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St. Jude Medical's cardiovascular healthcare portfolio to be presented at TCT meeting

St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) today announced it will display products and technologies from the company’s portfolio of solutions for cardiovascular healthcare professionals at the 21st annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting in San Francisco. The featured products reflect the company’s continued commitment to developing comprehensive, high-performance solutions which advance the practice of interventional cardiology by improving efficiencies and giving physicians more control.

23 Sep 2009

Genous Bio-engineered R stent for STEMI implantation exhibits safety

OrbusNeich announced today that interim data from a prospective registry showed good safety in a broad population of patients that underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and implantation of the company's Genous Bio-engineered R stent for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

23 Sep 2009

Medtronic's transcatheter valves to be presented at TCT 2009

With the promise of percutaneous treatments for patients with diseased heart valves growing, Medtronic, Inc., announced today that more presentations than ever before – at least 25 – on the company’s portfolio of unique transcatheter valves will be presented at Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2009, the world’s premier annual meeting for interventional cardiologists.

23 Sep 2009

Women have higher incidence of stroke and mortality than men

Even though the incidence of atrial fibrillation is higher in men than women, a review of past studies and medical literature completed by cardiac experts at Rush University Medical Center shows that women are more likely than men to experience symptomatic attacks, a higher frequency of recurrences, and significantly higher heart rates during atrial fibrillation, which increases the risk of stroke.

23 Sep 2009

Heart surgery can be scheduled anytime: Study

The October issue of the journal Anesthesiology contains a study reviewing potential adverse effects associated with the timing of a patient's heart surgery; but based on this study, there is no bad time of the day or week or year to have elective coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

23 Sep 2009

Transoma Medical commences enrollment in its COMPLIANCE atrial fibrillation clinical trial

Transoma Medical, Inc., manufacturer of Sleuth AT™, the only wireless, automated implantable cardiac monitoring system with programmable and frequent electrocardiogram (ECG) sampling, announced today the first enrollment and implant in the COMPLIANCE trial, a long-term study to compare external event recorders with implantable monitors in patients who have been prescribed catheter ablation therapy for atrial fibrillation (AF) at risk of post-procedure AF recurrence.

23 Sep 2009

CIGNA announces initial results of its multi-year strategy to improve customer's experience

CIGNA (NYSE:CI) today announced the initial results of its multi-year strategy that places an entirely new focus on improving customers’ experience. The effort has led to an improvement in customer understanding of their benefits in excess of 100 percent, a 50 percent reduction in the number of printed materials customers receive, and the use of simpler language that doesn’t rely on insurance jargon. It also led CIGNA to become the first in its industry to offer 24 hour-a-day, seven day-a-week customer service.

23 Sep 2009

Vicor's PD2i heart-rate complexity metric to be tested on trauma patients in U.S. Army's C3E program

David H. Fater, CEO of Vicor Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: VCRT), today announced that Colonel Leopoldo Cancio of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR) identified its PD2i as a heart rate complexity metric that will be tested on trauma patients under the new Critical Combat Care Engineering (C3E) program.

23 Sep 2009

Abbott, Coherex Medical sign multi-year distribution agreement

Salt Lake City-based Coherex Medical, Inc. today announced that it has entered into a multi-year distribution agreement with global health care company Abbott for the Coherex FlatStent™ EF PFO Closure System.

23 Sep 2009

New heart surgery method raises questions for reformers

A new method for performing cardiac catheterizations may be more comfortable, shows a lower chance of complications such as severe bleeding, and allows patients to be discharged more quickly, potentially saving money, the Washington Post reports.

23 Sep 2009

Abiomed announces new data from its USpella IRB registry of Impella 2.5 patients

Abiomed Inc. (NASDAQ: ABMD), a leading provider of breakthrough heart support technologies, today announced new clinical data from USpella, the first U.S. multicenter registry of Impella 2.5 patients evaluating the safety and feasibility of left ventricular support with the Impella 2.5 during high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and treatment of acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

23 Sep 2009

HealthRock to promote health education

The $1 trillion cost and massive government role envisioned by the Obama Administration’s health care reform plan (The Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009) continue to create controversy in Congress and throughout the nation.

23 Sep 2009

Macrophages play a crucial role in muscle regeneration

For scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, what seemed like a disappointing result turned out to be an important discovery.

22 Sep 2009

Hormone therapy for treating prostate cancer is linked to heart problems

Berlin, Germany: New research has found that hormone therapy used to treat men with advanced prostate cancer is associated with an increased chance of developing various heart problems. Some choices of therapy appear, however, to be less risky than others.

22 Sep 2009

Smoking bans result in consistent decline in heart attack rates: Study

A consistent decline in heart attack rates following the implementation of smoking bansStrongly enforced legislation to restrict smoking produces rapid and substantial reductions in community rates of heart attack, according to a meta-analysis published today in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association.

22 Sep 2009

Report on evidence-based disease prevention programs released by TFAH and NYAM

Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) released a new report today featuring a range of evidence-based disease prevention programs that have shown results for improving health and reducing costs in communities.

22 Sep 2009

"Help is Here Express" bus tour in South Carolina to provide prescription medicines for free

The "Help is Here Express" bus tour will be stopping in South Carolina throughout the week of September 21 - 25 at various cities in order to help uninsured and financially struggling South Carolinians access information on programs that provide prescription medicines for free or nearly free. With the state's unemployment rate now hitting 11.8 percent, the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA) bus tour is raising awareness of patient assistance programs among state residents who face layoffs and loss of health care benefits.

22 Sep 2009

Researchers to present results of HORIZONS-AMI trial at TCT scientific symposium

Two subset analyses from the landmark HORIZONS-AMI trial show that the anticoagulant bivalirudin lowers major bleeding and cardiac death versus the combination of heparin and a GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor in patients with ST-segment myocardial infarction (STEMI) who have disease of the left anterior descending artery (LAD), while in STEMI patients at highest risk for death, bivalirudin also confers the greatest mortality benefit.

22 Sep 2009

Technique to reduce stroke in cardiac surgery patients

Sequoia Hospital announced today that they are one of only two hospital participant abstracts selected for oral presentation at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Advances in Outcomes and Quality national conference held this week in San Diego, California. "Separated Cerebral and Corporeal Perfusion Reduces Stroke Risk in Cardiac Surgery Patients with Mobile Aortic Atheromata" will be presented by Audrey Fisher, MPH, Sequoia Hospital Manager of Cardiovascular Quality & Outcomes. This new technique was developed to reduce strokes in cardiac surgery patients by isolating blood flow to the brain during cardiopulmonary bypass.

22 Sep 2009

Barbershop singing helps cancer-survivor

For Marguerite Paustenbach, her secret weapon in the fight against breast cancer turned out to be her strong faith and love for barbershop singing. Paustenbach is a member of Village Vocal Chords, a Chicago-based barbershop singing group that’s part of Harmony, Inc., an all women’s barbershop singing organization currently celebrating its 50th anniversary.

22 Sep 2009