November 22, 2011 — The thoracic aorta can pose major problems for endovascular repair when there are tortuous segments. Navigating an endograft through difficult territory can prevent its precise placement, especially in the aortic arch. At this year’s VEITH Symposium, Tilo Koelbel, M.D., Ph.D., described techniques that can be used in this situation.

November 22, 2011 — The controversial subject of “indiscriminate” stenting to treat asymptomatic carotid stenosis (ACS) was addressed at the 38th annual VEITH Symposium.

November 21, 2011 — Boston Scientific has reached an exclusive agreement with Catheter Robotics Inc. (CRI) to market the CRI Amigo system, a remote-controlled catheter system and related accessories. The two companies will focus their efforts in select European countries.

November 21, 2011 — Micell Technologies Inc. announced the release of preliminary data from the first-in-human clinical study of the MiStent Sirolimus Drug Eluting Coronary Stent System (MiStent DES).

November 21, 2011: Each year, more than 600,000 Americans are stricken with a pulmonary embolism (PE), which is a clot in the lung. Without immediate help, almost half of these individuals may develop pulmonary hypertension, or worse, die. More Americans die each year from a PE than from AIDS, breast cancer and motor vehicle accidents combined. The current method of treatment has been high doses (100 mg) of a clot-dissolving drug administered intravenously over a two-hour period, or the use of anticoagulants. Unfortunately, high doses of clot-dissolving drugs have shown to cause bleeding, the worst of which is a hemorrhage in the brain. Anticoagulants help prevent more clot build up, but do not dissolve the blood clot. If your body does not dissolve the clot fast enough, the right side of the heart becomes enlarged trying to push blood past the clot and heart failure could occur.