Cardiovascular Device Update articles from April 2004

Cardiovascular Device Update archives from April 2004

New devices expand the role of interventional cardiology.
April 1, 2004... NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- The annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology (ACC; Bethesda, Maryland), held here in early March, and attended by about 27,000 physicians, researchers and exhibitors, provided a forum for...

Results of SCD-HeFT show significant cut in death risk with ICDs.(ACC Scientific Sessions)(Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial)(implantable cardioverter defibrillators )
April 1, 2004... NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- Some of the most eagerly awaited data from this year's American College of Cardiology (ACC; Bethesda, Maryland) scientific sessions was presented at a late-breaking clinical trials session to an overflow crowd in one...

Small study compares Cypher, Taxus events.(ACC notebook)
April 1, 2004... NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- Even as Johnson & Johnson's (New Brunswick, New Jersey) Cordis (Miami Lakes, Florida) unit was roiling out results of a three-year trial of its Cypher drug-eluting stent (DES) during the American College of Cardiology...

Medtronic (Minneapolis, Minnesota) reported preliminary data from a clinical trial showing that stem cells were successfully deployed into damaged heart tissue by using the company's catheter system.(ACC notebook)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Medtronic (Minneapolis, Minnesota) reported preliminary data from a clinical trial showing that stem cells were successfully deployed into damaged heart tissue by using the company's catheter system. Results from the trial indicate that the...

Rubicon Medical's (Salt Lake City, Utah) Rubicon Filter was featured in three separate presentations.(ACC notebook)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Rubicon Medical's (Salt Lake City, Utah) Rubicon Filter was featured in three separate presentations. Eberhard Grube, MD, chief of cardiology at Heart Center Siegburg (Siegburg, Germany), cited the advantages of the Rubicon Filter compared to...

CardioDynamics (San Diego, California), developer of Impedance Cardiography (ICG) technology and the BioZ system, said Clyde Yancy MD, medical director of heart failure/heart transplantation at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and St. Paul University Hospital (both Dallas, Texas).(ACC notebook)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... CardioDynamics (San Diego, California), developer of Impedance Cardiography (ICG) technology and the BioZ system, said Clyde Yancy MD, medical director of heart failure/heart transplantation at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical...

Trial data supported cardiac imaging, or stress myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), a technique that evaluates the degree to which the heart lacks blood flow, as a method to help physicians assess the treatment needs of heart attack survivors and the risk of a second heart attack.(ACC notebook)
April 1, 2004... Trial data supported cardiac imaging, or stress myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), a technique that evaluates the degree to which the heart lacks blood flow, as a method to help physicians assess the treatment needs of heart attack survivors...

SonoSite.(ACC notebook)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... SonoSite (Bothell, Washington), a global leader in hand-carried ultrasound products, introduced new cardiology capabilities to the Titan system, its newest-generation, high-resolution system. SonoSite said customer deliveries are scheduled for...

Volcano Therapeutics.(ACC notebook)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Volcano Therapeutics (Rancho Cordova, California) reported the global launch of its Eagle Eye intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging catheter. The company said the Eagle Eye IVUS catheter provides improved overall image quality and superior...

Schering-Plough (Kenilworth, New Jersey) and Merck and Co. (Whitehouse Station, New Jersey) said their experimental cholesterol drug Vytorin, which combines Merck's Zocor (simvastatin) with a new drug, ezetimibe, outperformed Pfizer's (New York) sector-leading Lipitor in a trial.(ACC notebook)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Schering-Plough (Kenilworth, New Jersey) and Merck and Co. (Whitehouse Station, New Jersey) said their experimental cholesterol drug Vytorin, which combines Merck's Zocor (simvastatin) with a new drug, ezetimibe, outperformed Pfizer's (New...

