Orthopaedic: Hip and femur nailing, Tibia and Humerus fractures, Pelvis.Head & Column: Spine fixations, Pain treatment, Neuromodulation.Thorax: Pacemaker connections, Electro-Physiology Biopsies, Ventricular-abdominalAbdomen: Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), Urethroscopy, Cystoscopy, Cholangiography, E.R.C.P.Vascular peripheral, abdominal and cerebralCardiac: Angioplasty, percutaneous…
Nuclear cardiology is a specialised field in nuclear medicine that evaluates the heart function to help diagnosing conditions such as coronary artery disease and to assess treatment efficacy, whilst minimising invasive procedures like biopsies. More recently, clinicians have increasingly opted for nuclear imaging over endomyocardial biopsy to diagnose cardiac amyloidosis, allowing for earlier…
Cardiac rehabilitation can be done just as well at home as in the hospital. This is the conclusion of the most extensive research into ‘tele-rehabilitation’ to date.
Alongside the worldwide increase in longevity, inevitably with chronic health conditions rising, cardiovascular procedures and OR utilisation have surged. Thus the efficient and safe performance of surgeries is even more important. The intraoperative use of mobile C-arms increases accuracy, improving clinical outcomes, which can significantly reduce revision rates and thus overall healthcare…
Medical robotics company Robocath announces the successful completion of first five robotic coronary angioplasties in Belgium. The Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI) were performed on April 8 and 13 by Prof. Stefan Verheye, a recognized and highly experienced interventional cardiologist at ZNA Middelheim hospital in Antwerp, and his team. Robotic-assisted PCI has never been done before in…
Royal Philips announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Intact Vascular, Inc., a U.S.-based developer of medical devices for minimally-invasive peripheral vascular procedures. Intact Vascular will enhance Philips’ image-guided therapy portfolio, combining Philips’ interventional imaging platform and diagnostic and therapeutic devices with Intact Vascular’s unique, specialized…
The number of primary angioplasties – the main treatment for heart attack – has dropped by 40% in Spain since the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown. Other key diagnostic and therapeutic procedures have also considerably diminished. Spanish cardiologists are urging the population to call the emergency medical systems whenever symptoms of myocardial infarction occur, in spite of fears…
Robocath, a company that designs, develops and commercializes cardiovascular robotic systems for the treatment of vascular diseases, announces it has successfully completed its first robotic coronary angioplasties with R-One in Germany. The Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI) were performed by Pr Michael Haude, a recognized and highly experienced interventional cardiologist at Rheinland…
An exciting development from an innovative French company is poised for a major breakthrough in European markets. As is now well-known, coronary angioplasty is a procedure that widens and/or unblocks the arteries to the heart by the insertion and inflation of a balloon and/or stent into the vessel lumen. In modern practice, a stent is normally left in place to ensure the blood flow remains…
Robocath, a company that designs, develops and commercializes cardiovascular robotic systems for the treatment of vascular diseases, announced it has successfully completed six robotic coronary angioplasties with R-One, a first for the continent of Africa. The Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI) were performed by Dr Faizel Lorgat, an interventional cardiologist at the Netcare Christiaan…
Scientists of Jena University Hospital, Germany, conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate benefit and risk of paclitaxel-coated balloon angioplasty compared to conventional balloon angioplasty as therapy of intermittent claudication. The study confirms an increased all-cause mortality, which has formerly been stated, and found a broad heterogeneity in the effectivity of the procedure depending on…
Robocath announces the success of its first two coronary angioplasties performed with assistance from its R-One robotic platform.
