October 5, 2010 – Data from a prospective study show physicians may benefit from knowing complication rates associated with pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) generator replacement and upgrade procedures. Results from the REPLACE Registry also established new benchmarks for making electrophysiology (EP) device replacement decisions.

October 5, 2010 – After a period of capital budget cuts and freezes, hospitals are seeing a thaw in capital expenditures, according to a survey published in the Premier healthcare alliance’s September 2010 Economic Outlook analysis.

October 4, 2010 – Germany will reimburse patients who have a left atrial appendage closure procedure in 2011. The 2011 G-DRG (German Diagnosis Related Group) catalog, recently published on the InEK website, adds the left atrial appendage closure procedure to an existing G-DRG code.

October 1, 2010 – The Bradenton Cardiology Center is the first clinic in the United States to implant a peripheral self-expanding stent as part of the OSPREY study. The trial, which is evaluating the safety and efficacy of Terumo’s Misago stent system in the superficial femoral artery (SFA), will simultaneously enroll patients in the United States and Japan.

October 1, 2010 – The maker of a biodegradable stent has brought in $8.5 million during a new round of venture financing from existing investors. Arterial Remodeling Technologies (ART) now has $17 million in total investment from Matignon Technologies, Amundi Private Equity Funds and InnoBio Fund managed by CDC Enterprises.

October 1, 2010 – The U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) has awarded two contracts to support the agency’s review of cardiac safety data. Both contracts were given to Mortara Instrument.