• Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP; Irvine, California) reported the availability of the Evotech endoscope cleaner and reprocessor, designed to eliminate labor-intensive manual cleaning of endoscopes. By removing the need to manually clean, the Evotech eliminates the risk of human variation in endoscope cleaning. In addition, the Evotech's 33-minute or less reprocessing cycle time provides fast turnaround of instrumentation and enables healthcare workers to spend more time completing patient-related activities. Some features include: integrated minimum effective concentration monitoring that eliminates the need to handle high-level disinfectant, limiting the chance of staff exposure; automated leak detection at the beginning and end of the cycle, which helps ensure endoscope integrity; built-in alcohol flush that complies with SGNA recommendations to promote drying of endoscopes; and single-use high-level disinfection using glutaraldehyde-free CIDEX OPA concentrate solution.

• Nikon Instruments (Melville, New York) launched VAAS Detection, a new confocal imaging method for post acquisition recovery of data normally lost during the course of the experiment. This is accomplished by collecting emission photons that normally are rejected by the emission side pinhole, traditionally used at the 1 airy disk size. This technology allows for virtual adjusting of the confocality and sensitivity of data post-acquisition, as well as collecting more photons during the initial image acquisition to enable image reconstruction with greatly improved signal-to-noise. VAAS, which stands for Virtual Adjustable Aperture System, uses two pinholes to collect emitted photons: a standard-sized one to enable confocality and one with a diameter 3x larger to capture more of the emitted fluorescence without increasing the out of focus background detection. VAAS is an effective method to reduce the out of focus haze signal without reducing the signal from the focal plane.

• Orthofix International (Boston) said the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (MTF; Edison, New Jersey) has completed a major milestone in the development of a next-generation stem cell allograft. With the completion of this pivotal phase, MTF has successfully delivered to Orthofix a conclusive data package. The new tissue form, called Trinity Evolution, is expected by June 2009. "MTF is the most trusted and accomplished tissue bank in the country, and we chose them as a partner with full confidence that together we would bring an innovative and leading-edge bone growth technology to market in a short time horizon," said Alan Milinazzo, president/CEO of Orthofix International. "With the completion of this major developmental milestone, we expect to make this novel stem cell-based tissue form available to surgeons and patients ahead of schedule."

• Spectranetics (Colorado Springs, Colorado) reported FDA clearance for the Cross-Pilot laser support catheter. The Cross-Pilot is a laser support catheter for the 0.9 Turbo Elite Laser Ablation Catheter. The Cross-Pilot was designed to provide additional support for reaching distal lesions. The braid reinforced catheter construction and hydrophilic coating allow for better pushability through distal vessels and the angled tip allows for quicker access to branched anatomy. The Cross-Pilot Laser Support Catheter is currently offered in 125 cm length and straight and angled-tip configurations.