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Electric Stimulation Gives Robot-Assistive Surgery a Sense of Touch
A team of researchers at Texas A&M have performed studies evaluating how electrical stimulation can help users control robots, for example helping surgeons steady their movements during robot-assisted procedures. They found, in 11 subjects, that small electrical stimulations to the fingertips can help users control the pinching of a hardwood block with a robotic arm. These findings can one day help stabilize and improve control of surgical robots. In many surgical robots, visual feedback is the only type of feedback surgeons have of their movements; it is hard to know how close the instruments are to each and...
Source: Medgadget - April 30, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Siavash Parkhideh Tags: Cardiac Surgery Neurosurgery Orthopedic Surgery Plastic Surgery Thoracic Surgery Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs

Occam ’s Razor and COVID-19 Hospitalization Rates
By JASON Z. ROSE It’s amazing that the word “medication” is not mentioned in a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The research states that a staggering 90% of people hospitalized for COVID-19 have underlying conditions, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease, all of which require drug treatments for patients to remain healthy. Yet nowhere in the report is there mention of how patients can potentially prevent COVID-19 related health decline through better medication use for their underlying disease....
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 29, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy adhere health covid-19 hospitalization rates jason rose Source Type: blogs

Brown vs white adipose tissue roles of pericardial fat
This study was conducted using serum and adipose tissue samples collected from pericoronary depots in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting and patients without coronary artery disease undergoing aortic valve replacement [3]. Adipokine synthesis pattern of epicardial also changes in obesity and dyslipidemia. Adiponectin synthesis comes down and proinflammatory adipokines like leptin, tumour necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 1 beta, interleukin 6 and resistin gets synthesised. These are proinflammatory, causing macrophage infiltration, destruction of microvasculature and increase in fibrosis [1]. In one study...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 28, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis Tags: Cardiology Source Type: blogs

Lungpacer Diaphragm Pacer Gets FDA Emergency Use Authorization for COVID-19
Lungpacer Medical, based in Vancouver, Canada, announced that its Diaphragm Pacing Therapy (DPT) System received FDA Emergency Use Authorization for use in weaning COVID-19 patients off of ventilators. Patients on prolonged mechanical ventilation may experience diaphragm disuse atrophy and ventilator-induced diaphragmatic dysfunction (VIDD), which makes it harder for patients to breathe on their own and increases the amount of time required on ventilation. The Lungpacer DPT System is designed to prevent or reverse VIDD. The Lungpacer DPT System uses a temporary multi-electrode catheter (LIVE catheter) to electric...
Source: Medgadget - April 27, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Cici Zhou Tags: Anesthesiology Cardiology Critical Care Medicine Neurology Public Health Rehab Surgery Source Type: blogs

Pulmonary thromboendarterectomy
Pulmonary thromboendarterectomy is the standard surgical treatment for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) if the surgical risk is reasonable to tolerate a prolonged surgery. The centre and surgeon should also have adequate annual volume of cases to maintain competence. CTEPH may occur in about 4% of patients after an episode of acute pulmonary thromboembolism over a one year period. There are persons with CTEPH who do not have a distinct previous history of acute pulmonary embolism as well. Pulmonary thromboendarterectomy is a technically challenging procedure and hence the importance of operator’...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 25, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis Tags: Cardiac Surgery chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension CTEPH Source Type: blogs

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CETPH)
Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) may occur in about 2-4% of patients presenting with acute pulmonary embolism. It is considered when mean pulmonary artery pressure persists at or above 25 mm Hg after an episode of pulmonary thromboembolism [1]. Though it is a rare complication of pulmonary embolism, mortality and morbidity are significant. Upto 90% three year mortality has been reported in those with mean pulmonary artery pressures above 50 mm Hg. Majority of those with CETPH may not give a history suggestive of previous presentation with acute pulmonary embolism. In those who developed CETPH after pu...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 24, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis Tags: Cardiology CETPH CTPH Source Type: blogs

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH)
Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) may occur in about 2-4% of patients presenting with acute pulmonary embolism. It is considered when mean pulmonary artery pressure persists at or above 25 mm Hg after an episode of pulmonary thromboembolism [1]. Though it is a rare complication of pulmonary embolism, mortality and morbidity are significant. Upto 90% three year mortality has been reported in those with mean pulmonary artery pressures above 50 mm Hg. Majority of those with CTEPH may not give a history suggestive of previous presentation with acute pulmonary embolism. In those who developed CTEPH after pu...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 24, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis Tags: Cardiology CTEPH CTPH Source Type: blogs

Xenoscope Disposable 5mm Laparoscope FDA Cleared
Xenocor, a Salt Lake City company, won FDA clearance for its Xenoscope 5mm articulating disposable laparoscope. The device requires no sterilization re-processing between procedures and is thrown away after it’s used, avoiding the necessity for servicing contracts. The entire system being quite compact, it doesn’t need its own large image processing tower. “Disposable laparoscopes can reduce hospital costs and prevent cross-contamination between patients,” said John Langell MD, President, NEOMED, Greater Cleveland, in a Xenocor press release. “Disposable scopes can also reduce downtime and ...
Source: Medgadget - April 21, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Ob/Gyn Surgery Thoracic Surgery Urology Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs

