Archives: 3/2009

Cardiology

RADI and GE Healthcare Collaboration Delivers First Wireless FFR Monitoring

by Gene Ostrovsky on Mar 31, 2009 • 2:00 pm

rad3434 RADI and GE Healthcare Collaboration Delivers First Wireless FFR Monitoring
RADI, a St. Jude Medical subsidiary out of Sweden, has partnered with GE Healthcare to deliver the first wireless system for measuring fractional flow reserve (FFR) for coronary vasculature. FFR is defined as the pressure distal to a coronary stenosis relative to the pressure before the stenosis. FFR is a technique that allows to discover blood flow bottlenecks in the vascular system. This newly announced system uses RADI’s PressureWire Aeris device, a minimally invasive pressure sensor that features a wireless transmitter, to interface with GE’s Mac-Lab hemodynamic monitoring system.

The solution is based on the PressureWire® Aeris technology and an FFR upgrade package available for the XT and XTi system configurations of GE’s Mac-Lab® hemodynamic recording system, a system used to record and display physiological parameters in the coronary cathlab. PressureWire Aeris was developed and marketed by Radi Medical Systems, which was acquired in December 2008 by St. Jude Medical and is now part of the Company’s Cardiovascular Division.
The Mac-Lab FFR upgrade utilizes existing cathlab infrastructure, including screens, input modules and controls, and together with the PressureWire Aeris technology forms a seamlessly integrated FFR measurement system for greatly improved cathlab workflow and ease of use.

ffr34343 RADI and GE Healthcare Collaboration Delivers First Wireless FFR Monitoring

With all FFR results integrated into the existing physiological information archive, this new solution is also the only system on the market where the hemodynamic severity of coronary lesions, as measured by FFR, is documented together with other procedural data and angiographic imagery, creating a more complete patient record.
The Mac-Lab FFR solution is available as an upgrade path to all existing GE Mac-Lab installations worldwide, as well as new installations.

Press release: Radi Medical Systems AB and GE Healthcare announce cooperation to integrate FFR and PressureWire® Aeris in GE Mac-Lab® IT
Product page: FFR Integration with PressureWire Aeris and GE Mac-Lab

Cardiology / Medicine

BIOTRONIK Cardiac Monitoring Going Worldwide

by Gene Ostrovsky on Mar 31, 2009 • 1:24 pm

5654bio1 BIOTRONIK Cardiac Monitoring Going Worldwide
BIOTRONIK is making available its portable implanted cardiac device monitoring technology for global sales. The system is designed to establish a communication link between ICD’s, CRT’s, and pacemakers with clinics via a cell phone network.
biotronic home device BIOTRONIK Cardiac Monitoring Going Worldwide

Using an intuitive, red-yellow-coded traffic light concept, BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring quickly and easily identifies patients with the most clinically relevant events to streamline clinic workflow; ensuring efficient use of clinic time by reducing unnecessary in-office follow-ups and so improving patient care. Daily as well as trend patient and device information, is automatically evaluated and prioritized through the intelligent traffic light system, and conveniently presented in the CardioReport®. This status summary on the BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring secure website enables physicians to quickly review the most important information at a glance.
Moreover, this fully automatic system enables early detection of clinically relevant changes in patient or device status, allowing prompt intervention to prevent further worsening in a patient’s condition. In these cases of important status changes, BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring generates an alert notification via email, SMS or fax to the physician. BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring has been proven to enable physicians to identify patients who require attention earlier.1,2 The unique CardioMessenger®, patient device, gives patients freedom to be completely mobile while wirelessly transmitting important clinical and device status information to the BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring secure website for physician evaluation.
TRUST (Lumax-T/Lumos-T safely RedUceS rouTine office device follow-up), a multi-center, prospective, randomized controlled trial has proved that BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring is as safe and effective as conventional in-office ICD follow-up.