For its part, Pfizer said the Aggressive Lipid-Lowering Initiation Abates New Cardiac Events (ALLIANCE) trial indicated that patients taking Lipitor experienced 47% fewer non-fatal heart attacks compared to patients receiving standard care.(ACC notebook)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... For its part, Pfizer said the Aggressive Lipid-Lowering Initiation Abates New Cardiac Events (ALLIANCE) trial indicated that patients taking Lipitor experienced 47% fewer non-fatal heart attacks compared to patients receiving standard care....

Group eyes improved access to technology.(Report from Europe)
April 1, 2004... A CDU Staff Report Organizations representing patients, healthcare workers, academics, health experts and the medical technology industry have reported the creation of a new alliance, Health First Europe (Brussels, Belgium). Health First...

Endeavor II stent trial expanded.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The first implant in an expansion of Medtronic's (Minneapolis, Minnesota) ENDEAVOR II clinical trial in Europe took place last month at the Hospital of the Merciful Brother (Trier, Germany). The expanded trial arm is directed toward increasing...

Applied Medical Resources.(Acquisitions)(Gembro Pty Ltd.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Applied Medical Resources (Rancho Santa Margarita, California) has acquired Gembro Pty Ltd., a privately held Australian company specializing in distribution of medical and surgical healthcare products. Gembro Pty Ltd., conducting business as...

CardioDynamics.(Acquisitions)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... CardioDynamics (San Diego, California), the developer of Impedance Cardiography (ICG) technology, said it has acquired privately held Vermed, the electrode division of Vermont Medical (Bellows Falls, Vermont), an independent manufacturer of...

Heartlab.(Acquisitions)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Heartlab (Westerly, Rhode Island), a developer of cardiac image and information management software, said it will purchase CardioNow (Encinitas, California), a provider of telecardiology and image archiving solutions to hospitals,...

Pediatrix Medical Group.(Acquisitions)(Rocky Mountain Pediatric Cardiology )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Pediatrix Medical Group (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) has completed the acquisition of Rocky Mountain Pediatric Cardiology (Denver, Colorado), a physician group practice. The group includes three pediatric cardiologists who practice at two...

Rex Medical.(Acquisitions)(Datascope Interventional Products Division)(Cleaner Rotational Thrombectomy System )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Rex Medical (Conshohocken. Pennsylvania) has completed an agreement for the sale of the Cleaner Rotational Thrombectomy System to Datascope's (Montvale, New Jersey) Interventional Products Division. The Cleaner product will be marketed under...

Wilson Greatbatch Technologies.(Acquisitions)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Wilson Greatbatch Technologies (WGT; Clarence, New York), a developer and manufacturer of batteries, capacitors, feedthroughs, enclosures and other components used in implantable medical devices, said it has completed the acquisition of...

Zoll Medical.(Acquisitions)(Infusion Dynamics)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Zoll Medical (Chelmsford, Massachusetts), a manufacturer of non-invasive cardiac resuscitation devices, has acquired Infusion Dynamics (Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania). Infusion Dynamics, incorporated in 1995, manufactures a fluid resuscitation...

Edwards brings AAA program to a halt.(Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms)
April 1, 2004... Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, California) reported this month that it is discontinuing its Lifepath AAA endovascular graft program for treating abdominal aortic aneurysms in order to shift some of its developmental resources to other areas. The...

GMP rolls out wireless LifeSync monitoring.(Business Development)
April 1, 2004... Wireless is everywhere, wireless phones attached to nearly every ear and wireless laptops becoming just as ubiquitous. But for healthcare, wireless systems are experiencing relative infancy. Now, GMP Wireless Medicine, a subsidiary business of...

Angiotech Pharmaceuticals.(Agreements)(Poly-Med)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Angiotech Pharmaceuticals (Vancouver, British Columbia), a specialty pharmaceutical company focusing on drug-coated medical devices and biomaterials, said it has licensed a portfolio of biomaterial, drug delivery and medical device technologies...

Philips Medical Systems.(Agreements)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Philips Medical Systems (Andover, Massachusetts) has signed a long-term strategic alliance with Fletcher Allen Health Care (Burlington, Vermont), which in alliance with the University of Vermont College of Medicine is Vermont's only academic...

