St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ) won U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval to expand its BROADEN study of deep-brain stimulation for major depressive disorders, allowing a maximum of 20 sites across the U.S. to enroll up to 125 patients.
Research & Development
Imaging CRO to play role in vascular study on last Atlantis shuttle flight
Imaging clinical research organization ImageIQ will participate in a vascular research study being performed on the last flight of the space shuttle Atlantis.
The Cleveland-based company will acquire and analyze images used in a study of space flight-induced vascular changes in the lower leg, according to a statement from ImageIQ.
Specifically, the study will examine a therapy that’s designed to prevent space flight-induced bone loss in mice.
GE Healthcare and Endosense team up on all-in-one catheter ablation system
Endosense and GE Healthcare have inked a deal to jointly develop an all-in-one catheter ablation system for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias.
Endosense is merging tip-to-tissue data from its force-sensing catheter with GE’s CardioLab electrophysiology recording and Innova imaging platforms.
Will uncertainty bring down another cardiac implant market?
MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Uncertainty surrounding the use of cardiac stents and angioplasty balloons may lead to a market backlash against the devices and their makers.
At least 4 percent and up to 12 percent of percutaneous coronary interventions may be implanted outside of industry-recommended guidelines, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. yesterday.
Will JAMA heart stent article start another Wall Street stampede?
A footnote in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. about percutaneous coronary interventions may have a ripple effect on Wall Street.
The study gathered data on more than 500,000 PCIs conducted at more than 1,000 U.S. hospitals between July 2009 and September 2010. The researchers determined the appropriateness of each procedure based on the 2009 coronary revascularization appropriate use criteria, a whitesheet generated and endorsed by medical professional societies in 2009 amid growing debate over proper use of PCIs.
When reading genes, read the instructions first: Epigenetics and developmental disorders
By Tom Ulrich
While the genome’s As, Ts, Cs, and Gs hold the instructions for making proteins, how does a cell know when to read a gene? And could it relate to developmental disorders?
Pediatrics megatrends I: What’s changed in our lifetimes
What’s next for pediatrics? Here’s the world according to Alan Guttmacher, MD, Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Guttmacher did his internship, residency and fellowship in clinical genetics at Children’s Hospital Boston during the 1980s.
A match made in heaven: The Children’s/MIT Research Enterprise
Medtronic-supported trial of Nile Therapeutics heart failure treatment prepares for next step
ADA diabetes roundup: Mayo Clinic answers the call for progress toward an artificial pancreas
Plenty more news streamed out of the conference of the American Diabetes Assn. over the weekend, including progress toward an artificial pancreas, data on young diabetics at risk for heart disease and mobile apps for prevention and management of diabetes.
More than 13,500 people gathered in San Diego at the 71st annual scientific conference of the ADA to lead the fight against diabetes, a disease that affects more than 26 million children and adults in the U.S., according to the ADA.
From kittens to Fragile X: Do all autisms share a common thread?
Image by Casey David/Flickr
Mark Bear’s research interests have taken him from studying vision in kittens to learning and memory in mouse models, and more recently, to the study of Fragile X syndrome, one of the leading genetic causes of autism and intellectual disability in humans.