November 24, 2010 – Results for a trial comparing a drug-eluting stent to balloon angioplasty and bare metal stenting in treating restenosis after angioplasty were announced at the VEITHsymposium. The Zilver PTX drug-eluting stent met the trial's 12-month primary endpoints. The stent has CE mark approval in Europe for the superficial femoral artery.

November 24, 2010 – Cardiologists and primary care physicians now perceive AstraZeneca's Crestor as comparable to Pfizer’s Lipitor in treating and reducing mortality in dyslipidemia patients, according to a survey by Decision Resources. This finding has changed from Decision Resources' 2009 analysis in which surveyed cardiologists viewed Lipitor as significantly better.

November 23, 2010 - The preliminary findings of the CREST study have so far failed to squelch the debate between proponents of the two different interventions for preventing stroke in patients with carotid stenosis. And at least one prominent vascular surgeon sees a most-unscientific phenomenon - “presenter bias” - as one reason the controversy is likely to continue.

November 23, 2010 – A device for peripheral transluminal angioplasty (PTA) and for capturing and containing embolic material during angioplasty in the lower extremities has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Proteus device, by Angioslide, can be used in the femoral, iliac, iliofemoral, popliteal, tibial, peroneal and profunda arteries.

November 23, 2010 - A new technique that combines the heat and energy of ultrasound with the highly targeted delivery of clot-busting drugs appears to be effective at treating patients with acute massive pulmonary embolism (PE). The new treatment, called ultrasound-accelerated catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT), was developed by the Ekos Corporation.

November 22, 2010 – At the VEITHsymposium, physicians debated whether stents are usually required in the endovenous treatment of chronic venous disease. Seshadri Raju M.D., professor emeritus of surgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Flowood, Miss., said that detectable iliac vein stenosis is present in more than 90 percent of cases of chronic venous disease (CVD).

November 22, 2010 - An implantable medical device used in the minimally invasive treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms delivered strong results through one year of patient follow-up in a U.S. pivotal study. The trial data, which was presented at the VEITHsymposium, looked at the Endurant Stent Graft System, by Medtronic.