Zeon Medical (Tokyo) has concluded an exclusive distribution agreement for the sales and marketing in Japan of Pathway Medical Technologies' (Redmond, Washington) aspiration atherectomy device, the CardioPath System.(Agreements)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Zeon Medical (Tokyo) has concluded an exclusive distribution agreement for the sales and marketing in Japan of Pathway Medical Technologies' (Redmond, Washington) aspiration atherectomy device, the CardioPath System. Zeon plans to start...

Zoll Medical (Chelmsford, Massachusetts), a manufacturer of non-invasive cardiac resuscitation devices, reported receiving a three-year, multi-source contract with group purchasing organization Premier (San Diego, California).(Agreements)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Zoll Medical (Chelmsford, Massachusetts), a manufacturer of non-invasive cardiac resuscitation devices, reported receiving a three-year, multi-source contract with group purchasing organization Premier (San Diego, California), authorizing...

Large airliners now with on-board AEDs.(Automated External Defibrillators.)
April 1, 2004... As of April 12, all large commercial jets must be equipped with an automated external defibrillator (AED). The mandated equipment is part of a rule promulgated four years ago by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA; Washington), requiring...

Growth factor produces new arteries.(Market Updates)
April 1, 2004... Three patients at the University of Cincinnati (UC; Cincinnati, Ohio) and The University Hospital have grown new coronary arteries to increase blood flow to the heart after receiving a new growth factor protein (FGF1) in November 2003. All...

Catheter shows 'differential effect'.(Market Updates)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The pulmonary artery catheter, a device used to monitor heart function in critically ill patients, has a differential effect on survival, based on illness severity, according to an article in the April issue of Critical Care Medicine. The use...

Atherotech.(Personal File)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Atherotech (Birmingham, Alabama) has named Ricky Thomas chief financial officer. Thomas brings more than 24 years of financial and accounting experience to the company. Atherotech is a specialty reference laboratory focused on improving the...

CardioTech International.(Personal File)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Les Taeger has been promoted to chief financial officer of CardioTech International (Wilmington, Massachusetts). He had been CFO of the Gish Biomedical division of CardioTech, which was acquired in April of last year. Taeger joined Gish in...

Vasomedical.(Personal File)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Photios (Fred) Paulson has been named interim president and chief executive officer of Vasomedical (Westbury, New York). Paulson replaces Gregory Cash, who resigned to pursue a business opportunity in Europe. Paulson has been a director of...

AbioCor procedure occurs in Houston.(Product Pipeline)(AbioCor replacement heart )
April 1, 2004... The first implantation of an AbioCor Replacement Heart since last May was reported in early March by the device's manufacturer, Abiomed (Danvers, Massachusetts). Abiomed said the implantation, the 12th in a clinical trial that began in July...

Access CardioSystems.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Access CardioSystems (Concord, Massachusetts) unveiled its Biphasic WaveControl clinical study results at the American College of Cardiology (ACC; Bethesda, Maryland) scientific sessions last month in New Orleans, Louisiana. The study...

Aventis.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Aventis (Bridgewater, New Jersey) reported that the ORIGIN (Outcome Reduction with Initial Glargine Intervention) trial has entered the active recruitment phase and has enrolled more than 400 patients to date. The trial is the first major...

Biotronik.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Biotronik (Lake Oswego, Oregon) reported the market release and subsequent nationwide implantations of its Lexos implantable cardiac defibrillator, the only device available in a small, physiologic shape that provides completely automated,...

Boston Scientific.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Boston Scientific (Natick, Massachusetts) reported the start of enrollment in the ARRIVE registry program, which plans to enroll 2,000 patients at about 50 centers in the U.S. It is designed to collect and analyze "real-world" safety and...

