Cardiology at the extremes will be the key theme at the British Cardiovascular Society annual conference in Manchester in June. Topics covered include reflections in cardiology and space travel, physiological challenges associated with living under extreme environmental conditions and polar expeditions. Report: Mark Nicholls
Space missions are famous for driving innovation, from Mylar blankets to microchips. So when French scientists learned one of their compatriots would be aboard the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft to reach the International Space Station (ISS), they gathered cutting edge technologies for him to carry into orbit.
Researchers are revisiting their views on the relative dangers soft and hard atherosclerotic plaque deposits pose to heart health. Findings of a new study by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute may be a “game-changer” for determining who’s at risk of a heart attack, they say.
Agfa HealthCare announces that it is releasing a new version of its Enterprise Imaging for Cardiology platform at the American College of Cardiologists' ACC.17 expo. Customer-driven enhancements include new structured reporting modules for congenital echocardiology and nuclear cardiology.
Royal Philips today announced that the results from two large clinical trials comparing patient outcomes using instant wave-free ratio (iFR) and fractional flow reserve (FFR) in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. First released in 2013, iFR is an innovative pressure-derived index unique to Philips, a global leader in…
The ProMRI Configurator made by Biotronik is an online tool that enables physicians to select from a series of MRI requirements for a patient and subsequently generates a recommendation of all suitable MR-conditional cardiac device and lead combinations available in a particular country, thus helping physicians to choose the most suitable MR-conditional cardiac systems for each patient.
‘Youth’ is the central theme of this year’s ECR. More than 25,000 delegates from over 100 countries are expected for the 29th conference at the Vienna’s Austria Centre to take part in the annual meeting that promotes science and innovation.
RDT, a leading provider of pre-hospital care solutions, will be previewing its Tempus ALS™ monitor defibrillator at Arab Health 2017. Visitors to Stand Z1A59 will be able to see this innovative solution – which offers the benefits of a fully ERC-compliant defibrillator and an advanced monitor in a small and lightweight package – ahead of its official launch later in the year.
UK scientists are developing an interactive holographic video created from an MRI or CT scan that can display live footage of internal organs in front of a user where features can be rotated, enlarged, and isolated, delivering a breakthrough in medical imaging and education.
Remote Diagnostic Technologies Ltd (RDT) previewed its Tempus ALS™ monitor defibrillator at MEDICA 2016, ahead of its official launch in early 2017. Tempus ALS offers the benefits of a fully ERC-compliant defibrillator and an advanced monitor in a small and lightweight package.
Using specialized CT scans of a healthy heart and one with heart disease, a team of Johns Hopkins cardiologists and biomedical engineers say they've created computer models of the "shape" of blood flow through the heart's upper left chamber that someday may help predict stroke risk.
SCHILLER is very pleased to introduce the 2nd generation of its most successful ECG device: Building on the solidly proven AT-1 and enhanced with the latest technology, the AT-1 G2 distinguishes itself by its outstanding signal quality and the newest interpretation algorithm. Userfriendliness is guaranteed with step-by-step workflow and easy patient data entry. A colour screen and an…
For the first time, fetal medicine experts have performed prenatal heart surgery to remove a life-threatening tumor, called intrapericardial teratoma. The patient, who underwent the operation at 24 weeks of gestation while in his mother’s womb, is now a healthy three-year-old preschooler. “We have shown that we can accurately diagnose and provide a prognosis for this rare condition in utero,…
Resuscitation is always a desperate attempt by an entire team to save a human life. If a reversible cause can be discovered, a patient’s chances of survival increase considerably. All medics therefore know the ‘4 Hs’ and ‘HITS’. Report: Brigitte Dinkloh
Scientists have shown that people who exercise for even a few hours each week can enlarge their hearts. This is a normal and beneficial response to exercise, but until now has only been recognised in athletes. The researchers say that doctors should now consider an individual’s activity level before diagnosing common heart conditions.
In the fast-evolving field of left atrial appendage closure a new study has delivered data that could benefit thousands of patients at risk of stroke. Led by Professor Martin Bergmann, head of Interventional Cardiology at Cardiologicum Hamburg in Germany, the EWOLUTION study was conducted to evaluate the Watchman Left Atrial Appendage (LAA) closure device from manufacturer Boston Scientific.
One of the first facilities to purchase a complete set of the 3-D TEE transducer, including the equipment, was the Department of Cardiology and Angiology at University Hospital Magdeburg, as Thomas Groscheck, specialist physician for internal medicine at the echocardiography lab explains. Since July 2015 he has worked with the new Siemens transducer – and is enthusiastic.
Two new studies have focused on the impact of weekend care and discharge on heart patients within the NHS in England. In one, patients suffering atrial fibrillation (AF) who were admitted to a National Health Service (NHS) hospital over the weekend faced a higher risk of dying within five years than patients admitted during normal hours.
An innovative cardiac monitoring system that delivers continuous resynchronisation to patients, has shown a 35% risk reduction of hospitalisation for heart failure (HF) patients. The finding comes from the RESPOND-CRT (cardiac resynchronisation therapy) clinical trial, which was designed to investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of device-based optimisation using the SonR cardiac…
To sharply focus on the specialised requirements in echocardiography, Toshiba engineers built from scratch the Aplio i900CV with a total redesign of hardware and software. The new Aplio i-series is a premium addition to the award-winning Aplio 500 platform, which today is used in more than 31,000 clinical settings worldwide.
Research by a team at John Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore, USA highlights the patients who are most likely to face lethal arrhythmias. They have developed a personalised 3-D virtual heart that can help predict the risk of sudden cardiac death.
MRI increasingly helps to diagnose cardiac disease, yet its role in clinical decision-making of acutely hospitalised patients has hardly been explored.
Cardiologists have highlighted the importance of all imaging modalities – including echocardiography and cardiac CT – to evaluate prosthetic heart valves in a new series of recommendations. AF-patients who were admitted to an NHS hospital over the weekend faced a higher risk of dying over the next five years than others.
Big Data has the potential to turn the approach to science and research on its head, according to leading expert Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger. In the future, he believes, researchers could adopt a position where they ‘start with the data and then come up with the question.’
UK researchers are working on a more precise imaging technique for dilated cardiomyopathy that may lead to more effective treatments. A study from the University of Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research (OCMR), part of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the university, has demonstrated how the next generation of MRI scanners can work to measure heart conditions in dilated…
