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CalbaTech (Irvine, California), which is focused on acquiring, incubating and developing early stage life science companies, reported that it has acquired intellectual property relating to the delivery of stem cells to diseased or dead areas of the heart.
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WASHINGTON Physicians with an ownership interest in specialty hospitals could be barred from referring patients to these facilities if a bipartisan amendment gets added to the final Medicare prescription drug benefit legislation. The amendment, sponsored by Sens. John Breaux (D-Louisiana), Don Nickles (R-Oklahoma), and Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas), got a boost late last month with a General Accounting Office (GAO; Washington) report that confirmed what the senators suspect: specialty hospitals such as those focused on cardiovascular care negatively impact services provided by general hospitals.
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LAS VEGAS, Nevada Vascular surgery has historically been characterized by a cautious attitude toward new procedures. But the trend toward a minimally invasive approach that has impacted many other areas of medicine is emerging as a force in changing the practice of vascular medicine. The merits of new interventional approaches to vascular medicine were the subject of several informative talks at the Vascular Interventional Advances (VIVA) conference, held here last month.
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WASHINGTON Neither snow nor tropical storms can stop officials at the FDA from speaking to physicians when given the chance. That was the scenario at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics symposium in September as the 10,000 attendees noticeably dwindled near the end of the meeting as Hurricane Isabel forced the District of Columbia to shutter its windows and doors.
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Despite a clear effort by conference organizers to embrace presentations on new resynchronization/pacing technologies and other interventional technology developments, the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Symposium held here in mid-September served as a clear demonstration that stents specifically the new generation of drug-eluting models are a dominant discussion topic, both among clinicians and an industry that is embracing drug-coated implants as The Next Big Thing in medical technology.
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American Healthways (Nashville, Tennessee) signed a three-year agreement with Horizon Healthcare Services (HHS; Newark, New Jersey), and its subsidiary, Horizon Healthcare of New Jersey, to provide the companys disease management program for Horizons commercial and Medicare+Choice members with congestive heart failure.
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Britains National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), which provides guidance to health professionals, patients and the public on best practices in medicine, last month recommended the use of drug-eluting stents in patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease. NICE recommended that drug-eluting stents be used in all patients at high risk of restenosis caused by the body overreacting to the insertion of a coronary stent with an inflammatory response and tissue growth. Such high-risk patients include those with naturally smaller arteries or in whom a longer section of the artery is blocked.
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Only 5% of white women and 0.6% of black women are potential candidates for tamoxifen chemoprevention.
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The data in this case-control study of combined estrogen plus progestin therapy revealed an increased risk of breast cancer, particularly invasive lobular tumor, regardless of whether the progestin component was taken sequentially or continuously. There was no increased risk of breast cancer in those exposed postmenopausally to estrogen only.
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In a multicenter trial of anemic head and neck cancer patients, recombinant human erythropoietin (epoetin b) or placebo were administered as adjuncts to radiation therapy. As expected, hemoglobin levels rose in the epoetin-treated patients, but locoregional control and survival were diminished. This surprising result warrants prompt confirmatory study and expanded investigation to determine mechanism.
