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Catheter-based heart valve procedures effective for patients with aortic stenosis

Patients diagnosed with aortic stenosis who are too sick for open-heart surgery have better survival rates and an improved quality of life after undergoing catheter-based heart valve replacement than if the patients had been treated with standard medical therapy, according to a study authored by a Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute physician based on results from a multicenter clinical trial.

27 Mar 2012

FBR accepts entries for 11th annual Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Awards

The Foundation for Biomedical Research (FBR) announced today it is accepting entries for the 11th annual Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Awards. The awards, named after FBR's late chairman, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, honor professional journalists whose reporting has enhanced public understanding of how the humane and responsible use of animal models leads to medical and scientific discoveries.

23 Mar 2012

UAB first hospital in Alabama to offer Melody Valve replacement

In many ways Dylan Fields is your typical 15-year-old boy. He loves sports, and plays baseball and soccer for his school, Tallassee High, in Central Alabama. What's not typical about Dylan is his heart defect and, now, the procedure used to repair his heart.

6 Mar 2012

U-M Cardiovascular Center now offers Edwards aortic valve replacement

As the population ages, more Americans will be susceptible to aortic stenosis, but not all patients can tolerate surgery to treat it. Select U.S. hospitals are now performing minimally invasive procedures called transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, to replace a patient's diseased aortic valve without heart bypass or open heart surgery.

From Medtronic 23 Feb 2012

First use of HeartLight Endoscopic Ablation System to treat atrial fibrillation

For the first time in a new U.S. clinical trial, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have used the HeartLight Endoscopic Ablation System (EAS) to correct abnormal electrical signals inside the heart of a patient affected by atrial fibrillation (AFib), one of the nation's most common heart ailments.

22 Feb 2012

Stent-assisted coil embolization helps repair coronary aneurysm

Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center interventional cardiologists have, for the first time, repaired a large coronary artery aneurysm with stent-assisted coil embolization without doing open heart surgery.

17 Feb 2012

Surgeons fix plumbing in the heart of newborn 5 days old

Keyota Cole was born with a bad heart. The 33-year-old from of Bakersfield, Calif., suffers from a congenital heart disease called Ebstein's malformation of the tricuspid valve, and from abnormal pulmonary veins. She has undergone multiple surgeries over her lifetime, including one to repair a hole in her heart, a valve replacement and the implantation of a pacemaker.

15 Feb 2012

UMDNJ-RWJMS, RWJUH among the first to offer TAVR procedure

Physicians at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJ) and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) are among the first in the nation to offer a groundbreaking aortic valve replacement technique that provides new treatment options and hope for patients diagnosed with severe aortic valve disease who are suffering from end-stage heart disease.

14 Feb 2012

Medtronic signs exclusive distribution agreement with Miami Instruments

Medtronic, Inc. today announced that it has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement with Miami Instruments, LLC - a company focused on the design of innovative surgical instruments for minimally invasive cardiac surgery procedures - and has introduced the company's first two products in the U.S.

From Medtronic 30 Jan 2012

Enrollment complete in Medtronic's CoreValve U.S. Trial for severe aortic stenosis

Medtronic, Inc. today announced it has completed patient enrollment in the extreme risk study in its CoreValve U.S. Pivotal Trial. The company also received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an extended investigation to continue enrolling extreme risk patients under a Continued Access Study protocol.

From Medtronic 25 Jan 2012

Detroit to get first new hospital in 30 years; Dallas' Parkland hospital safety report 'imminent'

The Detroit Medical Center today broke ground for a new $78 million, five-story heart hospital scheduled to open on the health system's midtown Detroit campus in two years. The new DMC Heart Hospital is the first hospital to open in Detroit in 30 years. ... The new building is a major turning point for a program that "hit rock bottom" eight years ago, Duggan said, when cardiologists and heart surgeons left for jobs in the suburbs and open-heart surgery operations declined here.

19 Jan 2012

Scottsdale Healthcare is first in Arizona to perform TAVR procedure

Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center is the first hospital in Arizona to perform a new nonsurgical heart valve replacement procedure, the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR). TAVR valves are inserted via a catheter through the femoral artery, without requiring open heart surgery.

6 Jan 2012

UofL surgeons perform first transcatheter aortic-valve replacement at Jewish Hospital

Some individuals with severe aortic stenosis - also known as narrowing of the aortic valve in the heart - who are not well enough to undergo open heart surgery have a new treatment option thanks to a new procedure now available in Kentucky from University of Louisville physicians at Jewish Hospital.

4 Jan 2012

MHI cardiologists perform first clinical procedure in Canada using MitraClip system

The interventional cardiology team at the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) recently conducted the first clinical procedure in Canada using the MitraClip system, which is designed to treat patients suffering from mitral valve failure, a very common heart defect that affects an estimated 1 out 5 people to various extents starting at the age of 55.

16 Dec 2011

PET scans can provide insight into process that causes aortic stenosis

Patients with life-threatening heart valve disease could be helped with alternative scanning techniques that provide greater insight into the condition.

13 Dec 2011

Heart patients may experience fewer traumas with new invention

Heart patients may experience "a lot less" trauma with a new invention to mend leaky valves with minimum cutting, says inventor James Gammie, MD, an associate professor at the University of Maryland (UM) School of Medicine.

8 Dec 2011

NYU Langone establishes new LVAD Program for patients with advanced heart failure

The Cardiac & Vascular Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center has established its new LVAD Program. This surgical intervention program offers eligible, advanced heart failure patients implantation of the latest, lifesaving tool - a left ventricular assist device.

2 Dec 2011

Heart operation at the age of 22 hours: Toby’s story

A 22 hours age, baby Toby Dring became Britain’s youngest open heart surgery patient. He had Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and had to be given the life-saving operation when his health deteriorated dramatically at birth. Toby’s condition affects one in 5,000 babies and occurs when the left side of the heart fails to form properly.

28 Nov 2011

Study evaluates safety and effectiveness of Diamondback device for heart attacks

Drilling through concrete to create an opening may sound more like construction than medicine, but the approach is similar to what researchers at Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC) are doing in a clinical trial to evaluate a device that breaks through hardened coronary arteries, in an effort to prevent heart attacks and relieve chest pain.

23 Nov 2011

UTHealth and Memorial Hermann HVI first in Houston to implant FDA approved artificial heart valve

Cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Memorial Hermann Heart & Vascular Institute are the first in Houston to implant the artificial heart valve recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration, as well as a newer, smaller version that is part of a clinical trial.

21 Nov 2011