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St. Jude Medical to examine cost-effectiveness of FFR-guided therapy in Australia, Asia

St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, announced today it will evaluate the incremental cost-effectiveness of Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR)-guided treatment for patients with multivessel coronary artery disease in Japan, China, India, Korea, and Australia.

15 Feb 2012

Online anatomy dissector a 'superb learning tool': JAMA

A Georgetown University School of Medicine professor's online anatomy dissector designed to assist medical students in learning gross anatomy is described as a "superb learning tool" in a review published in the February 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

15 Feb 2012

Surgeons fix plumbing in the heart of newborn 5 days old

Keyota Cole was born with a bad heart. The 33-year-old from of Bakersfield, Calif., suffers from a congenital heart disease called Ebstein's malformation of the tricuspid valve, and from abnormal pulmonary veins. She has undergone multiple surgeries over her lifetime, including one to repair a hole in her heart, a valve replacement and the implantation of a pacemaker.

15 Feb 2012

Biological scaffold for heart valves can be freeze-dried for later use

The biological scaffold that gives structure to a heart valve after its cellular material has been removed can be freeze-dried and stored for later use as a tissue-engineered replacement valve to treat a failing heart, as described in an article in Tissue Engineering, Part C: Methods, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc..

15 Feb 2012

Smart sensors can enable orthopaedicians to collect objective, quantifiable information

Imagine a smart sensor customized to provide vital, real-time information about a patient's recent orthopaedic surgery. Instead of relying on X-rays or invasive procedures, surgeons will be able to collect diagnostic data from an implantable sensor.

15 Feb 2012

Scott & White earns Joint Commission's certification for VAD Program

The Scott & White Heart & Vascular Institute in Temple has earned The Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval- as a hospital performing Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) as a destination therapy.

15 Feb 2012

Health professionals should routinely recommend chemo websites for cancer patients

Doctors and nurses may be underestimating the value placed on internet chemotherapy information by cancer patients and missing out on opportunities to discuss this information with them, new research finds today.

15 Feb 2012

Breast augmentations most common form of plastic surgery nationwide

Breast augmentations are the most common form of plastic surgery nationwide, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Loyola University Health System plastic surgeons are seeing similar trends in their practice. The number of women who are getting breast implants also is up from last year. In 2011, 307,180 women nationwide underwent a breast augmentation procedure while 296, 203 women had the same surgery in 2010.

15 Feb 2012

New vaccine can prevent bacterial infection of orthopaedic implants

Methicillin resistant staph aureus (MRSA) infections are resistant to antibiotics and can cause a myriad of problems -- bone erosion, or osteomyelitis, which shorten the effective life of an implant and greatly hinder replacement of that implant. MRSA can result in prolonged disability, amputation and even death.

15 Feb 2012

Cartilage graft can stimulate bone regeneration

A person has a tumor removed from her femur. A soldier is struck by an improvised explosive device and loses a portion of his tibia. A child undergoes chemotherapy for osteosarcoma but part of the bone dies as a result.

14 Feb 2012

Diffusion-weighted MRI may effectively indicate response to ovarian cancer treatment

Cancer Research UK-funded scientists have determined that a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique, which measures the movement of water molecules within the tumour, may be the best way to monitor how women with late-stage ovarian cancer are responding to treatment. The study is published in the journal Radiology today.

14 Feb 2012

Canada organ donation rates plateau

A report released Monday by the Canadian Institute for Health Information reveals that public awareness campaigns and stories of grateful organ recipients have not done much to improve the number of organ donations in Canada. Donor rates have stagnated in the country since 2006 while thousands of Canadians continue to languish on wait lists for organs, the report adds.

14 Feb 2012

Abbott's Tacrolimus assay provides consistent medication monitoring for organ transplant patients

A new study published in the journal Clinical Chemistry reported Abbott's ARCHITECT Tacrolimus assay provides accurate and consistent medication monitoring for patients taking tacrolimus, an immunosuppressive medication, after receiving solid organ transplantation.

14 Feb 2012

Radiation treatment transforms breast cancer stem cells into new iBCSCs

Breast cancer stem cells are thought to be the sole source of tumor recurrence and are known to be resistant to radiation therapy and don't respond well to chemotherapy.

14 Feb 2012

Bilateral nerve sparing helps retain orgasmic function after prostrate cancer surgery

The vast majority of men who have a prostate cancer operation can retain their ability to orgasm if the surgery is carried out without removing the nerves that surround the prostate gland like a hammock, according to a study in the February issue of the urology journal BJUI.

14 Feb 2012

GAO finds big disparities in prices of some medical devices

News outlets examine a variety of health workplace issues, including a GAO report on medical device prices and efforts to get health workers vaccinated for the flu.

14 Feb 2012

Knee replacements double in 10 years, study says

More than 4 million Americans over 50 have artificial knees, according to a new study. ... "These data are sobering because we didn't know what an army of people we've created over the last decade," said study author Elena Losina, co-director of the Orthopedics and Arthritis Center for Outcomes Research at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital. ... Artificial knees also wear out after a period of time, so as the operations are increasingly done on younger Americans, many will live long enough to almost certainly need a second or even third knee replacement.

14 Feb 2012