Peijia Medical Co. Ltd. reported the implant of its Taurustrio transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) system in a first patient as part of a multi-center trial getting one step closer to launching the first TAVR system for aortic regurgitation (AR) in China.
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) devices are all the rage for treatment of aortic valve disease, but that doesn’t mean valve reconstruction via the so-called Ozaki procedure has been consigned to the pages of medical history. The U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recommended that trusts in the U.K. health system use this procedure only in clinical trials at least for the time being, although the agency noted that the Ozaki procedure allows the patient to sidestep the need for long-term antithrombotic therapy, a big selling point for patients and clinicians alike.
It's one thing to ablate a lesion to treat a cardiac arrhythmia “but you can’t ablate the right place if you don’t know where it is,” said Nikki Sidi, U.S. President ofBiosense Webster Inc. Sidi was commenting on the July 24 U.S. launch of the high-density diagnostic Optrell mapping catheter with Trueref technology powered by its Carto 3 software.
Genesis Medtech Group received marketing approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration for its laparoscopic surgical device called Artisential, which helps surgeons in precision surgery. The approval not only adds another market in which the device is available but will allow Genesis to expand its reach in China.
Ultromics Ltd.’s Echogo Heart Failure system detects heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) from a single apical four-chamber video clip, according to a study published in JACC Advances. The study follows a consensus statement from American College of Cardiology which said that although there are now effective therapies to treat HFpEF, there is an increasing urgency for accurate diagnosis as the number of patients with HFpEF is on the rise, accounting for more than 50% of all heart failure cases.
The FDA’s recent clearance of Ultrasight Inc.’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered ultrasound guidance technology will allow for the widespread detection of heart diseases in the U.S. and ease bottlenecks in the healthcare system that currently restrict access for many people, Davidi Vortman, CEO of Ultrasight told BioWorld. Ultrasight’s software helps medical professionals without sonography experience acquire cardiac ultrasound images at the point of care in multiple settings.
Cardiologists have debated for some time whether obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a proven factor in a patient’s risk for heart disease, but the U.S. National Institutes of Health says newly published studies identify the specific mechanisms for this association. The studies offered data from more than 4,500 subjects and affirms the notion that OSA-driven hypoxia correlates well with the occurrence of a primary cardiovascular event, but the NIH says these findings need to be confirmed in another trial, hopefully one with enrollees whose OSA is deemed a high-risk version of the condition.
During the week of July 24, 2023, the FDA published several notifications of potentially elevated risks associated with medical devices, including a recall of a delivery sheath for the Amplatzer device by Abbott Laboratories. The agency also announced that Abiomed Inc. will provide a correction for the instructions for use (IFUs) for the Impella because of an issue seen when implanting the left ventricular assist device in patients with transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) devices.
Arsenal Medical Inc. said its Neocast embolic material for neurovascular conditions was successfully used to treat its first patient. The patient was embolized as part of a first-in-human study to assess the safety and feasibility of Neocast for the embolization of brain tumors to more easily enable surgical removal.
The U.K. government and the health care industry should focus more on behavioral-based approaches and preventative care in a bid to tackle health inequality, rising costs and an ageing population, Anton Derlyatka, CEO and co-founder of Sweatcoin Ltd., told BioWorld. Sweatcoin is a step-counting app that rewards users for their daily steps. The company has worked with the NHS for the last three years and is currently working on pilot programs to help tackle type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases by incentivizing people to move.