January 27, 2012 — Crux Biomedical announced it received CE mark approval for its inferior vena cava filter (IVCF) with bi-directional retrieval (BDR). Vena cava filters are designed to trap blood clots that can lead to a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism (PE). Each year in the United States, approximately 600,000 patients develop a PE and an estimated 200,000 deaths occur.

January 26, 2012 — Heart Hospital of Austin opened a heart valve clinic, the first of its kind in the region. The clinic gives new hope to patients with severe aortic stenosis who were previously considered inoperable, offering a multidisciplinary approach to evaluating such cases.

January 26, 2012 — Amorcyte LLC, a NeoStem company, announced the enrollment of the first patient in the Amorcyte PreSERVE Phase II trial for acute myocardial infarction. The study is a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of infarct-related artery infusion of AMR-001, an autologous bone marrow derived cell therapy enriched for CD34+ cells.

January 25, 2012 — Which Medical Device announced the winner of its Device of the Year Award 2011 in the cardiology category.

January 25, 2012 — Terumo Cardiovascular Systems announced today that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with LAAx Inc. to distribute the TigerPaw System II, a left atrial appendage (LAA) closure device in the United States.

January 23, 2012 – Boston Scientific Corp. said the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey has found all the asserted patents for a coronary stent in a lawsuit brought by Johnson & Johnson to be invalid and entered judgment in favor of Boston Scientific.