Cardiac Science.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Cardiac Science (Irvine, California) reported the marketing launch of a new fourth-generation automated external defibrillator (AED) that targets sophisticated users of lifesaving equipment such as hospital personnel, medical professionals,...

Cardima.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Cardima (Fremont, California) reported the first clinical use, in an electrophysiology application, of its Inellitemp radio frequency (RF) energy management device in conjunction with its Revelation series microcatheter to treat atrial...

CardioDynamics.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... CardioDynamics (San Diego, California), which offers Impedance Cardiography (ICG) technology, reported the publication of an ICG hypertension study in the February issue of Congestive Heart Failure showing a 57% blood pressure control rate in...

Chase Medical.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Chase Medical (Richardson, Texas) said results of a study on heart failure patients who received its TRISVR (tri-saver) surgery were presented at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons meeting in San Antonio, Texas. The TRISVR procedure, a surgical...

CHF Solutions.(Product Pipeline)(Minnesota Heart Failure Consortium )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... CHF Solutions (Brooklyn Park, Minnesota) reported that the Minnesota Heart Failure Consortium (MHFC; Minneapolis, Minnesota), a non-profit research organization, has launched a clinical study of the company's System 100 Fluid Removal System, a...

Digirad.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Digirad (San Diego, California) reported the release of its OptiCount collimator that increases the organ sensitivity of Digirad's nuclear cardiology imaging systems by an average of 15% per detector head, while maintaining the same level of...

Edwards Lifesciences.(Product Pipelines)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, California) said it has received FDA approval for its ThermaFix process, an advanced tissue treatment developed to mitigate calcification of tissue heart valve leaflets. The ThermaFix process was co-developed with...

Medtronic.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Medtronic (Minneapolis, Minnesota) said it has received FDA approval for the first fully automated pacemaker to speed up slowly beating hearts. Enpulse is the first implantable pacemaker that does not require a doctor to regularly measure the...

OmniSonics Medical Technologies.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... OmniSonics Medical Technologies (Wilmington, Massachusetts) said it has been granted three U.S. patents covering its OmniWave Technology platform: U.S. patent No. 6,695,782, titled "Ultrasonic probe device with rapid attachment and detachment...

Rubicon Medical.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Rubicon Medical (Salt Lake City, Utah) reported that its Rubicon Filter was showcased at the Joint Interventional Meeting (JIM; Rome, Italy) during a live broadcast of a human case. The surgery involved the successful use of the Rubicon Filter...

Sono-Tek.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Sono-Tek (Milton, New York) reported the first sales of its stand-alone AccuMist stent coating system, a tool designed for use in developing processes to spray coat arterial stents with polymers containing drugs that inhibit the development of...

Thermogenesis.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Thermogenesis (Rancho Cordova, California) reported that Asahi Medical (Tokyo), the exclusive licensed distributor of its CryoSeal System in Japan, has completed a 70-patient clinical trial on cardiovascular, orthopedic, neurosurgery and...

Toshiba America Medical Systems.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Toshiba America Medical Systems (Tustin, California) introduced a new version of 3-D vascular imaging technology for its Infinix i-series line of vascular X-ray systems. New 3-D fusion digital subtraction angiography (3D-FDSA) technology...

Trimedyne.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Trimedyne (Irvine, California) reported that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has allowed 17 claims of its patent application on a new Laser Balloon Catheter intended to treat mitral valve prolapse in a minimally invasive procedure. The...

Vasomedical.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Vasomedical (Westbury, New York) reported that it has been granted FDA clearance for revised labeling on all of its currently available enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) systems. Congenital heart diseases, pacemakers, bundle branch...

WorldHeart (Ottawa, Ontario) submitted an application to the FDA last month to start a pivotal study under the existing investigational device exemption for use of Novacor LVAS for destination therapy.(Product Pipeline)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... WorldHeart (Ottawa, Ontario) submitted an application to the FDA last month to start a pivotal study under the existing investigational device exemption for use of Novacor LVAS for destination therapy. A response from the FDA is anticipated...