Manual compression remains the gold standard of care in sealing interventional access site wounds, but there is a trend toward newer technologies that promise to simplify post-operative care for nursing staff, requiring less monitoring time, helping increase patient throughput and maximizing the use of staff time.
The key players in the U.S. defibrillator-monitor market are Physio-Control, Philips and Zoll. These systems offer much more robust capabilities than consumer-grade automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). Today’s defibrillator-monitors offer 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs), remote wireless transmission of these waveforms to hospitals ahead of a patient’s arrival, and additional vital signs data. The systems are designed for use by both emergency medical services (EMS) and hospital code-blue teams.
Sudden cardiac arrest and acute myocardial infarction are two of the largest public health problems facing Western medicine. To improve this situation, access to accurate data to measure and benchmark treatments and outcomes is vital. Over the past two decades, Zoll Medical Corp. has built a suite of products for emergency medical service (EMS) and hospitals to address these issues and drive improvements in outcomes. More recently, Zoll’s focus has been on data integration, enabling data from multiple sources to provide a complete picture of patient care in these settings.
Providing exceptional cardiovascular care for patients to achieve the best possible outcomes is the number one goal for ...
With the approval of the Sapien valve in November 2011, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) technology is expected to revolutionize heart valve replacement with a minimally invasive procedure to replace open-heart surgery. However, it requires a good deal of planning, sizing and anatomical assessment of access routes using computed tomography (CT) scans with manipulation by advanced visualization software.
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Edwards Sapien transcatheter heart valve for patients with aortic stenosis (AS), who are not suitable for standard aortic valve replacement (AVR). This approval is a landmark event in cardiac medicine and will change the way patients with aortic valve disease are treated.
When the time nears for quarterly submissions to the American College of Cardiology (ACC)-National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR), most hospital cardiology departments around the country are scrambling. Numerous staff must work feverishly to manually collect the necessary information from different patient charts and then validate the accuracy of that data. It’s tedious, expensive and – thanks to information technology – unnecessary.
Cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) is growing in popularity among cardiologists because it provides the ability ...
February 1, 2012 — Boston Scientific announced the first patient use and European market launch of the Promus Element Plus everolimus-eluting coronary stent system. The first patient implant in Europe using the new device was performed by Professor Antonio Colombo, M.D., director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at Columbus Hospital and San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy.
February 1, 2012 — Toshiba America Medical Systems announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of the Aquilion prime computed tomography (CT) system, the latest addition to the Aquilion CT product line.
January 31, 2012 — At the upcoming February meeting of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) in Orlando, Fla. TomTec will introduce its 2-D Cardiac Performance Analysis magnetic resonance (MR) software product. The tool to quantify myocardial function and deformation based on regular cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
When performing radiofrequency (RF) ablation to treat cardiac arrhythmia, medical professionals must balance the safety ...
January 31, 2012 — Since its launch less than a year ago, more than one million computed tomography (CT) scans have been contributed to the American College of Radiology (ACR) Dose Index Registry (DIR) and compiled for analysis. The DIR currently has 326 registered facilities including private practices, hospital-based facilities and academic centers.
Updated appropriate use criteria offer detailed guidance on when to use an invasive procedure to improve blood flow to the heart and how to choose the best procedure for each patient. The clinical scenarios, written by a group of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, affirm the role of revascularization for patients with acute coronary syndromes and significant symptoms.
January 31, 2012 — Medtronic, Inc. announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and launch of the DF4 High-Voltage Connector System, a right ventricular lead and connector used with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds) to detect and accurately treat potentially life-threatening heart rhythms.
Change Healthcare Cardiology Hemodynamics is an integrated hemodynamic monitoring system for monitoring vital signs and ...
January 30, 2012 — Positron Corp., a molecular imaging healthcare company specializing in the field of nuclear cardiology, announced Jan. 23 that its wholly owned subsidiary, Manhattan Isotope Technology (MIT), received approval for its radioactive materials license amendment. The Texas Department of State Health Services -- Radiation Control Program granted the amendment approval.
January 30, 2012 — Medtronic, Inc. announced the completion of patient enrollment in the extreme risk study in its CoreValve United States Pivotal Trial. The company received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an extended investigation (under the FDA’s Continued Access Policy) to continue enrolling extreme risk patients under a Continued Access Study protocol.
January 30, 2012 — Expanded cholesterol assessment of moderate risk patients can play an important role in identifying and monitoring the progression of atherosclerosis. That’s according to a clinical study that used the Vertical Auto Profile (VAP) cholesterol test to analyze lipids potentially associated with carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT).