Dr. Dean Kereiakes knows a thing or 2 about coronary stents – he’s been a principal investigator in a number of clinical trials evaluating coronary stents over the past 20 years. So it counts when Kereiakes names the Synergy stent made by Boston Scientific‘s (NYSE:BSX) “the safest stent yet.” An interventional cardiologist at the Christ Hospital, he was also a […]
Vascular
Intact Vascular finishes patient enrollment for angioplasty clinical trial
Intact Vascular said today that it finished enrollment for the Toba II clinical trial evaluating its Tack Endovascular System in combination with standard or drug coated balloon angioplasty in arteries above the knee. The company’s trial enrolled 210 patients and will focus on the superficial femoral artery and the proximal segment of the popliteal artery, […]
Biotronik touts Orsiro data at Japanese conference
Biotronik touted data today from the BioFlow-IV study of its Orsiro hybrid drug-eluting stent at this year’s Japan Circulation Society congress. The company’s study enrolled 579 patients with de novo coronary lesions and randomized them to receive either the Orsiro stent or Xience stent. After 12 months, the researchers confirmed non-inferiority of its stent, based […]
BTG’s Ekos device targets pulmonary embolism with drug, ultrasound wave combo therapy
Each year, pulmonary embolisms kill more people in the U.S. than AIDs and breast cancer combined, according to BTG (LON:BTG). Venous clots in the legs or arm break off and travel through a patient’s circulatory system, eventually getting trapped in the lung and blocking the flow of blood. In some cases, this strains the heart’s ability to […]
Medtronic launches DCB clinical trial for below-the-knee peripheral artery disease
Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) said today that it launched a clinical trial to evaluate the use of its In.Pact paclitaxel-coated percutaneous transluminal angioplasty balloon catheter in patients with below-the-knee peripheral arterial disease. The company treated its 1st patient in the In.Pact BTK study, performing the procedure on a patient with critical limb ischemia. “The 1st patient enrollment in […]
Study evaluates drug-device combo therapy for deep vein thrombosis
A National Institutes of Health-sponsored study found that most patients with deep vein thrombosis should be treated with anticoagulant drugs alone, without a procedure-based intervention. However, the same study showed that a minimally-invasive catheter-director therapy, pharmacomechanical catheter-directed thrombolysis, provided greater initial pain relief and could prevent disability in DVT patients. The research was presented today […]
Elixir Medical’s DeSyne stent tops Medtronic’s Endeavor after 5 years
Elixir Medical‘s novolimus-eluting stent, DeSyne, outperformed Medtronic‘s (NYSE:MDT) zotarolimus-eluting stent, Endeavor, according to long-term data from Elixir’s Excella II trial. The study enrolled 210 patients with 2 or more de novo lesions in 2 different epicardial vessels. Researchers randomly assigned patients in a 2:1 ratio to the novolimus-eluting stent or the zotarolimus-eluting stent. The device emits a low […]
Meril’s bioresorbable, drug-eluting vascular scaffold
Meril Life Sciences has developed a drug-eluting, bioresorbable vascular scaffold that the body can slowly degrade and wash away. The company’s MeRes100 is made of biodegradable polymers, PLLA and PDLLA. Sirolimus, a commonly-used immunosuppressant found in drug eluting stents, is embedded in the scaffold’s coating. The company designed the struts of the device to be just 100 μm […]
UPDATE: Medtronic wins Health Canada license for drug-coated balloon, touts Japanese data
Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) touted 1 year data from the In.Pact SFA Japan trial of its drug-coated balloon compared to plain balloon angioplasty. The company also said today it won regulatory approval in Canada for its In.Pact Admiral DCB in patients with peripheral artery disease in the upper leg. The Japan trial enrolled 100 patients, 68 of […]
Mercator MedSystems touts data for Bullfrog micro-infusion device
Mercator MedSystems touted data today from its Dance clinical trial evaluating the company’s Bullfrog micro-infusion device as a delivery system for a generic anti-inflammatory steroid, dexamethasome. Mercator’s results were presented at the International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy and Leipzig Interventional Course. The steroid was delivered to tissues around femoropopliteal arteries after patients underwent endovascular intervention […]
