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FDA issues warning over faulty components in external defibrillators

About 280,000 external defibrillators used worldwide in health care facilities, public places, or in the home may malfunction during attempts to rescue people in sudden cardiac arrest, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned today.

28 Apr 2010

$296 million guilty plea from Boston Scientific in relation to Guidant defibrillator case

The implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is a life saving battery operated device much like a pacemaker that is placed near the heart in a minor surgical procedure. This device detects abnormal heart rates and rhythms in the patient and delivers an electric shock to make the heart beat normally again. These save millions of people in the US and all over the world from sudden death.

6 Apr 2010

Lake Alice Hospital – Have the Ghosts of the past finally gone?

New Zealand’s Lake Alice hospital near Bulls in Rangitikei, which used to be self sufficient rural psychiatric set up housing the criminally insane since 1950 has been shut down since October 1999 and since then the hospital has been shrouded in controversies and plans for rebuilding and setting up new units.

30 Mar 2010

Cameron Health initiates clinical trial of minimally invasive S-ICD System for patients at risk of SCA

Cameron Health, Inc. today announced the commencement of the company's pivotal clinical trial to gain U.S. approval of its Subcutaneous Implantable Defibrillator (S-ICD®) System. The minimally invasive S-ICD System is prescribed for use in patients at risk of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). The S-ICD System is unique in that the implantation of the system is entirely subcutaneous; no leads are in or on the heart.

19 Mar 2010

Compulsive food seeking despite painful consequences

Ever get a buzz from eating chocolate? A study published in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience has shown that chocolate-craving mice are ready to tolerate electric shocks to get their fix.

8 Feb 2010

AHRQ and American College Of Cardiology team up to study risks and benefits of ICDs

A $3.5 million research project that will study the long-term benefits and risks of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) in patients at risk of death from ventricular fibrillation will be supported by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the American College of Cardiology, the two groups announced today.

29 Jan 2010

HSF announces $1 million contribution by The Cowan Foundation to AED program

The Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF) today announced a $1 million contribution by The Cowan Foundation to its national Heart&Stroke Restart a Heart, Restart a Life(TM) Automated External Defibrillator (AED) program.

14 Dec 2009

Amino acids can improve cognitive function in patients with severe brain injuries

Neurology researchers have shown that feeding amino acids to brain-injured animals restores their cognitive abilities and may set the stage for the first effective treatment for cognitive impairments suffered by people with traumatic brain injuries.

8 Dec 2009

Findings show the relationship between neurotransmitter dopamine and ADHD

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have uncovered evidence of a primitive emotion-like behavior in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.

26 Nov 2009

Real-time CPR feedback effective in EMS systems with well-trained rescuers

Emergency medical service (EMS) providers in the United States assess an estimated 350,000 cardiac arrests each year. Only 5 to 10 percent of people who have sudden cardiac arrest survive. Better quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) provided by prehospital EMS providers may be associated with better patient outcome. The Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (ROC) is the largest clinical research network to study prehospital treatments for cardiac arrest in the United States and Canada.

23 Nov 2009

Non-invasive test to determine risk of sudden cardiac arrest in heart bypass surgery patients

Years after heart bypass surgery, Jim Miller was symptom free. Several measures of his heart’s functioning did not show that he was in danger of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). But Miller’s doctor decided to make sure and the quick, non-invasive test he performed may have saved Miller’s life.

10 Nov 2009

NHLBI stops enrollment in study comparing resuscitation strategies

Enrollment has ended early in a large, multicenter clinical trial comparing two distinct resuscitation strategies delivered by emergency medical service (EMS) providers to increase blood flow during cardiac arrest. The study's independent monitoring board and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the lead sponsor of the study, stopped enrollment based on preliminary data suggesting that neither strategy significantly improved survival.

7 Nov 2009

Patients with post-traumatic stress disorder can benefit from synthetic marijuana

Use of cannabinoids (marijuana) could assist in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder patients. This is exposed in a recent study carried out at the Learning and Memory Lab in the University of Haifa's Department of Psychology.

5 Nov 2009

Cannabinoids play an important role in stress-related disorders: Study

Use of cannabinoids (marijuana) could assist in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder patients. This is exposed in a new study carried out at the Learning and Memory Lab in the University of Haifa's Department of Psychology. The study, carried out by research student Eti Ganon-Elazar under the supervision of Dr. Irit Akirav, was published in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience.

4 Nov 2009

Changes in dopamine levels linked to infant learning patterns

When do you first leave the nest? Early in development infants of many species experience important transitions-such as learning when to leave the protective presence of their mother to start exploring the wider world. Neuroscientists have now pinpointed molecular events occurring in the brain during that turning point.

27 Oct 2009

Education and cardiac defibrillators can boost survival rates

More widespread availability of defibrillators and education of the general public could boost survival rates fourfold amongst athletes suffering cardiac arrest, a study has found. In less than half of cases, a bystander initiated cardiopulmonary reanimation. This is crucial as survival at hospital admission is 4 times higher when CPR is attempted and 10 times greater when an electric shock is delivered.

2 Sep 2009

Neuroscientists locate where fear is stored in the brain

Fear is a powerful emotion and neuroscientists have for the first time located the neurons responsible for fear conditioning in the mammalian brain. Fear conditioning is a form of Pavlovian, or associative, learning and is considered to be a model system for understanding human phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders.

6 Jul 2009

FDA approves Multaq tablets (dronedarone) to treat atrial fibrillation

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Multaq tablets (dronedarone) to help maintain normal heart rhythms in patients with a history of atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter (heart rhythm disorders). The drug is approved to be used in patients whose hearts have returned to normal rhythm or who will undergo drug or electric-shock treatment to restore a normal heart beat.

2 Jul 2009

Blocking the dual leucine zipper kinase gene may help ease painful nerve condition

Scientists have identified the first gene that pulls the plug on ailing nerve cell branches from within the nerve cell, possibly helping to trigger the painful condition known as neuropathy.

15 Mar 2009