Kidney failure patients on dialysis derive long-term benefit from the minimally invasive placement of a stent that improves the function of dialysis access grafts, according to 12-month clinical trial results being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans.

Tyrx announced the first implantation of its new AigisRx R Fully Resorbable Antibacterial Envelope has taken place at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute in Quebec City, Canada by Dr. François Philippon. Tyrx announced on Jan. 31, 2013 that it had received a license from Health Canada to market its AigisRx R Fully Resorbable technology.

Nanomix Inc. has initiated clinical testing in the United States to evaluate the omega-3 cardiac panel. The panel quantitatively tests whole blood specimens for levels of cardiac troponin I (cTnI), myoglobin and H-FABP, biomarkers often used as an aid in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction (MI). The initial testing will be conducted with approximately 170 normally healthy subjects and will provide baseline performance information that will form the basis of future registration clinical studies.

The Massachusetts General Hospital officially announced the launch of the Mass General Institute for Heart, Vascular and Stroke Care, one of the only institutes in the world to integrate cardiovascular and cerebrovascular care.

Colibri Heart Valve LLC has successfully completed the first clinical use of the company's proprietary transcatheter aortic heart valve. The Colibri transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) system is the world's first and only low profile, 14 French pre-mounted, pre-crimped, and pre-packaged, ready-for-use, TAVI system. These advantages are designed to reduce delivery profile along with a reduction in preparation and insertion time, which are not available in any other device, either currently available or in known development.

The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) reports on the “Ten Do’s and Don’ts for Improving Documentation in the Catheterization (Cath) Lab” based on studies by the Accreditation for Cardiovascular Excellence (ACE).

Lantheus Medical Imaging has entered into a new agreement with Fujifilm RI Pharma (FRI) to license and distribute Cardiolite (Kit for the Preparation of Technetium Tc99m Sestamibi for Injection) and Neurolite (Kit for the Preparation of Technetium Tc99m Bicisate for Injection) in Japan.