Press release: Global Launch of the new BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring
Product page: BIOTRONIK home monitoring; CardioMessenger II
Flashback: EU Green Lights BIOTRONIK’s Monitoring System;

Anesthesiology / Critical Care / Medicine / Surgery

Puritan Bennett 540, a New Covidien Ventilator With Smart Battery Technology

by Gene Ostrovsky on Mar 31, 2009 • 1:02 pm

PB540 midres Puritan Bennett 540, a New Covidien Ventilator With Smart Battery Technology
Covidien has released a new portable ventilator, the Puritan Bennett 540™, that’s designed for longer operational ability, thanks to a new lithium battery. The ventilator’s panel also displays remaining charge time in minutes. This gives providers more predictability when working on battery power as opposed to models that have a percentage based charge meters.
Features according to the company:

At 9.9 pounds, the Puritan Bennett 540 ventilator is compact and light. It comes with a dual bag, making it easy to carry by hand and in a backpack, or to attach to a wheelchair. A car charger and an external battery are also available for the unit, so the ventilator can be charged or used during road travel.
The ventilator also features a quick and reactive flow trigger for patient comfort, minimizing the work of breathing, with the added benefit of the patient being able to set PEEP (positive end expiratory pressure).
* Small and lightweight (6.0” H x 9.25” W x 12.4” D, and 9.9 lbs)
* Pressure and volume ventilation
* Invasive and noninvasive ventilation
* Up to 11 hours*(depending on settings and other factors) of patient mobility (with internal lithium-ion battery)
* Real time battery life indicator
* Integrated low pressure oxygen
* Single- or double-limb breathing circuit
* VTE monitoring with double-limb circuit
* Waveform screens
* Adults and children 5 kg or greater
* Remote alarm capabilities

Product page: Puritan Bennett 540™ Ventilator
Press release: Covidien Announces U.S. Launch of Puritan Bennett 540(TM) Portable Ventilator

Net News

PEPID Is Embracing iPhone Platform

by Gene Ostrovsky on Mar 31, 2009 • 12:26 pm

342fgsdfg PEPID Is Embracing iPhone PlatformPepid, a maker of information software that aids clinicians in their daily tasks, has ported its entire library of products to the iPhone platform.
The company provides details:

Currently, there are numerous channel applications available. Some contain drug information, some have minimal disease profiles, some have several calculators and there are even electronic textbooks. PEPID has achieved the ultimate all-in-one status by including 7,500 drug names, more than 3,000 diseases and conditions, differential diagnostics, illustrations, laboratory values and in excess of 2,000 medical calculators.
PEPID ED Platinum
PEPID Emergency Physician Platinum Suite saves you time and ensures you are making accurate patient-care decisions. Content is written for ED physicians and is easy to find without plowing through extra material you don’t need.
PEPID PCP Platinum
PEPID Primary Care Physician Platinum Suite is the most comprehensive, integrated reference tool covering all specialties. PCP Platinum gives you everything you need to support quality care without leaving your patient’s side.
PEPID RN Pro Platinum
PEPID Professional Nursing Platinum Suite gives nurses and advanced practice nurses an easy way to bring all the information they need to make accurate decisions at the bedside — improving quality, safety and efficiency of care.
PEPID RN ONS Platinum
Developed with the Oncology Nursing Society, PEPID Oncology Nursing Platinum Suite contains a drug database, dosing and IV drip rate calculators, drug interactions generator, PEP Cards, nursing considerations and more.
PEPID RNCC Platinum
With critical care assessments, fast access to drugs and drips, IV compatibility, symptom checker and nursing considerations, PEPID RN CC Platinum is the only tool that truly supports decisions when treating critically ill patients.

