July 26, 2011 – The Resolute drug-eluting stent (DES) from Medtronic Inc. showed superiority to Boston Scientific Corp.’s Taxus DES on in-stent late lumen loss at eight months, the primary endpoint of the RESOLUTE Japan clinical study.

July 25, 2011 — Cardiac Science Corp., manufacturer of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and diagnostic cardiac monitoring devices, announced the new capability of direct communication between its HeartCentrix connectivity solution and the GE Healthcare Centricity EMR system.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it is amending the classification regulation for electrocardiograph (ECG) electrodes into a class II device category, exempting these devices from FDA clearances. This rule is effective as of Aug. 22, 2011.

July 21, 2011 – Concentric Medical Inc. announced the launch of the expanded family of Merci Retrievers in Japan for the treatment of ischemic stroke. With the addition of the V 2.0 Soft and V 3.0 Soft, through recent Ichihen Approval, the entire family of V Series Merci Retrievers are now approved and reimbursed in Japan. The Merci Retriever is a catheter-based medical device that stroke centers use to remove blood clots from the brains of patients suffering an ischemic stroke.

July 20, 2011 — IDEV Technologies Inc. announced the completion of enrollment in the SUPERB trial, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved IDE trial evaluating the use of IDEV's Supera stent system for treatment of peripheral artery disease (PAD) in the superficial femoral artery (SFA). Enrollment was completed in May, making SUPERB one of the fastest-enrolling SFA trials.

July 19, 2011 — Terumo Heart Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Terumo Corp., today announced that a patient implanted with the DuraHeart left ventricular assist system (LVAS) has surpassed five years of support on the mechanical circulatory support device. Helga Gieseke, living in Germany, was treated at The Deutsches Herzzentrum Berlin (DHZB, German Heart Institute Berlin) and is now one of the longest-living heart failure recipients of the DuraHeart LVAS device.

July 19, 2011 - The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) announces the first SCCT Arthur S. Agatston Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Award, recognizing individuals whose pioneering efforts have saved lives from coronary artery disease (CAD). Arthur Agatston, M.D., presented the award to the first recipients at the SCCT annual scientific meeting in Denver, Colo., on Saturday, July 16, 2011.

July 18, 2011 — OrbusNeich announced that data from an ex vivo arteriovenous (AV) shunt model of human circulating blood, in addition to results from three preclinical studies, demonstrated that the Genous Stent effectively captures circulating CD34+ endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). This leads to accelerated re-endothelialization and decreased thrombogenicity compared to bare metal stents (BMS). These mechanistic data were published as an e-publication on the European Heart Journal website.