Findings from a comparative outcome study have highlighted the benefits of using cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) perfusion imaging as a first-line ischaemia test in patients with moderate risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). The MR-INFORM (Magnetic Resonance Perfusion or Fractional Flow Reserve in Coronary Disease) trial, which began in 2012 (results published in the New England…
A new software to calculate the pressure drop and vFFR value (vessel Fractional Flow Reserve) in the coronary artery non-invasively was presented to interventional cardiovascular experts at EuroPCR 2018 in Paris. The software called CAAS vFFR (Cardiovascular Angiographic Analysis Systems for vessel Fractional Flow Reserve) was developed by Pie Medical Imaging (Esaote Group). The vFFR calculation…
High drug prices as well as the excessive use of imaging and surgical procedures, and excessive administrative burdens contribute the majority to America’s health care overspending compared to Europe, argues policy expert Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, chair of the department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in an editorial…
The Clinica Creu Blanca Diagnostic Group in Barcelona, Spain, is the first clinic in Europe to use Canon Medical System’s new Celesteion PET-CT Scanner. Dr. Xavier Alomar, Head of the Diagnostic Imaging Department at the Clinic, explains how the new system has opened up a large field of diagnostic possibilities for the Group in Metabolic Medicine in Oncology, Neurology, Cardiology and…
Loyola Medicine is the first academic medical center in Illinois to use the TCAR system, which reduces stroke risk during carotid artery procedures by temporarily reversing blood flow. Carotid arteries on each side of the neck supply blood to the brain. In patients with carotid artery disease, a build-up of plaque can cause blockages. A common method to open the artery involves a balloon…
If you have a heart attack or stroke, it’s important to get your “bad” cholesterol measured by your doctor on a follow up visit. Researchers have found that one step is significantly associated with a reduced risk of suffering another serious cardiovascular episode. The new research, conducted by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, found that…
Celebrating 40 years of PCI, cardiologists fret over their future with big data, machine learning and robots.
Coronary angioplasty is arguably the most revolutionary breakthrough in the history of cardiology. While the technique is today performed on millions of patients worldwide, its origins can be traced back to Zurich, Switzerland, in the late 1970s.
With 4,500 accepted abstracts, 600 sessions and 30,000 expected attendees, ESC Congress 2017 is undoubtedly the world’s largest cardiovascular event. On healthcare-in-europe.com, Dr Stephan Achenbach, Congress Program Committee Chairperson, gives an overview of issues and events unfolding in Barcelona from August 26-30.
Since lung diseases tend to be complex, imaging is a crucial diagnostic tool. While computed tomography has become the standard modality, which is frequently used outside hospital settings, specialised MRI diagnostics remains the preserve of large university medical centres.
Living in a small Mediterranean island has its own advantages; nevertheless there are certain limitations. In healthcare, for example, resources may be somewhat more limited in such a small country and some of the latest technologies may not always be available to patients.
Patients who have had a stroke in the back of the brain are at greater risk of having another within two years if blood flow to the region is diminished, according to results of a multicenter study led by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. These stroke patients are the most likely to benefit from risky intervention to unblock arteries, and they can be identified using a new…
Feeling high levels of distress, fear and hostility prior to undergoing an angioplasty or other interventional radiology procedure may lead to a poor outcome, according to new research presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
They did it for heart attacks. Can cardiologists now lead an effort to speed up the emergency medical response for stroke? Over the past five years, the Stent for Life initiative organised by interventional cardiologists has pushed majors medical centres to assure 24/7 coverage and reduce the time to treatment for patients showing up with severe chest pain.
In uncomplicated stable angina cases no evidence suggests that angioplasty reduces heart attacks or death risks, Mark Nicholls reports
Imaging has progressed at vertiginous paces since X-rays were invented, not only as a diagnostic tool but also as an invaluable partner in the realm of non-invasive medical intervention.
As well as this year’s programme being the biggest yet, with 76 plenary sessions, there are also sponsored symposia from Janssen and CamNutra. Additionally, the USA’s Mayo Clinic will provide the Cardiology Review Course, with representatives from Rochester, Minnesota, delivering some sessions.
Loading high performance functions on highly portable ultrasound systems puts life-saving tools in the hands of trauma physicians, John Brosky reports.
A novel, entirely biodegradable device has been successfully implanted in a blocked artery patient needing a percutaneous coronary intervention
Surgeons at a leading UK hospital are pioneering robotic endovascular surgery to treat patients with complex conditions.
