The sensor, approved by the FDA last month, promises a more effective, cheaper and safer way to make sure the stents are working.

The device, made by CardioMEMS Inc., is implanted in the aneurysm sac.

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Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have advanced atherosclerosis compared with nondiabetics. Restenosis after intracoronary stent implantation occurs frequently in diabetic patients. Angiotensin II is an important growth factor for the development of neointimal hyperplasia after vascular injury. The aim of our study was to evaluate the relationships between angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism and coronary artery disease (CAD) and stent restonosis in diabetic patients.

Published in the  International Heart Journal
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Published in  Catheter Cardiovasc Interv. 2005 Dec 5

In the early years of diagnostic cardiac catheterization, strict sterile precautions were required for cutdown procedures. Thirteen years ago, when the original guidelines were written, the brachial arteriotomy was still frequently utilized, femoral closure devices were uncommon, “implantables,” such as intracoronary stents and PFO/ASD closure devices, were in their infancy, and percutaneous valve replacement was not a consideration. In 2005, the cardiac catheterization laboratory is a complex interventional suite with percutaneous access routine and device implantation standard. Despite frequent device implantation, strict sterile precautions are often not observed. Reasons for this include a decline in brachial artery cutdown, limited postprocedure follow-up with few reported infections, limited use of hats and masks in televised cases, and lack of current guidelines. Proper sterile technique has the potential to decrease the patient infection rate. Hand washing remains the most important procedure for preventing infections. Caps, masks, gowns, and gloves help to protect the patient by maintaining a sterile field. Protection of personnel may be accomplished by proper gowning, gloving, and eye wear, disposal of contaminated equipment, and prevention and care of puncture wounds and lacerations. With the potential for acquired disease from blood-borne pathogens, the need for protective measures is as essential in the cardiac catheterization laboratory as is the standard Universal Precautions, which are applied throughout the hospital.

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 A systematic literature search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Database for Systematic Reviews and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and the American Heart Association EndNote 7 Master Library databases, was performed to 2004 for relevant published studies. The level of evidence and the quality of the study design and methods were rated by 2 reviewers according to a standardized classification. A quantitative meta-analysis was performed to assess the effect at 6–12 months on mortality of immediate or early PCI after thrombolysis.

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American College of Cardiology/Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions Clinical Expert Consensus Document on Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Standards.

45 pages document. Download it in the PDF

Boston Scientifiс Corp. said Thursday it is recalling 40,000 devices used to treat blocked coronary arteries, saying it has received eight complaints that the end of the device became detached as it was removed from the patient, requiring more surgery in three cases.

The recall affects all Flextome cutting angioplasty balloon devices that the Food and Drug Administration approved in September.

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 At the center of the proposed merger of Boston Scientific Corp. and Guidant Corp. lie two highly profitable heart-repair devices that have boosted their makers’ bottom lines, but are also part of a technology boom that has sharply increased the cost of healthcare in the United States.

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The company has developed and is currently testing next generation alternatives for use in site-specific drug elution.

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When life-threatening problems occur during angioplasty procedures, doctors may perform emergency coronary artery bypass graft surgery, but data from the Mayo Clinic indicates that need to send patients to emergency surgery has dropped sharply, according to a new study in the Dec. 6, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

“We knew there had been a reduction, but the magnitude of the reduction was a surprise to us,” Dr. Singh said. “The bypass surgery rates, which were close to 3 percent, came down to 0.3 percent in the most recent time period.”

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I’ll come back in one week.

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FLEXSTENT MED. CORP is a CE and ISO9001 certified company, which professionally manufacture the series of Ni-Ti Alloy thermal memory stents and their introducer systems for esophagus, bile duct, trachea, bronchus, prostate and colon, we established a tech centre, specializing in developing and improving medical self expanding lumen stents, our foremost mission has always been to produce reliable, superior quality products for the clinical application. Especially, all those are based on competitive and cost effective prices.

Yesterday evening we changed site scripts. Now adding the news is quite simple.
Tomorrow I’ll begin post my Favorites to interesting WEB-sites.

Researchers at the Silicon Valley office of Applied Research Associates, Inc. have applied advanced computational codes to improve the design of a range of biomedical devices. They are developing interactive graphical user interfaces to allow designers to optimize stent designs without requiring extensive knowledge of finite element techniques.

Applied Research Associates

Article published in last issue Jornal “Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy”.
This article reviews the potential role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of restenosis and the efficacy of dexamethasone in the prevention of restenosis. Dexamethasone (Decadron®, Merck Sharpe and Dohme Ltd) is a glucocorticoid with well-known potent anti-inflammatory and antiproliferative properties.

Here is abstract