Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Blogs This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Breath Analyzer for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a condition in which fluid leaks into the lungs and builds up in the alveoli within. It is a rapidly progressive condition that often leads to terminal consequences, yet it can be difficult to diagnose and monitor. Now, researchers at University of Michigan have developed a portable device that analyzes a patient’s breath to provide quick and objective results that can help to manage the disease. The gas chromatography system is about the size of a briefcase. It can perform its analysis from start to finish in about a half hour, providing results with about 90%...
Source: Medgadget - August 2, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Anesthesiology Cardiac Surgery Cardiology Critical Care Diagnostics Emergency Medicine Pediatrics Thoracic Surgery Source Type: blogs

Rates of cardiac testing prior to hip fracture surgery
(Source: Notes from Dr. RW)
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - August 1, 2019 Category: Internal Medicine Tags: cardiovascular hospital medicine Source Type: blogs

Is it SAFE to be grain-free?
Listen to critics of the Wheat Belly lifestyle and you’d think that, by banishing all things wheat and grains from your life, you will be excommunicated from your church, tossed out of your club, ostracized by friends and family, and suffer dire health consequences like heart disease and colon cancer. After all, they say that you are eliminating an entire food group and will be crippled by lack of fiber and nutrients. Worse, our focus on increasing our intake of fats and oils will get you a heart attack, three stents, or bypass surgery and you’ll be obliged to take Lipitor and Repatha for a lifetime. First of a...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - June 25, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle grain-free Weight Loss Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 24th 2019
This study sought to investigate what could be learned from how these men have fared. The men were born in 1925-1928 and similar health-related data from questionnaires, physical examination, and blood samples are available for all surveys. Survival curves over various variable strata were applied to evaluate the impact of individual risk factors and combinations of risk factors on all-cause deaths. At the end of 2018, 118 (16.0%) of the men had reached 90 years of age. Smoking in 1974 was the strongest single risk factor associated with survival, with observed percentages of men reaching 90 years being 26.3, 25.7, ...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 23, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Mimics Enlight Cardiovascular Planning Software Gets FDA Clearance
Materialise, a 3D printing company with a focus on patient-specific parts, has received FDA clearance for its Mimics Enlight cardiovascular planning software suite. The product’s initial application will be in planning complex transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) procedures. Developed with the help of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, and in particular Dr. Dee Dee Wang, MD, FACC, Director of Structural Heart Imaging at the hospital, the Mimics Enlight software lets cardiologists identify which patients are appropriate for treatment and measures various important parameters to make sure that a given pr...
Source: Medgadget - June 19, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Cardiac Surgery Cardiology Radiology Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs

Progression of Atherosclerosis is Slowed in Mice via Targeting Senescent Cells
We reported that plasma levels of angptl2 are elevated in patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVD), were associated with endothelial dysfunction, and were predictive of major cardiac adverse events and death. Recently, we reported a strong relationship between arterial expression of p21, a cell cycle inhibitor overexpressed in senescent cells and maintaining growth arrest, and circulating levels of angptl2 in atherosclerotic patients. Senescent EC are activated and promote aggregation of leukocytes, the initiating step of atherogenesis. We therefore hypothesized that down-regulation of vascular angptl2, preferentially i...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 18, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs

Ultra-Thin Probe Assesses Tissues Deep Within Lungs
Assessing the health of tissues deep inside the body is a major need and challenge in medicine. Imaging modalities such as MRI, CT, and ultrasound provide very little information about the composition and environment of tissues being examined. Now, researchers at the University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University, and Bath University, all in the UK, have developed an ultra-thin probe, similar to a fine piece of hair, that can measure the pH and oxygen concentration deep within the lungs. The same technology, slightly modified, has potential in other parts of the body, such as the inner ear, GI tract, and various interstit...
Source: Medgadget - June 18, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: GI Medicine Pathology Radiology Surgery Thoracic Surgery Source Type: blogs