54454222 PEPID Is Embracing iPhone Platform

PEPID RN Gero Platinum
Get the leading electronic reference for gerontological nurses — PEPID RN Gero Platinum Suite. RN Gero Platinum gives you access to a drug database, lab manual, dosing calculators, drug interactions generator and assessments.
PEPID CRC Platinum
PEPID Clinical Rotation Companion Platinum is designed for medical students and includes a differential diagnosis generator, step-by-step processes for history and exams, dosing calculators and drug interactions generator.
PEPID RN Student Platinum
Designed for nurses-in-training, PEPID RN Student Platinum is a resource for classroom, lab and clinical settings with a lab manual, NANDA-I wizard, drug database, medical and dosing calculators and symptom checker.
PEPID EMS Plus NAEMSE
Developed with the National Association of EMS Educators, PEPID EMS contains everything you need to make decisions at the emergent scene or en route — drug database, medical reference, toxicology, illustrations and medical calculators.
PEPID PDC Platinum
PEPID Portable Drug Companion Platinum Suite contains 7,500 drug names, 3,000 drug-specific dosing and IV drip rate calculators, IV compatibility tool, drug interactions generator, symptom checker and laboratory manual.

Press release: iPhone Technology Steps up a Notch with PEPID
Link: PEPID on iPhone

Uncategorized

Ins and Outs

by Gene Ostrovsky on Mar 31, 2009 • 10:12 am
  • Amniotic fluid may provide new source of stem cells for future therapies… [American Society of Hematology]
  • Benefits of Mammogram Under Debate in Britain… [NYTimes]
  • Electronic Health Records: Lessons from the iPhone… [MIT Tech Review]
  • Coronary Angiography May Improve Outcomes for Cardiac Arrest Patients… [University of Pittsburgh]
  • Infant Weight Gain Linked to Childhood Obesity… [Children's Hospital Boston]
  • A Proposal for a Coordinated Effort for the Determination of Brainwide Neuroanatomical Connectivity in Model Organisms at a Mesoscopic Scale… [PLoS Computational Biology]
  • FDA Approves Afinitor Oral Tablets (Everolimus) for an Advanced Form of Kidney Cancer… [FDA]
  • Blood Test for Brain Injuries Gains Momentum… [University of Rochester Medical Center]
  • Boston Scientific Welcomes House Passage of National Pain Care Policy Act… [Boston Scientific]
  • New Data Presented at ACC.09 Shows Benefit of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy in Mildly Symptomatic Heart Failure Patients… [Medtronic]
  • Results From Medtronic-Supported Clinical Trial Assessing Use of Implantable Cardiac Devices in Certain Heart Attack Patients Show Reduction in Sudden Cardiac Death… [Medtronic]
  • Autism Skews Developing Brain with Synchronous Motion and Sound… [NIH]
  • FDA Approves New Vaccine to Prevent Japanese Encephalitis … [FDA]
  • Special Webcast: Unified Communications in Health… [Health Blog @ MSFT]
  • New Radiation-free Targeted Therapy Detects and Eliminates Breast-Cancer Tumors in Mice… [Caltech]
  • Lice genomes: Pieces of a new puzzle… [Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory]
  • AMA Wades Into Flap Over JAMA Editors… [WSJ]
  • It’s Time to Make a Coffee Run… [NYTimes]
  • Women’s shopping sprees linked to time of the month… [BBC]
    • Nanomedicine

    DNA Acts as Smart Glue for Nanostructures

    by Gene Ostrovsky on Mar 31, 2009 • 12:10 am

    2009 03 Gang Fig1 300px DNA Acts as Smart Glue for NanostructuresBrookhaven physicists have developed a way to use DNA to guide nanoparticles to stick together in a very specific way. Conveniently, the DNA strands themselves act as the binding glue to keep the particles together.
    From the statement issued by Brookhaven NL press office:

    The Brookhaven team has previously used DNA, the molecule that carries life’s genetic code, to link up nanoparticles in various arrangements, including 3-D nano-crystals. The idea is that nanoparticles coated with complementary strands of DNA — segments of genetic code sequence that bind only with one another like highly specific Velcro — help the nanoparticles find and stick to one another in highly specific ways. By varying the use of complementary DNA and strands that don’t match, scientists can exert precision control over the attractive and repulsive forces between the nanoparticles to achieve the desired construction. Note that the short DNA linker strands used in these studies were constructed artificially in the laboratory and don’t “code” for any proteins, as genes do.
    The latest advance has been to use the DNA linkers to attach some of the DNA-coated nanoparticles to a solid surface to further constrain and control how the nanoparticles can link up. This yields even greater precision, and therefore a more predictable, reproducible high-throughput construction technique for building clusters from nanoparticles.
    “When a particle is attached to a support surface, it cannot react with other molecules or particles in the same way as a free-floating particle,” explained Brookhaven physicist Oleg Gang, who led the research at the Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials. This is because the support surface blocks about half of the particle’s reactive surface. Attaching a DNA linker or other particle that specifically interacts with the bound particle then allows for the rational assembly of desired particle clusters.