Weight-loss surgery may lower risk of heart disease in people with diabetes
Obesity is a serious, chronic, treatable, and global disease epidemic. Over 98 million people currently have the disease of obesity, and in a recent New England Journal of Medicine article, Harvard researchers predicted that by 2030, 50% of the population in the United States will have the disease of obesity. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is significantly associated with obesity. While many people with obesity do not have diabetes, most people with T2D have the disease of obesity. Excess adiposity (body fat storage), which is present in obesity, contributes to many chronic diseases beyond T2D. These include high blood pressure, he...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 16, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Angela Fitch, MD Tags: Diabetes Diet and Weight Loss Health Heart Health Surgery Source Type: blogs

Left ventricular assist device (LVAD)
Left ventricular assist device is used to support the failing left ventricle when it is refractory to guideline directed medical therapy. It can be either a bridge to cardiac transplantation or a destination therapy. In general, cardiac transplantation offers better long term surival compared to LVAD according data available from devices except the most recent. As per the The Registry of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation: Thirty-fourth Adult Heart Transplantation Report-2017 [1], there were 126,753 pediatric and adult heart transplants between 1982 and June 2015. Median survival was 10.7 years i...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 16, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis Tags: Cardiac Surgery LVAD Source Type: blogs

Left atrial appendage closure devices
Anticoagulation for prevention of stroke is a well established modality of treatment in atrial fibrillation. But a significant number of them have bleeding complications. Hence the option of left atrial appendage closure with multiple types of devices have been developed. Left atrial appendage with its sluggish flow is the most common location for thrombus formation in atrial fibrillation. Following devices have been used with varying success: Watchman Amplatzer Cardiac Plug/Amulet Lariat suture ligation Atriclip PROTECT-AF (Watchman Left Atrial Appendage System for Embolic Protection in Patients With Atrial Fibrillatio...
Source: Cardiophile MD - April 15, 2020 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis Tags: Cardiology Source Type: blogs

Recognizing and treating depression may help improve heart health
Depression affects about 20% of Americans in their lifetime, and is one of the leading causes of disability. The rates of depression are even higher in those with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Depression affects 38% of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and the risk of depression is three times as high in patients who have experienced a heart attack compared with the general population. Depression also makes it much more likely that CVD patients will be readmitted to the hospital and report heart-related symptoms. Yet much of the time, symptoms of depression in those with CVD go unrecognized. And as ...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 2, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alyson Kelley-Hedgepeth, MD Tags: Anxiety and Depression Health Heart Health Source Type: blogs

Next-Gen TherOx SuperSaturated Oxygen Delivery System FDA Approved
ZOLL Medical, now a part of Asahi Kasei Group, won FDA approval for the latest version of its TherOx System. The product is designed to deliver SuperSaturated Oxygen (SSO2) therapy to limit heart muscle loss following “widowmaker” heart attacks, aka left anterior descending ST-elevation myocardial infarction (LAD STEMI) chronic total obstruction. The system is used right after blood flow is restored during angioplasty and stent implantation to pump hyperbaric levels of oxygen straight into injured cardiac tissue. It’s important that this happens within six hours of the onset of symptoms. “SSO2 Therap...
Source: Medgadget - April 1, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Cardiac Surgery Cardiology Emergency Medicine Radiology Source Type: blogs

Artificial Intelligence Discovers Unusual Associations in Medicine
Artificial intelligence does wonders in healthcare. The technology helped issue the first COVID-19 warning before the WHO and CDC did so. It can slash the phenomenon of alarm fatigue. IBM’s Watson Health leverages the power of A.I. to bring drugs to the market faster. And it does so while cutting costs by over 50%. Speaking of IBM Watson, while the algorithm got its name from the company’s founder Thomas J. Watson, there’s another pop culture figure attached to that name. It’s elementary; we’re talking about none other than Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick, Dr. Watson. It seems like real-world A. I. is taking after...
Source: The Medical Futurist - March 26, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Artificial Intelligence AI digital health Healthcare Medicine technology Source Type: blogs

ViTrack for Direct, Continuous, Non-Invasive Blood Pressure Monitoring: Interview with CEO of Dynocardia, Dr. Mohan Thanikachalam
Most modern blood pressure cuffs use the oscillometric technique, in which the cuff measures one value (mean arterial pressure) and an algorithm calculates systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings. However, this indirect method can produce inaccuracies, and single-point measurements lead to an inaccurate hypertension diagnosis in 30% of patients. While intraarterial lines can be used for direct and continuous blood pressure readings, they are highly invasive and reserved for inpatient use. ViTrack is different: it is a direct, continuous, yet non-invasive way of measuring systolic and diastolic blood pressures. ...
Source: Medgadget - March 23, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Cici Zhou Tags: Anesthesiology Cardiology Critical Care Diagnostics Emergency Medicine Exclusive Pediatrics Source Type: blogs