As ACC.08, the annual congress of the American College of Cardiology nears its close, Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) reaffirms its commitment to clinical evidence supporting the full range of implantable cardiac device therapy as standard of care for patients with heart failure, arrhythmias and those at risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).

Philadelphia’s public health officials “should be commended for their success” in implementing a “bold” program in 2003 that offers no-cost screening for sexually transmitted infections to high school students, a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial says.

The birth rate among teenagers in Minnesota increased 7% from 2005 to 2006, according to a report released Thursday by the Minnesota Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Prevention and Parenting, or MOAPPP, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. The birth rate among teens ages 17 and younger increased 10%, according to the report (Olson, St.

A hand-held biomedical device by SPOC (”Stevens Proof of Concept”), developed jointly by students at Stevens Institute of Technology and pain-management expert Dr. Norman Marcus, has just received FDA 510K clearance for manufacture and marketing as a clinical device.The SPOC device itself, which began life as a Stevens undergraduate Senior Design Team project in 2004, has also spawned a start-up company, SPOC, Inc., which is headquartered in Stamford, Conn.

Summaries of two editorials related to health care issues in the presidential election appear below.Long Island Newsday: The major presidential candidates have “been eerily quiet in the face of a grim”

A catheter-mounted device that acts like a clothespin to clip together the flaps of a leaky heart valve is not only reducing the abnormal backflow of blood from the left ventricle to the left atrium, it is helping to shrink the enlarged, overworked heart and relieving symptoms of fluid overload - all without open-chest surgery.

What: “Challenges and Promise of Cell-Based Therapies” is a one-day symposium to explore promising research in regenerative medicine using stem cells. The opening plenary session will feature an overview of hematopoietic stem cell therapy. This will be followed by four plenary sessions that will highlight cell-based therapies for the treatment of neurological, cardiac, musculoskeletal, and metabolic diseases and disorders.

Many patients who come to the cardiac catheterization laboratory for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are already taking 75mg of clopidogrel daily to prevent unwanted blood clotting.

A new bioabsorbable plug that seals the arterial puncture site used for threading catheters into the body during diagnostic angiography and interventional procedures significantly shortens bleeding time and enables patients to get up and walk around far sooner than when manual compression is applied to the groin.

The eighth Plymouth Symposium on Obesity, Diabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome will take place at the Plymouth Postgraduate Medical Centre at the Peninsula Medical School on Thursday 8th May, and this year its team of experts will address whether or not progress has been made since targets for the prevention of obesity were introduced 10 years ago.Presentations at the symposium will include: * “Growing up in an obesogenic environment” by Dr.