News • Research
Seeking radiological routes to cure cardiac diseases
Radiotherapy is being proposed to treat heart diseases, specifically for hypertension and atrial fibrillation (AF).
It’s cool, Man!
Evidence is scant on the cooling of comatose patients who have suffered cardiac arrest, stroke or traumatic brain injuries; nevertheless, new methods for cooling patients are continuously being developed.
Correcting Tetralogy of Fallot
ECMO's role in a world's first cardiac procedure: Cardiac specialists in the UK have performed a world’s first operation on a 14-year-old boy suffering a severe heart condition. Mark Nicholls reports.
To pulse or not to pulse
Whether mechanical, temporary cardiac assist systems should pulsate in the same way as a biological heart is a discussion topic, which raises the pulse rates amongst all those involved within the industry and in hospitals.
Renal denervation moves beyond the HTN-3 disaster
Clinicians and companies remain committed to a procedure that failed to demonstrate efficacy against a sham-control group in pivotal clinical trial
Bringing surgical quality to TAVR valves
A cardiac surgeon, Wolfgang Goetz MD once stitched together custom aortic valves in the operating room. Today he is CEO of Transcatheter Technologies in Regensburg.
TAVI rises another step in the United Kingdom
A hospital with a reputation for trailblazing heart surgery has taken transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) onto the next step in the UK.
World first for liver transplant team
A transplant team at a Birmingham hospital has achieved a world first after resuscitating a liver that would have previously been considered unviable.
Cardiac resynchronisation
This summer the world’s first implantations of Biotronik’s new ICD and CRT-D series (implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and cardiac resynchronisation therapy defibrillators) took place at the Spedali Civili Hospital, Brescia, Italy.
Trauma care: the alpha and omega in emergency
Recently, ways to improve trauma care, particularly the care of acutely injured victims of traffic accidents, was discussed by international experts gathered at the World Trauma Congress (held in Frankfurt/Main, Germany).
'Treat first what kills first'
There is room for worldwide improvement of trauma care, as Congress President Professor Ingo Marzi, Frankfurt/Main (Germany), emphasised.
Hospital care for the dying must improve
Ten recommendations drawn up to improve care of the dying in the United Kingdom, will provide data to help hospitals to identify good and poor practice and to make changes to enhance learning in this care area.
Aggression in hospitals
A receptionist threatened with a butcher’s knife in Bourgoin-Jallieu (Isère); gunshots in an emergency unit in Delafontaine, at Saint-Denis, near Paris; a nurse wounded with a knife in a Marseille hospital – three separate incidents in just one week last August brought into sharpe focus what has become a worrying phenomenon.
Google Glass goggles stream live surgery
Some time this year, exact date unknown, Google Glass – a miniature computer attached to a pair of glasses – is expected to make its consumer debut.
ICU-quality respiratory technology enters home care
John Power is breathing easier after agreeing to let the Philips Home Healthcare deal with the complex and competitive consumer market for medical technology.
Dirt, danger and germs are killers for allergies and asthma
Infants exposed to rodent and pet dander, roach allergens and a wide variety of household bacteria in the first year of life appear less likely to suffer from allergies, wheezing and asthma, according to results of a study conducted by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and other institutions.
Using brain waves to steer a wheelchair
At the Joint Congress of European Neurology in Istanbul, researchers from Austria and Belgium have presented a study exploring innovative methods for communicating with coma patients. Their aim is to be able to communicate with patients by detecting brain activity even in people with inhibited consciousness.
Burnout: The physicians’ dangerous affliction
Burnout. The word jars – and it is particularly unsettling when associated with medical professionals. Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and feelings of low personal accomplishment.
Laughter is the best remedy
It has long been suggested that laughter could be the best medicine – and now a group of researchers in the United Kingdom is applying that theory to help patients cope with long-term conditions.
Pumping synchronously with the heart
Synchronised Cardiac Assist i-cor, which the company reports to be the first system that links mechanical circulatory support to the heartbeat.
News • Cardiology
Transcatheter aortic valve implantations (TAVI)
A hybrid operating theatre is considered ideal for TAVI because cardiologists and cardiac surgeons can work hand in hand. Here, in the hybrid theatre at Kerckhoff Heart Centre, Bad Nauheim, a transcatheter aortic valve implant with transfemoral access is being performed. The clean air room features cardiac cath lab equipment and an X-ray system.
British-made early warning monitor a “game changer”
A disposable vital signs monitoring system no bigger than a plaster was today hailed a “game changer" by a leading hospital medic ahead of its UK rollout.
First pacemaker with event-triggered IEGM transmissions
Biotronik, a leading manufacturer of cardiovascular medical technology, announced CE approval for its new Eluna pacemaker series. The new generation of pacemakers includes single and dual-chamber as well as cardiac resynchronization (CRT-P) devices.
Researchers Find Protein 'Switch' Central to Heart Cell Division
In a study that began in a pair of infant siblings with a rare heart defect, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have identified a key molecular switch that regulates heart cell division and normally turns the process off around the time of birth. Their research, they report, could advance efforts to turn the process back on and regenerate heart tissue damaged by heart attacks or disease.
First patient for artificial heart dies
The first patient to receive a totally implantable artificial heart died 75 days after the procedure. The cause of death on March 2, 2014 was not disclosed in a short announcement made by the Hôpital Georges-Pompidou in Paris. European Hospital reported on his new heart device in the recently published issue 1/2014.
