Clinical and Industry News

Cath Lab & Beyond Celebrates 10th Anniversary!

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:59:38 -0400

Despite the downturn in the economy, the unique cath lab training program, Cath Lab & Beyond, sponsored by the Continuing Education Consortium in Sacramento, California, continues to bring in the participants. In its 10th year of existence, Cath Lab & Beyond remains as popular and as timely as when it started. A lively group of fifty nurses and technologists, new to the cath lab or interested in learning more about a cath lab career, attended the five-day training program in April. This year, we were delighted to have several out-of-state participants, including five from Louisiana and two from Arizona. Topics covered in Cath Lab & Beyond include cardiovascular anatomy using heart dissection, review of cardiovascular disease processes, hemodynamic principles and monitoring, review of medications commonly administered in the cath lab, and a detailed overview of various diagnostic, therapeutic, and interventional coronary and peripheral procedures.

St. Mary Medical Center in Pennsylvania Sponsors Event in Support of Stroke Awareness Month

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:57:07 -0400

St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pa., hosted “Take 2 to Save 2” on May 2nd at the Northhampton Valley Country Club in partnership with the American Stroke Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The program featured nationally recognized gospel music performers Myron Butler and Dottie Peoples; comedian Charles Walden; and Dr. Emil Matarese, a national ambassador for the American Stroke Association’s “Power to End Stroke” campaign and director of the Primary Stroke Center at St. Mary Medical Center. Congressman Patrick Murphy was also in attendance and spoke at the event.

Guests received information regarding the warning signs, risk factors, and effects of stroke. In addition to the educational speaker program, attendees enjoyed gospel music performances, as well as dance and stand-up comedy routines.

Interruptions Associated With Medication Errors by Nurses

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:52:41 -0400

Nurses who are interrupted while administering medication appear to have an increased risk of making medication
errors, according to a report in the April 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Laboratory studies have demonstrated that interruptions during a task contribute to inefficiency and errors, the authors write as background information in the article. “Experimental studies suggest that interruptions produce negative impacts on memory by requiring individuals to switch attention from one task to another,” the authors write. “Returning to a disrupted task requires completion of the interrupting task and then regaining the context of the original task.”

Some Chest Pain Patients Can be Safely Monitored in the Emergency Department Waiting Room

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:48:19 -0400

Some chest pain patients may be safely monitored in the emergency department waiting room during very crowded periods when no other exam rooms are available. The results of a study of 1,107 chest pain patients are published online in Annals of Emergency Medicine (“Safety of Assessment of Patients with Potential Ischemic Chest Pain in an Emergency Department Waiting Room: A Prospective Comparative Cohort Study”).

LightLab Imaging Announces FDA Clearance of C7-Xr Coronary OCT Products

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:45:16 -0400

LightLab Imaging Inc., a pioneer in the development of optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology for vascular and other imaging applications, has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the C7-XR Imaging System and companion C7 Dragonfly Imaging Catheter. These products, incorporating LightLab’s latest-generation Frequency Domain OCT (FD-OCTTM) technology, are currently approved in over 35 countries in Europe and Asia, and have been used by leading hospitals to perform high-resolution imaging of vessel and lumen morphology in thousands of coronary interventions to date.

LightLab OCT utilizes near-infrared light to create images with 10 times the resolution of Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). LightLab OCT is a radiation-free* imaging system.

The proprietary LightLab OCT interferometer analyzes reflected light waves.

St. Jude Medical to Acquire LightLab Imaging

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:41:15 -0400

St. Jude Medical, Inc. and LightLab Imaging, Inc.
announced a definitive agreement under which St. Jude Medical will acquire LightLab, a subsidiary of Goodman Co., Ltd. for approximately $90 million in cash.

LightLab focuses on optical coherence tomography (OCT), a high-resolution diagnostic coronary imaging technology. Earlier this
month, LightLab received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of the first OCT products to be available in the United States. OCT diagnostic imaging technology has been shown to provide image resolution 10 times greater than intravascular ultra-sound imaging systems (IVUS) and 20 times faster image capture.

Clinical and Industry News

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:43:26 -0500

Importance of FFR in Treatment of Coronary Artery Disease Confirmed by New PCI Guidelines

Level of evidence for FFR upgraded to an “A” following the recent results of the landmark FAME trial, which demonstrated that FFR-guided treatment improves clinical outcomes

The American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA)/ Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) guidelines upgrade the level of evidence for FFR, a physiological measure of coronary stenosis, from a “B” to an “A” because of new research conducted to dete

Clinical and Industry News

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:41:36 -0500

Vascular Solutions Launches the Guardian® II Hemostasis Valve

Vascular Solutions, Inc. announces the availability of the Guardian® II Hemostasis Valve. Unlike conventional rotating hemostasis valves, the Guardian II has an ergonomic click-open and click-close design to provide protection during interventions and separation of multiple guidewires and other devices used in the catheterization procedure. A new and improved design of the original Guardian, the Guardian II has a shorter overall length, clear rotating components, and intuitive symbols added to the device. Manufac

Clinical and Industry News

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:50:11 -0500

Maquet Cardiovascular Announces Dedication of Its New United States Headquarters in Wayne, NJ

Relocation of manufacturing of cardiovascular medical devices from Puerto Rico to New Jersey creates 350 new jobs

Maquet Cardiovascular LLC, a global provider of cardiovascular technologies, celebrated and formally opened its new United States headquarters in Wayne, New Jersey. The dedication ceremony was attended by local and state dignitaries, the Maquet leadership team, and local employees from the company’s cardiovascular, critical care and surgical workplace divis

Clinical and Industry News

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:48:21 -0400

Black Patients Have Lower Rate of Survival After In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Compared with white patients, black patients who have an in-hospital cardiac arrest are significantly less likely to survive to hospital discharge, having lower rates of successful resuscitation and postresuscitation survival, although much of this survival difference was associated with the hospital in which black patients received care, according to a study in the September 16 issue of JAMA.

“Survival following in-hospital cardiac arrest represents a unique opportunity to examine racial disparities