The biggest cause of death for most adult women in industrialised nations is coronary heart disease (CHD). Why the disease affects the genders differently is still not fully understood. European Hospital Editor Brigitte Dinkloh asked Professor Rafaelle Bugiardini MD FESC, from the Department of Internal Medicine Department, University of Bologna, whether he could explain the reasons and what…
John Brosky reports on a ground-breaking trial and how CT-FFR may change the practice of invasive cardiology and cardiac surgery.
Cardiologists are increasingly concerned about patients with persistent hypertension demanding a new technique, in the absence of clinical proof of its long-term benefit. As more related devices are launched, John Brosky reports on the procedure, drawbacks, and a potential €2 billion market.
Every year, around 80,000 lower extremities in Europe have to be (partially) amputated as a result of peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD). Half of the affected patients die within five years of the amputation.
A registry -which includes every patient in Sweden having percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for the treatment of acute and stable coronary artery disease- has found that PCI implantations using a new generation of drug-eluting stents is associated with lower rates of relapse (restenosis), stent thrombosis and subsequent mortality than older generation drug-eluting stents and bare-metal…
Devices to treat chronic cardiac disease are winning credibility with new evidence from large-scale patient registries, John Brosky reports
However, the PROlonging Dual antiplatelet treatment after Grading stent-induced Intimal hyperplasia studY (PRODIGY) also found a consistently greater risk of haemorrhage in the 24-month dual therapy group according to all prespecified bleeding definitions, including the recently proposed Bleeding Academic Research Consortium classification. The need for transfusion was also increased in the…
Stent fever, first diagnosed in 1997, has been spreading throughout the medical world – fuelled by new technologies, says Holger Zorn
France – Re-opening clogged arteries with metal stents has proved a life-saver for a majority of patients with coronary disease. Yet the high rates of complications and mortality for patients with diabetes following a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) continue to baffle cardiologists. Report: John Brosky
The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) is calling for a single, co-ordinated European system to oversee the evaluation and approval of medical devices. The call is being made in a paper published online in the European Heart Journal reporting on a conference held by the ESC in January 2011 looking to increase the input of medical experts in developing medical device policy.
Around 18,472 angioplasty procedures and 4,752 stent procedures were completed in Germany in 2008. By comparison, only 7,710 angioplasty procedures and 438 stent procedures were completed in the same year in the UK.
Today in most countries of the world almost 50 % of patients in hospital for a cardiac condition began their treatment as emergency cases: chest pain at home . . . a cardiac arrest in the street. Thus, according to Dr Peter Clemmensen, of the 22 million hospital admissions in Europe each year for acute cardiac events, more than 10 million of them would have begun as an emergency and without…
Hot topics to be covered during the EuroPCR Forum sessions are the challenging implementation of the best standard of care for STEMI patients throughout Europe (with the timely use of stents), the introduction of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in clinical practice and the challenges related to bifurcation treatment options.
The cardiovascular community gathers in Paris May 25th-28th for EuroPCR. EuroPCR is the leading course in interventional cardiology. It is also the official congress of the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI). More than 12,000 participants will learn about the latest developments in the field and engage in discussions and constructive debate about the best…
There's no reason to forgo a needed radiation-based medical procedure because of concerns about cancer risk, according to the October issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter. While the volume of radiation-based tests and procedures has increased in the past three decades, scientists haven't proven that the low doses of radiation used in medical settings actually increase cancer risk.
The Leapfrog Group is a U.S. organisation of member companies that pay for healthcare services, e.g. corporations, health insurers and local, state and federal government agencies. Established in 2000, its philosophy is that big 'leaps' in healthcare safety, quality and value to patients will be recognised and rewarded. The organisation mobilises purchasing power of its members, representing over…
Voyager NC, a new coronary dilation catheter with a high-pressure capability designed to optimise coronary artery treatment during angioplasty procedure, can be used for both pre-dilatation and post-dilatation procedures, the manufacturer Abbott explains, adding: "Surgeons can use it to navigate tortuous anatomy and open up lesions before a stent is delivered, or expand a stent more precisely…
The 9th Annual Spring Meeting of the European Society of Cardiology Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions (CCNAP), organised in cooperation with the Irish Nurses Cardiovascular Association (INCA), is being held at the Royal Dublin Society, Dublin, Ireland, on 24-25 April.
