reduce heart muscle damage after a heart attack.

28 Jul 2009

New drug may reduce heart attack damage

A novel drug that targets a master disease-causing gene can dramatically reduce heart muscle damage after a heart attack and may lead to significantly improved patient outcomes, researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have shown.

22 Jul 2009

Diabetes with coronary disease: A moving target amid evolving therapies

In an editorial in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), William E. Boden, M.D., professor of medicine and preventive medicine at the University at Buffalo, recommends that the results of the BARI-2D Trial published in that edition must be interpreted with "considerable caution."

8 Jun 2009

FHL2 protein regulates blood vessel maintenance

In a study led by Akiko Hata, PhD, of Tufts University School of Medicine, researchers have shown that a protein expressed in the heart, FHL2, inhibits the genes necessary for the quiescence of vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs), which line blood vessels.

12 May 2009

Healthcare reform should start with paying evidence-based financial incentives to doctors

Healthcare Reform should start with "evidence-based reimbursement", structuring physician payment incentives around existing empirical evidence of clinical benefit, which would improve quality and reduce the cost of healthcare, says a commentary written by two cardiologists and published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes .

20 Apr 2009

Heart bypass surgery better than angioplasty for certain patients

After three years working with investigators from 10 different clinical trials around the world from Brazil to London to Pittsburgh, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have pooled enough individual patient data to compare the effectiveness of coronary artery bypass surgery with the less-invasive angioplasty procedure on specific groups of patients for the first time.

20 Mar 2009

Schering-Plough's investigational oral thrombin receptor antagonist meets primary endpoint in a newly published study

Results of a Schering-Plough Corporation Phase II trial of SCH 530348, a novel oral thrombin receptor antagonist (TRA), were published today in The Lancet and demonstrated that the investigational antiplatelet compound met its primary endpoints of safety and tolerability.

12 Mar 2009

Saving limbs with drug-eluting stents

Attempts to treat critical limb ischemia in peripheral arterial disease (PAD) patients with below-the-knee angioplasty are still thwarted by restenosis (the re-narrowing of the artery at the site of angioplasty or stenting), the need for repeat treatments and the continued progression of atherosclerotic disease, leading to tissue death (gangrene) and amputation.

11 Mar 2009

Saving heart attack patients in the middle of the night

When Joyce Moss recently arrived at Loyola University Hospital with a life-threatening heart attack, it took just 42 minutes to perform an emergency balloon angioplasty.

5 Mar 2009