    2009 03 Gang Fig2 300px DNA Acts as Smart Glue for Nanostructures

    “By controlling the number of DNA linkers and their length, we can regulate interparticle distances and a cluster’s architecture,” said Gang. “Together with the high specificity of DNA interactions, this surface-anchored technique permits precise assembly of nano-objects into more complex structures.”
    Instead of assembling millions and millions of nanoparticles into 3-D nanocrystals, as was done in the previous work, this technique allows the assembly of much smaller structures from individual particles. In the Nature Materials paper, the scientists describe the details for producing symmetrical, two-particle linkages, known as dimers, as well as small, asymmetrical clusters of particles — both with high yields and low levels of other, unwanted assemblies.

    Here’s video of Oleg Gang expounding on the research:


    Brookhaven press release…
    Article in Nature Materials: Stepwise surface encoding for high-throughput assembly of nanoclusters
    Image 1: (a) (1) DNA linker strands (squiggly lines) are used to attach DNA-coated nanoparticles to a surface. (2) Linker strands are attached to the top side of the nanoparticle. (b) (3a) A nanoparticle of a second type with complementary DNA encoding recognizes the exposed linker strands and attaches to the surface-anchored nanoparticle. (4a and 5a) The assembled structure is released from the surface support, resulting in a two-particle, dimer cluster. (c) (3b) Alternatively, the immobilized particles produced in step (a) are released from the surface, leaving the opposite-side linker strands free to bind with multiple particles (4b) to form asymmetric “Janus” clusters.
    Image 2: This transmission electron micrograph shows nanoparticle dimers (two-particle clusters) assembled and released through the DNA-encoded solid-support approach.

    in the news...

    Advanced Photon Source Helps See Influenza Structural Variations

    by Gene Ostrovsky on Mar 31, 2009 • 12:10 am

    2323dd Advanced Photon Source Helps See Influenza Structural Variations
    A team from the Scripps Research Institute used Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source synchrotron to analyze the structure of the viral protein hemagglutinin. The virion surface protein, which helps the virus bind to cells, is found in all influenza strains, but the structure of it differs.
    An Argonne statement explains:

    Although the precise structure of hemagluttinin varies between different strains of the flu, parts of the protein are consistent throughout different strains. Influenza hemagluttinin contains two different principal subregions – a "head" and a "stalk." While different strains of the virus can have greatly different "heads," the "stalks" of different forms of hemagluttinin are largely the same.
    Many antibodies bind to the non-conserved “head” regions of hemagluttinins, but these tend to be effective against only a limited range of viral strains. In this study, the researchers showed that a recently isolated, broadly neutralizing antibody bound to a conserved helical part of the “stalk” region of hemagluttinins from different strains of the virus. This result could allow researchers to tailor vaccines that would allow immunized patients to produce antibodies that would bind to the largely shared "stalk" regions of different viruses’ hemagluttinin. Once the antibody binds to the stalk, the virus cannot change its conformation and infect the cell.
    Current configurations of the flu vaccine inoculate recipients against three of the major influenza subtypes: the virus that caused the infamous Spanish flu of 1918 – which killed approximately 50 million people – as well as the viruses that caused the flu pandemics of 1957 and 1968. The research done at the Argonne could someday allows scientists and doctors to formulate a vaccine that protects not only against these strains but also against a broader range of variants, including the emerging threat of bird flu. "It would save a lot of lives to be able to protect the population against an incipient pandemic," said crystallographer Ian Wilson, who runs the Scripps laboratory that conducted the research.
    The GM/CA-CAT beamline offered one particular advantage to the Scripps researchers. In addition to the highly focused high-energy X-rays provided to all of the beamlines at the APS, GM/CA-CAT has developed a unique triple collimator, which allows visiting scientists to opt whether to use the full X-ray beam or just a “minibeam” of only a few microns in diameter. The "minibeam" allows researchers either to examine exceptionally tiny crystals – down to a few microns in diameter – or to "walk along" the crystal by examining different points on it in order, and then using that data to reconstruct the larger picture.

