Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, California) and Cambridge Heart (Bedford, Massachusetts) signed an agreement that makes Agilent the exclusive distributor of Cambridge Heart's CH2000 cardiac stress-test system within the U.S. The system is expected to be available, through the Agilent sales network, this month. Cambridge Heart makes products for the noninvasive diagnosis of cardiac disease.

Aviva Biosciences (San Diego, California) entered into a collaborative research project with the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, on biochip-based isolation and study of cardiac conduction system cells. Cardiac conduction system cells act as the electrical pacemaker and wiring that maintain the activation of heart muscle contraction. Terms were not disclosed.

Camtronics Medical Systems (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and CardioWorks (Chicago, Illinois) have formed a strategic partnership for the development and distribution of outpatient cardiology information systems. The CardioWorks system will be integrated with Camtronics' Vercis for Cardiology image and information management system, providing enterprise-wide access to the complete cardiac patient record. Initial applications have addressed the clinical and workflow requirements of the inpatient imaging modalities: cardiac cath, echocardiography and nuclear cardiology. Camtronics will develop and market applications, technology, and services based on the CardioWorks clinical knowledge base and workflow model. In addition to continued development of the knowledge base, CardioWorks will focus on development of cardiovascular disease management, decision support tools and clinical research. The companies will collaborate to provide consultation services to cardiology practice groups for information management, workflow process improvements and multi-system integration.

ComView (Pleasanton, California), a provider of cardiac imaging management systems, reported a cooperative agreement with Clinsights (New York), developer of TCTMD.com, a web-based community for interventional cardiologists, endovascular physicians and allied clinical professionals. The cooperative effort provides TCTMD users with access to ComView's ViewStar PC DICOM viewing software and ComView users access to TCTMD.com's educational content. TCTMD's founders and contributing faculty are the same clinicians and researchers who oversee the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference held in Washington each fall.

Genetic Vectors (Miami, Florida) signed a research and technology transfer agreement with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (Cleveland, Ohio) to discover and define genes involved in cardiovascular diseases. They will use Genetic Vector's proprietary high-throughput genotyping system to screen blood samples provided by the clinic and compare the genetic data to health records to determine correlative links between certain mutations in genes and disease susceptibility to drug efficacy.

Imetrx (Menlo Park, California) has entered into an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with medical device maker Nidus Medical to develop technologies for the detection and treatment of vulnerable plaque. The pact involves the codevelopment of a series of interventional cardiology devices. Vulnerable plaque, formed in both the blood vessels of the heart and those supplying the brain, goes largely undetected by existing clinical and laboratory tests. Imetrx is developing catheter-based devices to address the vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque. Nidus is a medical device and biologics development company.

Medwave (St. Paul, Minnesota) a manufacturer of noninvasive blood pressure sensors and monitors for blood pressure monitoring, has signed a purchasing agreement with AmeriNet (St. Louis, Missouri), a health care group purchasing organization (GPO). The four-year agreement, which became effective April 1, covers the Medwave Vasotrac continual noninvasive blood pressure monitor and the Vasotrax hand-held blood pressure monitor. Medwave's Vasotrac APM205A is designed for measuring a patient's blood pressure on a continual basis.

Mobile P.E.T. Systems (San Diego, California), a provider of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, said that MedAxiom, a national subscription-based medical practice service provider, has signed a sole-source provider agreement for mobile and fixed-site cardiac PET services with the company.

MicroHeart (Mountain View, California) has acquired the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize PR39, a molecule that promotes the growth of new blood vessels and which the company said could potentially revolutionize the treatment of cardiovascular disease. PR39's angiogenic and anti-inflammatory properties have been identified by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Children's Hospital (both Boston, Massachusetts) and Kansas State University (Manhattan, Kansas). MicroHeart has signed exclusive license agreements with these institutions covering technology relating to PR39 and its analogs. PR39 is available for investigational research only. Preclinical studies also suggest that PR39 could be used in treating heart attack by limiting the extent of myocardial tissue injury immediately following an attack.