Catheter News and Research

RSS

In medicine, a catheter is a tube that can be inserted into a body cavity, duct, or vessel. Catheters . In most uses, a catheter is a thin, flexible tube ("soft" catheter), though in some uses, it is a larger, solid ("hard") catheter. A catheter left inside the body, either temporarily or permanently, may be referred to as an indwelling catheter. A permanently inserted catheter may be referred to as a permcath.

Erection problems may signal serious heart disease

Erectile dysfunction is always a matter of the heart, but new research shows that more than romance is at stake. Two new studies of men with type 2 diabetes found that erectile dysfunction (ED) was a powerful early warning sign for serious heart disease, including heart attack and death.

19 May 2008

Superbug genome sequenced

The genome of a newly-emerging superbug, commonly known as Steno, has just been sequenced. The results reveal an organism with a remarkable capacity for drug resistance. The research was carried out by scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge and the University of Bristol.

6 May 2008

Autonomous robot surgery a step closer

The day may be getting a little closer when robots will perform surgery on patients in dangerous situations or in remote locations, such as on the battlefield or in space, with minimal human guidance.

6 May 2008

FDA approves coronary artery plaque imaging device

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared for marketing a device that a doctor can use to see inside a blood vessel to assess the fat content of the plaque which builds up on the wall of the coronary arteries.

29 Apr 2008

Angiotech receives FDA clearance to market 5-Fluorouracil-coated central venous catheter

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that it has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its innovative 5-Fluorouracil-coated (5-FU) Central Venous Catheter (CVC) in the United States.

17 Apr 2008

Carotid stenting shows long-term benefit as alternative to surgery

Carotid artery stenting is an effective option for high risk patients who are not eligible for surgery, according to a long-term study published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.

11 Apr 2008

Microwave therapy for enlarged prostates can cause surges in blood pressure

Many men who receive microwave therapy for enlarged prostates experience significant surges in blood pressure that could raise their risk of a heart attack or stroke, according to new research findings published recently in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

9 Apr 2008

Angioplasty and stenting for renal artery lesions

The largest-ever randomized study to evaluate the effectiveness of catheter-based interventions in patients with narrowing of the renal artery has shown that angioplasty and stenting offer no benefit over medical therapy.

2 Apr 2008

ExoSeal vascular plug gets good reviews in ECLIPSE study

A new bioabsorbable plug that seals the arterial puncture site used for threading catheters into the body during diagnostic angiography and interventional procedures significantly shortens bleeding time and enables patients to get up and walk around far sooner than when manual compression is applied to the groin.

2 Apr 2008

Catheter repair of mitral valve improves heart size, symptoms

A catheter-mounted device that acts like a clothespin to clip together the flaps of a leaky heart valve is not only reducing the abnormal backflow of blood from the left ventricle to the left atrium, it is helping to shrink the enlarged, overworked heart and relieving symptoms of fluid overload - all without open-chest surgery.

2 Apr 2008

Community-acquired MRSA spreads

Drug resistant hospital superbugs like MRSA have been kept under control in Denmark for more than 30 years.

1 Apr 2008

Drug-eluting stents outperform bare-metal stents

New evidence from a large randomized study is answering important questions about the best approach to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with a type of heart attack known as ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

31 Mar 2008

Special catheter that clears debris from artery helps blood flow in percutaneous coronary intervention

Use of a special catheter that sucks out, or aspirates, bits of plaque and blood clot that break loose during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) significantly enhances blood flow deep in the heart muscle in patients who are experiencing a heart attack, according to a recently published study.

31 Mar 2008

Cigarette smokers treated for brain aneurysm with coil embolization at higher risk of recurrence

Cigarette smokers who were treated for cerebral aneurysms with coil embolization (blocking of a blood vessel) are at greater risk of developing another aneurysm, say neurological surgeons at Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience in Philadelphia in the first-known study of its kind.

24 Mar 2008

Uterine fibroid embolization effective in cases where focused ultrasound failed

Uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), a minimally invasive interventional radiology treatment for uterine fibroids, provides significant relief of symptoms for women whose focused ultrasound (FUS) treatment failed, according to a study released during the Society of Interventional Radiology's 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, D.C. Primary care physicians and gynecologists can feel confident in informing patients that a failed FUS treatment does not require subsequent gynecological surgery.

19 Mar 2008

New interventional radiology treatment shows promise for complications from bone marrow, stem cell tranplants

The standard treatment to treat graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after bone marrow or cord blood transplant is intravenous (IV) steroids that alter the immune response; however, it is not always effective and failure results in very high mortality.

19 Mar 2008

Most women unaware of uterine fibroid embolization

A study presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting shows of 105 patients in the Atlanta metro area, only 18 percent of the women who saw a private practice gynecologist were told about uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), a minimally invasive treatment for uterine fibroids provided by interventional radiologists.

19 Mar 2008

New robotic interventional imaging technology holds promise of improved cancer care

New research released at the Society of Interventional Radiology's (SIR) Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, D.C., this week, holds promise of a new interventional imaging capability using advanced robotics provided by Siemens Healthcare (www.siemens.com/healthcare), to improve the value of chemoembolization in treating cancer.

From Siemens Healthineers 18 Mar 2008

Trial of injectable microfoam for varicose veins

A small group of patients with a common heart defect who were treated for varicose veins with an injectable microfoam experienced no neurological, visual or cardiac changes as a result of the treatment, according to preliminary results from a phase II trial.

18 Mar 2008

New treatment for severe frostbite

Using imaging to visualize areas lacking blood flow and deliver drugs via catheter, interventional radiologists are reopening recently frozen, clotted arteries with clot-busting and anti-spasmodic drugs.

18 Mar 2008