Stroke patients who need emergency care should be taken to the nearest certified primary stroke center, which acts as a central point for stroke treatment, according to recommendations from the Brain Attack Coalition (BAC), a group representing medical, scientific, nonprofit and government leaders in the field of stroke. The recommendations, which reflect advances in stroke treatment over the past decade, are published online in the September issue of the journal Stroke.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released its “Strategic Plan for Regulatory Science,” a sweeping initiative to modernize the tools and methods that the agency uses to evaluate whether the products it regulates are effective and safe for consumers.

August 25, 2011 – Two articles in the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR)'s flagship publication, the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, report on studies related to peripheral arterial disease (PAD), coinciding with the approach of September's National PAD Awareness Month.

August 25, 2011 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released its list of pre-market approval (PMA) and 510(k) decisions for new or enhanced medical devices from June 2011. The list includes all FDA PMAs, product development protocols (PDP), supplement and notice decisions. This list is generated on a monthly basis.

August 24, 2011 -- Radiopharmaceuticals are pharmaceutical agents used to diagnose certain medical problems, such as cardiac, cancer or neurology, and/or treat certain conditions such as cancers. The use of radiopharmaceuticals as tracer dates back to 1930s.

August 24, 2011 — Cleveland HeartLab Inc. (CHL), a specialty clinical laboratory and disease management company, announced the completion of an $18.4-million Series B financing round. The rapidly growing company hopes to further accelerate market adoption of its advanced approach to assessing cardiovascular disease risk using biomarkers of inflammation. This approach includes the company’s CardioMPO test for circulating myeloperoxidase, the anchor of its proprietary inflammation panel.

August 23, 2011 — A new study shows heart attack patients are now being treated an average of 32 minutes faster than five years ago. This provides evidence a national campaign's success to treat heart attacks within 90 minutes in order to reduce heart damage and costs associated with treatment. This is according to David Holmes, M.D., FACC, president of the American College of Cardiology (ACC).