Healthy Black Lives Also Matter
The Black Lives Matter ("BLM") movement's core message is that blacks across the gender spectrum are inherent to America's fabric and deserve better than disparate and inexplicably deadly treatment by a justice system constitutionally mandated to treat all Americans equally. The BLM movement has been so effectively organized, issue-oriented and influential that it even commands the attention of presidential hopefuls. Yet black lives, a durable fiber of our nation's history, are also fraying due to stresses beyond the criminal justice system, with many of the root causes directly related to health. Cultural and ethnic disp...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - September 11, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

HeartStitch touts new PFO closure method
Structural heart focused HeartStitch said today its NobleStitch EL device was used to repair 3 patients with patent forman ovale heart defects in Astana, Kazakhstan. A patent foramen ovale is a congenital heart disease in which hole in the heart that normally seals at birth remains open, and can lead to severe migraines, visual auras and stroke, the company said. The procedures were performed by Dr. Michael Mullen and guided by Anthony Nobles at the National Research Cardiac Surgery Center in Astana, according to the company. “We are gratified that our colleagues from abroad have brought this technology to Kazakhstan...
Source: Mass Device - September 11, 2015 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Fink Densford Tags: Cardiac Implants Cardiovascular HeartStitch Source Type: news

Marissa’s story: “Esophageal atresia is never going to define me”
Marissa Waite lives in the smallest town in Massachusetts, but she has a big story to tell. When her mother Vicky was pregnant with Marissa 13 years ago, an ultrasound detected esophageal atresia (EA), a condition where the esophagus isn’t connected to the stomach. Vicky was admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital for the remainder of her pregnancy. “I’m a take-charge kind of person. When I was pregnant, I thought, ‘I’ll make all the decisions for my baby.’ But when complications arose, I realized I couldn’t make these kinds of decisions alone,” she says. At that point, Marissa’s care team was born. Do...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - August 13, 2015 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Jenny Fernandez Tags: All posts Our patients’ stories esophageal atresia GERD Steven Fishman VSD Wayne Tworetzky Source Type: news

Teleflex updates on Q2 earnings, FDA clearances, acquisitions, deals & study data.
This study, when combined with the 2 earlier independent studies by the same team, shows that using an Arrow CVC with antimicrobial protection from Teleflex makes sense from many perspectives. This study is further evidence that using an unprotected catheter may put both patients and a hospital’s bottom line at unnecessary risk. The Arrow CVC with Arrow+ard Technology has been repeatedly shown to improve patient safety even when the risk of infection is low, and it more than pays for itself in the process,” vascular access division prez Jay White said in a prepared statement. The Arrow catheter also displaye...
Source: Mass Device - July 30, 2015 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Fink Densford Tags: 510(k) Business/Financial News Cardiovascular Catheters Food & Drug Administration (FDA) MassDevice Earnings Roundup Mergers & Acquisitions Regulatory/Compliance Surgical Teleflex Source Type: news

Case series: anxiety and agitation following exposure to the synthetic cannabinoid ADB-PINACA
3 out of 5 stars A Common Source Outbreak of Severe Delirium Associated with Exposure to the Novel Synthetic Cannabinoid ADB-PINACA. Schwartz MD et al. J Emerg Med 2015 May;48:573-80. Abstract As noted in a recent survey of synthetic cannabinoid exposures in the New England Journal of Medicine, the synthetic cannabinoid (SC) ADB-PINACA was associated with outbreaks in August and September 2013, both in Brunswick GA (22 cases) and Denver CO (> 220 exposures). This paper reports on 7 cases from the outbreak in Georgia. All patients tested positive for ADB-PINACA or its metabolic ADB-PINACA-5-Pentoic Acid in plasma a...
Source: The Poison Review - July 29, 2015 Category: Toxicology Authors: Leon Tags: Medical ADB-PINACA agitation anxiety black mamba case series crazy clown delirium synthetic cannabinoid Source Type: news

UCLA doctors use 3-D printed model to guide tricky heart valve replacement
​​Last summer, after a long career as a successful entrepreneur and a brief retirement, Richard Whitaker was helping to start another new company. Unfortunately, a serious health concern caused a couple of interruptions in his work on the new venture. One of Whitaker’s heart valves wasn’t working properly, which caused congestive heart failure and led to two hospitalizations within several months.  Whitaker, now 66, needed surgery to replace the valve, which regulates the blood being pumped from the heart to the lungs. But previous surgeries and the unique anatomy of his heart would have made conventional open-hea...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - July 1, 2015 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news

Cardiac Cath-Related Arterial Thrombosis in ChildrenCardiac Cath-Related Arterial Thrombosis in Children
How can we pick up more quickly on thrombus formation after cardiac catheterization in kids? Heart (Source: Medscape Today Headlines)
Source: Medscape Today Headlines - June 19, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cardiology Journal Article Source Type: news

