
From experience - to experts
The Accutron HP-D - the first dual head contrast media power injector for angiography, intervention and computed tomography.

The Accutron HP-D - the first dual head contrast media power injector for angiography, intervention and computed tomography.

'An effective, safe treatment for prophylaxis of restenosis in periphery and cardiology' — new generation of Endovascular Brachytherapy gains full CE-certification. Constricted blood vessels (stenosis and restenosis) can now sustainably be treated and kept open through the local treatment with beta radiation.

Until recently, physicians believed that stenosis was responsible for strokes. But new investigations show that the composition of complicated plaques are the major cause. Canadian researchers now used 3-D MRI to accuratly detect bleeding by those plaques within the vessel walls.

ESC speaker John Cleland from the University of Hull, UK, sumed up the latest treatment available for patients with diabetes mellitus and expressed his worries about side-effects and efficacy of available anti-diabetic drugs. If you want to read his ESC abstract, just click the “read more” button.

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.

Stefan G Ruehm, Kambiz Nael, Derek Lohan and Henrik J Michaely* describe impressive images that benefit patient treatment

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.

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.
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.

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.

The ankle brachial index, a ratio of blood pressure measurements used to indicate the risk of peripheral artery disease and atherosclerosis, may be useful to improve the accuracy of cardiovascular risk prediction, according to a meta-analysis of previous studies.

Scientific studies confirm that after 20 years of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) most of these operations have advantages over the equivalent, conventional surgical procedures.

The 125th Congress of the German Society of Surgery and the annual Congress of the German Society of Visceral Surgery (DVGC) in late April, examined the facts behind evidence-based medicine (EbM) under the banner Surgical Medicine - from Empiricism to Evidence, and also evaluated current opportunities in hospitals, science and research.

Along with paediatric radiology, interventional radiology will have a high profile at the 89th German Radiology Congress and 5th Joint Congress with the Austrian Radiology Society. Congress presidents Professor Dierk Vorwerk and Professor Richard Fotter outlined what's on the agenda for the expected 6,900 visitors. Training, they pointed out, will aim at those preparing to specialise in…

Professor Rémy-Jardin MD PhD heads the Department of Radiology and is Chairman of the Department of Thoracic Imaging at the Calmette Hospital, University Centre of Lille. She is also Professor of Radiology in Lille University's Medical Faculty.

USA - A next-generation radiofrequency ablation catheter - the VNUS ClosureFASTTM - has been used by surgeon Phillip Levin MD, at Cedars-Sinai, in Los Angeles, California. An expert in VNUS closure procedure, Dr Levin has treated approximately 300 patients since 2003 with the ClosureFASTTM catheter's predecessor.

New to the Siemens Medical Solutions portfolio of ultrasound applications is the syngo Arterial Health Package (AHP), which calculates cardiovascular risks by measuring carotid intima media thickness and determining the relative `vascular age´ of the vessel. Using this, along with, for example, cholesterol values and blood pressure, a physician can better assess a patient's myocardial or…

Ischaemic stroke accounts for 80-85% of all cerebrovascular accidents and causes considerable morbidity and mortality, thereby placing a significant burden on western societies. In the UK alone, stroke costs amount to 10.4 billion EUR annually. These events commonly are a consequence of systemic atherosclerotic disease and with the internal carotid arteries supplying 75% of cerebral blood flow,…

Ultrasound scanning with CCDS is an established technique in shunt diagnostics and allows non-invasive assessment of vascular flow. Stenosing changes to walls of vessels used as a dialysis shunt should be detected as early as possible to avoid occlusion by a thrombus. High occlusion rates with volume flow reduced by up to 45% in one year demand ultrasound screening. The risk of haemodynamically…

The aortocoronary bypass is an important surgical method for multivessel coronary revascularization, especially in the presence of complex lesions and in diabetic patients. It is can improve the prognosis of patients with three vessel disease and with left ventricular dysfunction1 . With regard to the type of graft used, bypasses are split into venous and arterial types. The use of venous…

There are a number of problems in contrast imaging using LevovistTM contrast agent. In Doppler mode, the problems are poor resolution and large areas of blooming. In 2nd harmonic imaging and pulse inversion imaging, there are problems related to tissue harmonic imaging (THI) because Levovist requires a high mechanical index (MI). THI increases under high-MI conditions, and THI interferes with…

Endovascular therapy of diseases of the brain-supplying blood vessels has recently sparked new interest. Hundreds of these minimally invasive and often operation-substituting interventions are now being performed annually at neuroradiological centers. The most impressive results in the treatment of intracranial aneurysms are achieved using coil embolization. Endovascular therapy has been lound to…

Intravascular contrast medium is essential for enhancement of vessels and parenchyma. In this way the relation between vessels and tumours can be detected. Factors that influence the time required for a contrast bolus are the cardiac output of a patient, body weight, hydration status and the condition of the vessels. When a main vessel is occluded because of thrombosis, embolia or trauma a…

Since the beginning of the 90s, sonography has been a solid diagnostic pillar in ophthalmology centers, but it is also used by related medical disciplines, such as pediatrics, whose patients require ophthalmological treatment. For all age groups, the fundus of the eye, and especially the optic disk, is well-suited for high-frequency sonography with linear transducers. This type of examination…

The rare disease Takayasu's arteritis (TA) belongs to the vasculitis group of diseases and is also known as inflammatory aortic arch syndrome or as pulseless disease because of its typical clinical picture. The pathological-anatomical manifestations include inflammatory transformation of the media and adventitia with the appearance of giant cells, hence the term giant cell arteritis is also used.…