• CSR (Cambridge, UK) said its BlueCore Bluetooth silicon provides wireless connectivity for the Team2 heart-rate monitoring system from Polar. The system comprises of up to 28 Bluetooth heart-rate monitors that link up to a PDA, PC or laptop to log and process the data via a Bluetooth Access Server platform from Bluegiga. The system is designed for sports teams, research centers and universities to monitor and improve the performance of athletes. The Bluetooth connectivity in the Polar Team2 system is provided by Bluegiga's WT11-A Class 1 module which uses CSR's BlueCore4 silicon and Bluegiga iWRAP Bluetooth connectivity firmware. Bluegiga's Access Server which is based on multiple CSR BlueCore4 chipsets, allows the system to wirelessly collect and analyze data from up to 28 players simultaneously. This enables the heart rate monitors to achieve a battery life of up to 30 hours when using Bluetooth and a range of up to 100 meters – ideal for monitoring the players in field sports. The Team2 heart-rate monitors are water-resistant down to 30 meters, fully shock resistant and each system comes complete with PDAs and PC software for uploading the data and providing analysis.

• Endologix (Irvine, California) reported FDA approval of the PMA supplement for its Powerlink XL system, which includes new suprarenal stent grafts as well as the new Powerlink XL stent graft. The approval broadens the company's treatment indications for the Powerlink system, used in the minimally invasive treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). The system was evaluated in an IDE clinical study and approved for the treatment of AAA patients with proximal aortic necks between 23 mm and 32 mm. The Powerlink and Powerlink XL systems are available with proximal extensions offered in both infrarenal and suprarenal configurations.

• Energizer Battery (St. Louis) said it is replacing its current hearing aid batteries with equally-performing zero-mercury batteries. Currently, it said, all other zinc air hearing aid batteries sold in the U.S. contain mercury. Through a combination of new product designs, purer raw materials and new manufacturing processes, Energizer said that its scientists have developed batteries that can now be produced without added mercury, after more than a decade of development and testing. The zero-mercury product is now widely available throughout the U.S., Energizer said.

• Pioneer Surgical Technology (Marquette, Michigan) reported the human implantation of its new biologic inter-body spacer, the nanOss-Cervical cage. The device is machined from nano-crystalline hydroxyapatite (HA) and is designed to function as bone, Pioneer said. The nanOss-Cervical cage is intended to facilitate spinal fusion procedures, by smaintaining decompression and serving as a graft containment device in conjunction with traditional rigid fixation.

• SunTech Medical (Morrisville, North Carolina) reported launch of the Advantage A+ OEM Non-invasive Blood Pressure (OEM NIBP) module. The module is the size of a business card, its features including internal automatic modes, low-voltage communication protocols and the lowest power consumption in the industry, making this platform ideal for portable and hand-held applications, SunTech said. The Advantage A+ also offers a motion-tolerance option with an R-wave-gated method of acquiring oscillometric blood pressure readings.