Catheterization News and Research

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Vascular Solutions to distribute Shepherd Scientific's Angio Assist and Teirstein Edge products in US

Vascular Solutions, Inc. and Shepherd Scientific, Inc. today announced they have entered into a distribution agreement providing for Vascular Solutions to distribute Shepherd Scientific's Angio Assist and Teirstein Edge products in the United States. The Angio Assist is an easy-to-use docking station that facilitates the introduction of guide wires into interventional devices including catheters and atherectomy burrs.

20 Sep 2010

Optical coherence tomography to penetrate intravascular ultrasound market: MRG

According to Millennium Research Group (MRG), the optical coherence tomography market will grow at an annual rate of almost 60% through 2015, spurred by physician adoption of this new technology that was launched in the US in May 2010.

16 Sep 2010

Long-term stenting of aortic coarctation yields 77% success rate

Researchers from the Congenital Cardiovascular Interventional Study Consortium (CCISC) who evaluated the intermediate and long-term results of stent implantation for aortic coarctation found that cumulative intermediate success was 86%, and cumulative long-term success was 77%. Results of this study appear in the October issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.

14 Sep 2010

IASIS Healthcare signs agreement to acquire Brim Holdings

IASIS Healthcare today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Brim Holdings, Inc., which operates Wadley Regional Medical Center in Texarkana, Texas, and Pikes Peak Regional Hospital in Woodland Park, Colorado, in a cash-for-stock transaction valued at approximately $95 million, subject to customary closing conditions and working capital adjustments. Combined revenue of the two facilities is approximately $120 million.

10 Sep 2010

UC Denver researcher awarded NIH grant to study PAH

A disease that has no cure in young children and adults is getting closer attention, thanks to a University of Colorado Denver Bioengineering assistant professor and a five year National Heart Lung and Blood Institute/National Institutes of Health grant. Kendall Hunter, PhD, will perform research to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension in children and adults with approximately $700,000 over a five-year period.

10 Sep 2010

Texas Children's Hospital implants FDA approved transcatheter pulmonary heart valve

Using a newly FDA approved pulmonary valve, Dr. Frank Ing, director of the catheterization laboratory at Texas Children's Hospital and his team of pediatric interventional cardiologists implanted a transcatheter pulmonary heart valve into the heart of a 13-year-old girl, which spared her from having her chest opened for a third heart surgery.

9 Sep 2010

McLeod Health implements Merge Healthcare's radiology, cardiology workflow solutions

Merge Healthcare, a leading health IT solutions provider, today announced a new contract with McLeod Health (Florence, SC). This agreement integrates the Merge cardiology workflow solutions with McLeod's existing Merge radiology solution, allowing McLeod to streamline workflow and improve quality data across their entire cardiovascular service line, while also providing a unified image management platform.

8 Sep 2010

St. Jude Medical to invest $60M in CardioMEMS

St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, and privately-held CardioMEMS today announced that they have reached an agreement under which St. Jude Medical will make a $60 million equity investment in CardioMEMS, a medical device company that has developed a wireless sensing and communication technology to assess cardiac performance.

7 Sep 2010

Iroko Cardio International Sàrl announces data on HDB dosing of tirofiban, abciximab in interventional cardiology

Iroko Cardio International Sàrl announces long-term, three-year, mortality data from the Phase III, open label, multi-national study comparing high-dose bolus (HDB) dosing of AGGRASTAT(tirofiban) (25mcg/kg bolus followed by a 0.15mcg/kg/min infusion for 18-24 hours) vs. ReoPro (abciximab) in patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), presented at the 2010 European Society of Cardiology Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden.

3 Sep 2010

InfraReDx receives 510(k) clearance to market LipiScan IVUS Coronary Imaging System

InfraReDx, Inc., a medical device company developing intelligent cardiovascular diagnostic imaging technologies, today announced that it has received 510(k) clearance from the United States Food and Drug Administration to market the LipiScan IVUS Coronary Imaging System. LipiScan IVUS is the first cardiac catheter to combine intravascular ultrasound and near-infrared spectroscopy to help cardiologists identify and characterize the plaques that complicate stenting and are associated with acute coronary events.