    Press release: Research could lead to more comprehensive flu vaccines

    Net News

    5 Minute Clinical Consult Now on iPhone

    by Gene Ostrovsky on Mar 31, 2009 • 12:10 am

    a344323 5 Minute Clinical Consult Now on iPhoneUnbound Medicine has released its 5 Minute Clinical Consult application for the iPhone platform. The application is designed to quickly help physicians find relevant information at the point of care regarding “diagnosis, treatment, medications, follow-up, ICD-9 coding and patient teaching”.
    Features from the product page:

  • Interface optimized for iPhone and iPod touch
  • Personalized favorites
  • Frequent updates
  • Superior navigation and graphics
  • iPhone and web access

    • The 5-Minute Clinical Consult delivers fast, to-the-point guidance on the diagnosis and treatment for more than 700 adult and 200 pediatric medical conditions seen in everyday practice. This best-selling clinical reference contains all of the information you need to provide premium care to your patients including diagnosis, treatment, medications, follow-up, ICD-9 coding and patient teaching. Organized in a proven rapid-access format, all topics are concise, consistent and action-oriented. The latest evidence-based practice is incorporated in succinct recommendations for patient care.
    Unique bonus features from Unbound Medicine include more than 130 dermatologic images, over 200 common pediatric diseases and 1-year access to www.5mcc.com. At the website, users will find a 4,600 drug database, medical procedure videos, patient handouts, journal search and cross-links for quick navigation between resources.

    Animation demo of 5MCC on iPhone…
    Product page: 5 Minute Clinical Consult…

    in the news...

    MRI Technology Getting Serious Boost Using Magnetic Markers

    by Gene Ostrovsky on Mar 30, 2009 • 12:18 pm

    aper34 MRI Technology Getting Serious Boost Using Magnetic Markers
    University of York scientists seem to have come upon a method of increasing the signal quality in magnetic resonance machines by a thousand fold. The technique transfers the magnetism of parahydrogen molecules to other molecules within the object studied, greatly increasing their visibility under MR.
    The York team explains:
    7744333 MRI Technology Getting Serious Boost Using Magnetic Markers

    We have used parahydrogen to study inorganic reaction mechanisms for many years. Others have used it to polarise organic materials which have recently found use in MRI studies. However, both these approaches require the addition of parahydrogen to the molecule that is to be observed. Consequently, they involve the chemical functionalisation of materials and require the accessibility of a suitable unsaturated precursor. This marks a substantial limitation of the parahydrogen approach.
    Our new technique, Signal Amplification By Reversible Exchange (SABRE), achieves a similar result without any chemical change being necessary. The SABRE method delivers a proven 1000-fold increase in sensitivity. This 1000-fold signal gain means that NMR measurements which would have previously taken months can now be completed in seconds.

    Explanation of SABRE technology with videos showing the technique
    University of York press release: Transforming medical diagnosis with new scanning technology
    Abstract in Science: Reversible Interactions with para-Hydrogen Enhance NMR Sensitivity by Polarization Transfer
    More from MIT Tech Review…
    Image: Top: Schematic representation of the SABRE method. The polarisation (represented by the orange colouring) is transferred from parahydrogen to a substrate which can then be seen by NMR and MRI. Side: An MRI of a one-centimeter-wide tube containing smaller tubes covered with pyridine. The pyridine has been polarized making the small tubes much more visible. Credit: University of York

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