Stricken marathon runner grateful for quick actions of his rescuers, medical team
A long-distance runner with more than 20 marathons under his belt, 61-year-old Charles Gold was at mile 22 of the Los Angeles Marathon in March and thinking about the finish line when it happened — he sank down on one knee, vaguely aware of the faces around him, before collapsing in cardiac arrest. Within minutes, Los Angeles Fire Department emergency medical technicians and firefighter/paramedics stationed along the race course arrived at his side to give him CPR, defibrillate his heart and provide other advanced life support measures. Shortly afterward, Gold arrived with the team at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center wh...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - June 12, 2015 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news

Kenslie’s story: A new brother and a new chance at life
February was a very busy month for the Shealy family from Lexington, South Carolina. Lori and Calvin were expecting the family’s fourth child. Their daughter Kenslie, 2, was ecstatic at the thought of a new baby brother. “When I was pregnant with Hollis, Kenslie kept asking when he was coming,” Lori says. “She’d say, ‘Mommy, can you just open up your belly? I want to see him.’” But Kenslie missed meeting Hollis the day he was born. Instead, she and Calvin were nearly 1,000 miles from home at Boston Children’s Hospital, where Kenslie, who had been diagnosed with midaortic syndrome, was battling for her l...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - May 27, 2015 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Erin Horan Tags: Heart conditions Our patients’ stories Heart Center midaortic syndrome Midaortic Syndrome and Renovascular Hypertension (MAS/RVH) Program Source Type: news

ECMC approved to restart cardiac cath lab
State officials this week approved a plan by Erie County Medical Center to reopen a cardiac catheterization lab. The $1.6 million investment also includes upgrades to outdated lab equipment in the lab at its Grider Street hospital in Buffalo. ECMC filed plans with the state Department of Health a month ago, with a goal of expanding on-site cardiology medicine services, diagnostic catheterization and thoracic services for trauma patients. The lab will support vascular interventions and cardiac… (Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Pharmaceuticals headlines)
Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Pharmaceuticals headlines - April 17, 2015 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Tracey Drury Source Type: news

Make the Diagnosis: Sore Spots on Feet
(MedPage Today) -- A 58 year-old woman presents two days after a cardiac catheterization with malaise, fatigue, and new violaceous livedoid lesions on her feet. She is also found to have mild acute renal dysfunction. What is the diagnosis? (Source: MedPage Today Cardiovascular)
Source: MedPage Today Cardiovascular - March 19, 2015 Category: Cardiology Source Type: news

Has CT Angiography Lived Up to Its Early Promise?
When it first appeared more than a decade ago computed tomographic angiography (CTA) astounded cardiologists and other physicians. Until it came along the only way to check for blockages in the vital coronary arteries that supply the heart itself with blood was with cardiac catheterization, an expensive, highly invasive and unpleasant procedure. In the following years CTA (the devices are manufactured by GE, Siemens, Toshiba, Philips and others) enjoyed an explosion of growth, fueled by enthusiasm for its ability to deliver speedy, high-resolution images of the coronary arteries. Many anticipated that CTA wo...
Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News - March 14, 2015 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Larry Husten Source Type: news

Appropriate Use Criteria for Diagnostic Catheterization Are Weak (FREE)
By Larry Husten Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Jaye Elizabeth Hefner, MD The appropriate use criteria (AUC) for diagnostic cardiac catheterization can provide a rough indication of when it should and shouldn't be performed, but more work needs to be done before … (Source: Physician's First Watch current issue)
Source: Physician's First Watch current issue - March 10, 2015 Category: Primary Care Source Type: news

Study Uncovers Confusion About When To Use An Important Heart Test
Appropriate use criteria (AUC) are designed to help make sure that medical procedures and interventions are performed in people most likely to benefit and, in turn, are not performed in people unlikely to gain benefit. Now a new study published in Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that the AUC for one very widely performed procedure, diagnostic cardiac catheterization, can provide a very rough indication of when it should and should not be performed, but that a great deal more work needs to be done before the criteria can be considered broadly reliable. (Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News)
Source: Forbes.com Healthcare News - March 9, 2015 Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Larry Husten Source Type: news

Kristin’s story: From open heart surgery patient to child life specialist
There’s a saying: “Life’s roughest storms prove the strength in our anchors.” I have faced many storms in my life, and my anchors have grounded me with hope and strength. I was born with complex congenital heart disease. By the time I was 36 hours old, I had been diagnosed with an atrial septal defect (ASD), ventricular septal defect (VSD), double outlet right ventricle, left and right ventricles reversed, dextracardia, mitral valve regurgitation and pulmonary stenosis. For many, this sounds like a long laundry list of defects, but for me and my family it became everyday life. At 10 days old, I underwent my first...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - February 24, 2015 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Guest Blogger Tags: Heart conditions Our patients’ stories congenital heart disease Heart Center Source Type: news