• Advanced BioHealing (ABH; New York) reported it has received conditional clearance from the FDA to begin enrolling patients in a pilot trial of Celaderm, the company’s next generation bioengineered tissue product. The study’s primary purpose is to evaluate the safety of Celaderm in humans and is expected to enroll 55 patients at six clinical sites in the U.S. and will also assess the potential for Celaderm to accelerate healing of venous leg ulcers. Advanced BioHealing develops cell-based and tissue-engineered products regenerative medicine.

• Canon U.S.A. (Lake Success, New York) plans to debut its new Eye Q Capture Review software at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO; San Francisco) that began Friday and concludes today in Las Vegas. Designed for use on the Canon Non-Mydriatic CR-DGi Retinal Camera, the Canon Eye Q Capture Review software is a portable retinal imaging solution designed to facilitate the capture of patient images, both inside a doctor’s office or outside in a public screening setting. The Eye Q Capture Review software has an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface that allows for rapid image acquisition, quick review of images in stereo and red-green-blue (RGB) separation modes and automatic image storage. The software also features Emboss, the 3-D rendition from a single image that can be viewed at a given set standard of separation without the need of special stereo glasses.

• CoreValve (Irvine, California) said its patented ReValving System, consisting of an 18-French-sized delivery catheter, was used to percutaneously implant its porcine pericardial tissue bioprostheses over the severely calcified aortic heart valves of an 88-year-old female patient and a 77-year-old male patient — without using extracorporeal bypass, other cardiac assistance or rapid pacing. The procedures took routine interventional times to complete and the patients are awaiting discharge from the hospital, the company said. The procedures were done at the HELIOS Heart Center (HHC; Siegburg, Germany), by Eberhard Grube, MD, chief of cardiology and angiology at HHC and a consulting professor of medicine at Stanford University. Founded in 2001, privately held CoreValve has developed a delivery system for percutaneous heart valve replacement, based on a catheter-and-self-expanding-frame approach on a beating heart, thus avoiding open-heart surgery. The CoreValve procedure can be done in a cardiac “cath lab” just like angioplasty and stenting, resulting in fewer traumas to the patient and substantial cost-savings to the healthcare system, the company said.

• Cytyc (Marlborough, Massachusetts), a provider of surgical and diagnostic products targeting cancer diagnostics and women’s health, reported that twelve studies presenting data on the MammoSite Radiation Therapy System (RTS) were featured at the 48th annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO; Fairfax, Virginia) in Philadelphia last week. The studies evaluated a range of parameters including insertion techniques, treatment efficacy, toxicity rates, and cosmetic results. The studies presented included single institutional experiences as well as multi-site evaluations.

• Iridex (Mountain View, California) has introduced two new ophthalmic laser systems and six new disposable products at the meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO; San Francisco) that began Friday and concludes today in Las Vegas. Both systems offer advanced features and functionality that enhance usability and continue the IRIDEX tradition of providing innovative new laser technology to satisfy unmet doctor and patient needs. The OcuLight TX, a 532 nm solid-state laser, is a photocoagulator with 2500 mW of deliverable laser energy. Improvements in laser technology allow the TX to deliver faster pulses, down to 10-millisecond durations, and quick intervals of 0.01 seconds, which offer the potential to lessen patient discomfort during treatment. Iridex will also unveil a new 577 nm true-yellow laser technology designed to offer physicians a preferred laser light wavelength. The 577 nm laser should be available for shipment to customers in Q207.

• Millar Instruments (Chicago), maker of Mikro-Tip pressure transducer catheters and pressure-volume systems, reported expansion of its 1 Fr catheter line with the introduction of the PVR-1045 pressure-volume catheter. With a catheter tip size of 1F (1/3 mm), the PVR-1045 is the smallest, least invasive sensor tip pressure-volume catheter available on the market, the company says. The smaller diameter gives researchers using Millar’s pressure-volume systems a new tool in the characterization of cardiovascular function by allowing access to smaller animals than before possible