World's first robot-assisted vascular surgery for aneurysm
London, UK - A Hansen Sensei* robot has been used to perform vascular surgery on a 78-year-old patient for an aneurysm that would have been thought too high-risk for conventional surgery.
Cardiovascular diseases
Heart Failure Congress
Among the many aims of the Heart Failure Association of the ESC is the establishment of networks for the HF management, education and research.
Article • Cardiology
Implantable cardiac monitors
Syncope (fainting) is a leading cause of hospital emergency visits. In almost 10% of patients, syncope has a cardiac cause; in 50%, a non-cardiac cause, and in 40% the cause of syncope is unknown. Syncope is difficult to diagnose as syncopal episodes are often too infrequent and unpredictable for detection with conventional monitoring techniques.
Website advice for HF patients
A new educational website specifically for heart failure patients, their families and carers, has been set up by the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology.
Atrial fibrillation
Seeking to set the agenda for urgent atrial fibrillation (AF) research, European and international cardiologists will gather this October at the European Heart House, in Sophia Antipolis, the headquarters of the European Society of Cardiology.
Early diagnosis
Under the banner Hear today the heartbeats of tomorrow, at this year's ESC meeting GE Healthcare will showcase its latest cardiology technology for the management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as well as several new products.
SYNCOPE Diagnosis and therapy
The diagnostic work-up of syncope patients often raises the question of how much diagnosis is necessary and what examination methods are really needed. To save time, specialists recommend focusing on determining whether the syncope may be caused by a cardiac problem - a question answered quite easily in many cases. Karl Eberius MD, European Hospital's new correspondent, discussed advice for…
HeartVue 6S seeks USA marketing
Pegasus/Heartview LLC has announced that clinical studies of its HeartVue 6S Heart Screening System - which obtained CE Mark Approval in Europe almost two years ago - have been completed according to FDA guidelines, as a pre-marketing condition for release in the USA.
Economic recession: a cause of later CVD?
Bad economic conditions, e.g. a recession, at the time of birth may lead to a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality much later in life, according to a recent study published by researchers at the Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) in Bonn.
Beijing Olympics research finds enlarged hearts can be good hearts
Cardiologist Dr Malissa Wood, of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA, has reported that a study of Olympic athletes, using GE Healthcare's Vivid I cardiac compact ultrasound technology, has allowed the medical research team in Beijing to identify healthy patterns of heart enlargement that can differentiate it from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
CVD specialists meet footballers
The world's first symposium on the molecular analysis of sudden death syndrome (SDS) among athletes drew in leading cardiovascular researchers and several top Spanish footballers. Sponsored by Applied Biosystems, and held in the Madrid's Hospital Clinico San Carolos, the I Symposium de Prevención en el Futbol aims to initiate the development of new tests to identify sports players at SDS risk.
Defibrillator in space
Medicine is not earthly anymore. The first defibrillator has reached the International Space Station (ISS). LIFEPAK 1000 developed by Physio-Control of Redmond will be available for NASA crew members in case of a sudden cardiac arrest in space.
A new nutrition guide: Green for fruits, red for fats
Do we have to create a food guide for people? The European Parliament already proposed this suggestion to protect people from getting cardiovascular diseases. This week experts will discuss the issue at the annual ESC Congress. They believe the UK traffic light system might help people keep more attention to nutrition
NHS not good enough for elder people
British researchers found that the NHS and private healthcare are not providing good enough basic care to a large portion of the population in England. Particulary older and frailer people are suffering from lack of care.
Non invasive but effective
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.
Always under doctor's control
A pressure sensor that is implanted into the heart works with an electronic monitoring system that wirelessly measures patient's pulmonary artery pressure. It allows physicians to track the patient's pulmonary artery pressure while they remain at home
Pay attention to a woman's heart
The probability of woman of suffering from cardiovascular diseases is often underestimated. A recent study evaluated the risk of nearly 9.000 women in the U.S. screened for heart-health risk: one in five women had a higher risk than measured by a frequently used predictor.
New modell to predict risks of heart failure
Hospital admission might probably determine the severity of heart failure. By analysing data from 260 hospitals across the United States researchers created a model to reduce in-hospital mortality and more quickly identify triage methods and treatment decisions.
Seniors got more - prescriptions
Compared to 1997 people aged 60 and over receive a lot more from their physicians: Not more attention but more drugs or other medical aids. The average number of prescriptions for elder people doubled from 1997 to 2007, a report from The NHS Information Centre reveals.
HD-images of a stressed heart
Treadmill exercise testing is a common tool to detect of cardiovascular diseases. But clear images of the working heart are hard to obtain. Now researchers designed MRI equipment to provide high-resolution images of the heart at critical stages.
Microbubbles for a new ultrasound technique
Tiny lipid-shelled microbubbles injected in vessels may serve as an new ultrasound contrast agent to evaluate microvascular blood flow. By this microbubbles US-researcher devised a ultrasound imaging technique that can spot early signs of PAD.
Cardiology at the Crossroads
This May the Brussels-based Crossroads Institute for Cardiac and Vascular Medical Education launched two new educational courses on the prevention of amputation (peripheral vascular disease) and on improving the treatment of women with cardiovascular disease.
Arterieal calcium scan predicts death risk
Scanning the heart's arteries for calcium deposits might be one of the best ways to predict the overall risk of death for adults with cardiac trouble, a new study suggests. This might also help end the controversial discussions about calcium scans.
Bright outlook for cardiovascular monitoring equipment in Europe
Technologically advanced, cost-effective cardiovascular monitoring systems are increasingly in demand in Europe. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan point out that the market will grow from $350.0 million in 2007 and to $491.3 million in 2014.
Many more strokes
Even in 2004, the medical costs for the care of stroke patients in Germany came to 7.1 billion euro. The neurologist Tobias Neumann-Haefelin of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and his colleagues have calculated the projected number of strokes in the German federal state of Hesse for the year 2050.