CorMatrix Cor PATCH for Repair of Broken Hearts Gets FDA Clearance
CorMatrix, a company out of Roswell, Georgia, has won FDA clearance for the Cor PATCH epicardial patch. The device is indicated for use at the locations of aneurysms, in adults who have suffered a heart attack that led to the ventricular walls becoming thinner, or anywhere else where structural support or repair of the heart would be helpful. The patch is made using the new generation of the CorMatrix ECM extracellular matrix, which, unlike other competing devices derived from animal tissues, does not have any nuclear remnants, bits of cell wall, or lipids. It does still carry over factors that help tissues to grow into t...
Source: Medgadget - June 14, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Cardiac Surgery Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 10th 2019
Fight Aging! provides a weekly digest of news and commentary for thousands of subscribers interested in the latest longevity science: progress towards the medical control of aging in order to prevent age-related frailty, suffering, and disease, as well as improvements in the present understanding of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to extending healthy life. Expect to see summaries of recent advances in medical research, news from the scientific community, advocacy and fundraising initiatives to help speed work on the repair and reversal of aging, links to online resources, and much more. This content is...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 9, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Patches Made of Heart Tissue Going to Clinical Trials
Stem cell therapies to heal damaged hearts have proven to be lacking so far, probably because simply injecting new cells into afflicted regions isn’t enough. Researchers from Imperial College London have now created patches made of cardiac tissue to sew over damaged areas of the heart. These patches, which can beat on their own to the tune of a pacemaker, will soon be tested on heart attack victims in planned clinical trials. Made of stem cells carefully differentiated into cardiomyocytes, the patches, which are about the size of a small coin and contain approximately 50 million cells, can expand in size with every c...
Source: Medgadget - June 4, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Cardiac Surgery Cardiology Materials Radiology Rehab Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs

New Device Monitors Blood Flow Through Radial Artery to Prevent Occlusions Post PCI
Following transradial percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), the radial artery can occasionally occlude, potentially resulting in serious complications. Radial occlusion is treated by applying compression, but clinicians have no idea whether nor how much blood is flowing through the artery. Moreover, once an occlusion happens in the radial artery, it cannot be used again as an access site in the future. A new device called IdaFlo Tr from IdaHealth, a company out of Bonita Springs, Florida, has just been revealed at the annual meeting of the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EuroPCR) in ...
Source: Medgadget - May 24, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Cardiac Surgery Cardiology Radiology Source Type: blogs

Scope Pro-tech Coming Out to Protect Endoscope Tips
Meditech Endoscopy, a company out of Essex, England, just won FDA clearance for its Scope Pro-tech endoscopic tip protector. The device is designed to protect the optics found on the tips of endoscopes while they’re in storage or when they’re moved from place to place. The design of the Scope Pro-tech is such that air can come in and out of the endoscope’s channels, preventing any moisture build-up that can help to host pathogens. An array of protruding wings helps to avoid any direct contact between the endoscope tip and anything else. Olympus has signed up to be the distributor of the Scope Pro-tech si...
Source: Medgadget - May 22, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: GI Medicine Public Health Thoracic Surgery Source Type: blogs

FDA Clears Software to Spot Collapsed Lung in Chest X-rays
Zebra Medical Vision, an Israeli firm, landed FDA clearance for the HealthPNX automated chest X-ray analysis software that can independently spot signs of pneumothorax (PNX), colloquially known as collapsed lung. The software can help radiologists quickly and confidently identify the cause of a patient’s symptoms, allowing for emergency treatment to begin ASAP. Due to a gas buildup within the pleural space, there’s a slight contrast gradient that appears on chest X-rays. This is hard to spot and requires a trained, keen eye. The HealthPNX system processes the digital X-ray image immediately after exposure and ...
Source: Medgadget - May 20, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Emergency Medicine Informatics Military Medicine Radiology Thoracic Surgery Source Type: blogs

Haemonetics TEG 6s Hemostasis Analyzer Cleared for Trauma Testing
Haemonetics won FDA clearance for its TEG 6s Hemostasis Analyzer System to be used in adult trauma settings to evaluate the viscoelasticity of patients’ blood. The system relies on an all-in-one cartridge into which a small sample of blood is placed. The cartridge already has the necessary reagents within itself, automatically mixing them with the blood and then running up to four assays at the same time inside the machine. Because the reagent mixing process does not involve any human interaction aside from placing a sample inside, there’s a much reduced chance for errors. Moreover, the entire testing process i...
Source: Medgadget - May 16, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Emergency Medicine Military Medicine Pathology Surgery Source Type: blogs

FDA Approves More Accurate GORE TAG Conformable Thoracic Stent Graft with ACTIVE CONTROL System
Gore just announced winning FDA approval for its GORE TAG Conformable Thoracic Stent Graft with ACTIVE CONTROL System. The thoracic endovascular aortic repair system is based on the Conformable GORE TAG Device, but with a new, more robust control mechanism that helps to position the implant with greater accuracy and confidence. The implant itself is the same highly conformable endovascular prosthesis that has proven itself at treating aneurysms, transections, and Type B dissections of the descending thoracic aorta. It is the delivery mechanism for the implant that allows physicians to take full advantage of the prosthesis...
Source: Medgadget - May 15, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Editors Tags: Cardiac Surgery Cardiology Radiology Vascular Surgery Source Type: blogs