2 Sep 2010

ESC releases new Clinical Practice Guidelines for management of Grown-up Congenital Heart Disease

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) today announces the release of new Clinical Practice Guidelines covering the management of Grown-up Congenital Heart Disease (GUCH). More than two million adults in Europe are assumed to be affected by the condition, and the numbers are growing as a consequence of sharply increased survival rates due to advances in paediatric cardiology and heart surgery.

2 Sep 2010

International Symposium to explore Hybrid approach for congenital heart disease

Interventional cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons throughout the United States and the world, who treat patients with congenital heart disease, will gather at the Hilton Columbus at Easton Town Center August 31-September 2, 2010 for the International Symposium on the Hybrid Approach to Congenital Heart Disease (ISHAC).

31 Aug 2010

ATOLL study favors enoxaparin over UFH for primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

The international ATOLL study sponsored by the Assistance Publique - Hopitaux de Paris showed that enoxaparin reduced the composite of death, complication of myocardial infraction, procedure failure or major bleeding by 17% in comparison with standard heparin death, recurrent acute coronary syndrome or urgent revascularisation. The results of the ATOLL study were presented at the hotline session of the annual European Cardiology Congress (ESC 2010) in Stockholm, Sweden.

30 Aug 2010

Drug-eluting stents improve long-term clinical outcome for patients undergoing angioplasty

Researchers at the Rabin Medical Center in Israel have determined that the use of drug-eluting stents (DES) improves the long-term clinical outcome for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), commonly known as angioplasty. Results of this study appear in the September issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.

19 Aug 2010

ePlus Technology renews IT products and services agreement with VHA

ePlus inc. today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, ePlus Technology, Inc., has renewed its agreement with VHA Inc., a nationwide network of not-for-profit hospitals that work together to improve clinical and economic performance. ePlus will offer IT products and services as well as leasing services for IT and medical equipment to more than 1,400 VHA member healthcare institutions and 28,000+ non-acute facilities nationwide.

16 Aug 2010

FDA advisory committee votes in favor of investigational anti-epileptic drug ezogabine

GlaxoSmithKline and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International announced today that a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted unanimously that clinical studies had provided substantial evidence of the effectiveness of ezogabine as adjunctive treatment for adults with partial-onset seizures.

12 Aug 2010

Vanguard signs definitive agreement to acquire Arizona Heart Institute

Vanguard Health Systems and Arizona Heart Institute (AHI) announced today that they have signed a definitive agreement for Vanguard to acquire Arizona Heart Institute, one of the world's leading providers of cardiovascular care. Through this agreement, AHI will align with Abrazo Health Care, a Phoenix-based subsidiary of Vanguard, to become part of its distributive cardiovascular network of community-based physicians, providing future opportunities to greatly expand cardiovascular services and patient base throughout the region.

3 Aug 2010

Functional MRI can be used to assess tumor viability

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (the disease commonly referred to as pancreatic cancer) carries the worst prognosis of any cancer. As current treatments offer minimal benefit, entirely new approaches are needed. Given the success of local therapies, as opposed to intravenous systemic therapies, for liver diseases (such as hepatocellular carcinoma), it is thought that similar local therapies may benefit patients with pancreatic cancer. To develop such therapies, it would be useful to devise targets that are easy to obtain and can indicate the efficacy of these new therapies in models of pancreatic cancer.

31 Jul 2010

Cardiva Medical, Advanced Vascular Dynamics sign agreement to distribute hemostasis products

Cardiva Medical, Inc. announced today that it has signed an agreement with Advanced Vascular Dynamics to distribute several products used for postcatheterization femoral and radial artery hemostasis in the U.S.

27 Jul 2010

Young women more likely to die in hospitals following heart attacks: Study

A new study by researchers at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has found that women between the ages of 35 and 54 were more likely to die in hospitals following heart attacks than men of a similar age. This finding from a sample of more than 423,000 patients can be seen as surprising, given that women, on average, develop their first acute myocardial infarction -- or heart attack -- about 10 years later than men, and are overall less likely to develop myocardial infarction than are men.

23 Jul 2010