The hugely increasing numbers of diabetics is a medical and financial burden worldwide. Diabetics can, for example, suffer eye and kidney problems and more - five percent of them develop vascular diseases, leading to lower limb and feet ulcerations, which frequently result in amputations if not treated in time. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) can heal ulcers and, because it is…
Investigating the appropriate use of procedures to open narrowed coronary arteries, e.g. angioplasty and stenting, researchers at UCSF (University of California, USA) found that less than 50% of Medicare patients had documented non-invasive stress testing prior to elective percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI (clinical name for these procedures).
Timing, emergency network, reperfusion therapy are central to new recommendations for the management of heart attack which have been developed by a Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and were issued on the 14th November.
The Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) is the biggest of 20 hospital districts in Finland. It provides specialised and university level health care services in and around city of Helsinki, with regional responsibility of 1.5 million people.
Stefan G Ruehm, Kambiz Nael, Derek Lohan and Henrik J Michaely* describe impressive images that benefit patient treatment
A Canadian study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that chest pain in patients with heart disease could be treated as effective with medication over time as with an expensive angioplasty.
A research team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the University of Texas Medical Branch and RWTH Aachen University in Germany has developed a new classification system devised to guide physicians treating patients with symptomatic myocardial bridging, published in the online edition of Cardiology.
A five-year study of 516 participants with coronary artery disease showed that patients who reduced their anxiety levels or kept them steady were 60% less likely to have a heart attack or die compared with those who had increased anxiety levels.
Rotational artherectomy - Around 33,000 patients are hospitalised annually due to myocardial infarction, but only five percent actually die, thanks to the various state-of-the-art treatments mastered by Czech physicians.
The new £2 million remote access stereotaxis catheter laboratory at London's Heart Hospital, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), is the first of its kind in the UK and one of only 40 worldwide.
The Cardiocentro Ticino in Lugano, Switzerland ' a tertiary care centre specialising in treating patients with coronary artery disease ' carries out around 300 major operations and 2,000 invasive coronary angiographies annually. Six months ago, the hospital acquired state-of-the art equipment, including GE's LightSpeed VCT XT.
Coronary stents provide wall wrapping of dissection, prevent elastic recoil, and reduce restenosis after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. In addition, drug eluting stents loaded with antiproliferative agents inhibit intimal hyperplasia and offer a further reduction of restenosis.
More women than men die of cardiovascular disease (CVD) every year, yet females receive only 33% of angioplasties, stents and bypass surgeries; 28% of implantable defibrillators, and 36% of open heart surgeries.
A decision by Ab Klink, Minister of Public Health, Wellbeing and Sports, to increase the number of balloon angioplasty facilities in hospitals to 30, has prompted the NVVC - the Dutch cardiologists association - to express concern that there will be too many centres and too few patients, and specialists will not be able to maintain the level of skills for this procedure.
The European Medical Technology Industry Association, Eucomed, has launched the third in a series of educational publications on medical technology innovation, focusing on minimally invasive surgery (MIS).
USA - Using positron emission tomography (PET) scanning rather than other types of imaging as the first tool to diagnose heart-vessel blockages is more accurate, less invasive and saves money, according to researchers reporting at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session in March.
As the German Society of Neuroradiology 40th annual meeting approached (Venue: Dresden. 31 August - 3 September), Professors Martin Schumacher (Freiburg), President of the German Society of Neuroradiology (GSN) and Rüdiger von Kummer (Dresden), the meeting's President, examine the history and potential in this medical field
Diagnostic possibilities with multi-slice CT of the neck and skull base.
Rationale and effectiveness in the non-healing diabetic foot ulcer patient. By Peter HJ Mueller and Robert A Warriner III
Recent advances in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) may offer a new approach to treating this complex group of patients.
Article by Stefan G Ruehm MD, Associate Professor of Radiology, Director, Cardiovascular CT, at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA.
Fifty years ago Henry Gibbon introduced a vital tool for cardiac surgery - the heart-lung machine. While pioneering efforts were made in the first half of the 20th century, this equipment enabled reproducible operations for either congenital or acquired heart disease in many patients.
