Stenosis News and Research

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A stenosis is an abnormal narrowing in a blood vessel or other tubular organ or structure.

TCFC completes two in-utero fetal cardiac interventions to treat HLHS

The team at Texas Children's Fetal Center, a national leader for treating fetal anomalies, has successfully completed two in-utero fetal cardiac interventions to treat hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a congenital heart defect that is one of the most complex heart defects to treat.

5 May 2012

CSI third quarter revenues increase 5% to $21.2 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 fiscal third quarter ended March 31, 2012.

3 May 2012

PET/CT could help improve prediction of heart attack

An award-winning research project, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), has tested a new imaging method which could help improve how doctors predict a patient's risk of having a heart attack.

25 Apr 2012

Enrollment complete in REPRISE I clinical trial for Lotus Aortic Valve System

Boston Scientific Corporation announces that it has completed enrollment in the REPRISE I clinical trial, which is designed to evaluate the acute safety of the Lotus Aortic Valve System, the first transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) device of its kind for patients with severe aortic valve stenosis that is both fully repositionable and retrievable prior to release.

23 Apr 2012

RHD patients seek treatment in the very late stages of disease

Patients with rheumatic heart disease (RHD) are being admitted to hospital too late to prevent the need for heart surgery, according to a new study carried out by doctors in Yemen and presented today at the World Congress of Cardiology.

20 Apr 2012

TAVI improves heart function, exercise capacity in patients with aortic stenosis

German researchers report success with transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in patients with low-flow, low-gradient aortic stenosis-a special form of aortic stenosis that is difficult to treat. Results published in the April issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), show that while all-cause mortality was high within the first six months, TAVI significantly improved heart function and exercise capacity in surviving patients.

From Medtronic 11 Apr 2012

EKG can detect heart attack in healthy senior citizens

Can a simple diagnostic test used to measure a heart's electrical activity help predict heart attacks? And can that knowledge help doctors reroute their patients away from coronary heart disease? These are the questions researchers at UCSF asked in a comprehensive eight-year study focused on senior citizens in the United States. Researchers found a higher risk of heart attack when abnormalities showed up on electrocardiogram (EKG) results of healthy elderly people.

11 Apr 2012

USPTO issues five patents to VertiFlex Superion ISS

VertiFlex, Inc., a leading innovator of advanced minimally invasive spinal surgery technologies, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded five additional key patents covering the design and implantation method for its unique interspinous spacer technology. The five U.S. patent numbers are 8,012,207, 8,123,807, 8,123,782, 8,128,662, and 8,152,837.

11 Apr 2012

VCAM1 nanobodies can effectively visualize atherosclerotic lesions

In collaboration with a Brussels University team under the leadership of Nick Devoogdt and a French team from INSERM, Serge Muyldermans and his team, associated with VIB and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, have succeeded in developing the first patient-friendly, non-invasive method for differentiating dangerous strictures in blood vessels, so-called vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques, from less dangerous ones.

5 Apr 2012

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

CCTA can safely and rapidly identify candidates for discharge from EDs

Coronary CT angiography (CCTA) -- a non-invasive way to look inside arteries that supply blood to the heart -- can quickly and reliably determine which patients complaining of chest pain at an emergency department can safely be sent home, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 61st Annual Scientific Session.

27 Mar 2012

Highlights from Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

The Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT) is the first comprehensive study to look at the effectiveness of different treatments for low back and leg pain. It was designed to provide data and outcomes to guide doctors and their patients in their treatment choices for three common spinal disorders: intervertebral disk herniation (IDH), degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS), and lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS).

14 Mar 2012

Four leading organizations release recommendations to ensure optimal care of TAVR patients

Four leading heart organizations representing cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons released initial recommendations today for creating and maintaining transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) programs.

2 Mar 2012

RMC offers groundbreaking new procedure for LSS patients

More than one million people are diagnosed and treated each year in the United States for lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), a condition that occurs from the narrowing of the spinal canal. Peter Staats, M.D., in conjunction with Riverview Medical Center, is offering LSS patients a groundbreaking new procedure, mild (minimally invasive spinal decompression) that safely and therapeutically reduces pain and improves mobility.

1 Mar 2012

How treatment options are presented strongly impacts patients' decision-making

A paper from Rhode Island Hospital and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit examines whether different presentation formats, presenter characteristics, and patient characteristics affect decision-making for patients requiring treatment for asymptomatic carotid stenosis.

23 Feb 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

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

Patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis do not benefit from epidural steroid injections

Researchers at the Rothman Institute at Jefferson examined data on patients being treated for lumbar stenosis and the degenerative spine condition spondylolisthesis and found that patients who received epidural steroid injections (ESI) had a higher rate of crossover to surgery and fared worse in physical health and bodily pain versus those who did not receive ESI, dispelling their pre-study hypothesis.

8 Feb 2012

Takeda launches EDARBYCLOR in the U.S. for treatment of hypertension

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc., announced EDARBYCLOR (azilsartan medoxomil and chlorthalidone) is now available by prescription in U.S. pharmacies for the treatment of hypertension to lower blood pressure in adults.

6 Feb 2012

Interim results from Spectranetics laser atherectomy catheter study on ISR

Spectranetics Corporation today announced six month interim results from the PATENT (Photo-Ablation using the TURBO-Booster and Excimer Laser for In-Stent Restenosis Treatment) study evaluating the safety and efficacy of the Spectranetics peripheral laser atherectomy catheters for the treatment of in-stent restenosis (ISR) in the femoropopliteal artery in the leg.

3 Feb 2012