Shockwave Medical Inc. enrolled the first patient in its EMPOWER CAD study, the first prospective, all-female study of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The study seeks to confirm the benefits of coronary intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) in female patients with calcified lesions. Women have historically been underrepresented in cardiovascular trials and have had less favorable outcomes in response to therapies.
Heartflow Inc. is feeling the love of investors again as it closed a $215 series F financing round led by Bain Capital Life Sciences. The round marks a return to the equity markets after several years away; the company closed its series E in 2017 and a $65 million venture round in 2019. In early 2022, Heartflow scrapped its plans to go public through a special purchase acquisition company (SPAC) merger with Longview Acquisition, citing what both companies called “current unfavorable market conditions.” Longview had offered $690 million in July 2021, in a deal that implied an enterprise value of $2.4 billion at the time.
After getting its 510(k) application rejected by the U.S. FDA for its AI-enabled Salix coronary anatomy software (SCA), Australian medical technology company, Artrya Ltd. scored regulatory approvals in the UK and in the EU.
The debate over medical management versus percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for patients with chronic coronary artery disease took a new twist thanks to data that PCI plus medical management was better than medical management alone for cardiovascular mortality.
Researchers have uncovered a new pathway via which cancer cells evade the effects of radiation by deploying self-inflicted – but reversible – DNA breaks to stop the cell cycle and ensure their survival. The lesions are caused by caspase-activated DNase (CAD), an enzyme involved in DNA fragmentation during cell death. In response to radiation, tumor cells activate CAD, causing genome-wide DNA breaks at sites involved in DNA repair.
Researchers have uncovered a new pathway via which cancer cells evade the effects of radiation by deploying self-inflicted – but reversible – DNA breaks to stop the cell cycle and ensure their survival.
Sanofi SA has announced new pivotal data that will form the basis of a refiling of rare disease drug sutimlimab for people with cold agglutinin disease (CAD).
Artificial intelligence (AI) is better than humans at pattern recognition within images and other densely complex datasets. That fact has long been expected to translate into meaningful change in the way we interpret health care data, but beyond a few early exceptions that is not yet the case. Now, the research is starting to amass that demonstrates the real potential for machine learning to significantly improve diagnostics and treatment.
