Medtronic has settled all royalty disputes with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for $270 million, which concern its licensed use of the Palmaz, Schatz and Pinchuk stent patents.

African-American patients experienced significantly worse outcomes after balloon angioplasty and stenting than patients of other races, though researchers are not sure why. According to data reported May 8 at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) 32nd annual scientific sessions, no single factor explains why African Americans were at higher risk after PCI, but the hazard is clear.

Biosite and the FDA have notified healthcare professionals of the Class 1 recall of the Biosite brand Triage Cardiac Panel, a test used by health professionals as an aid in the diagnosis of a heart attack.

Zoll Medical has completed its acquisition of the assets of Alsius' intravascular temperature management device business for approximately $12 million.

Compared with bare-metal stents, drug-eluting stents are associated with a similar long-term incidence of death or MI, and provide a clinically important decrease in the rate of restenosis among high-risk patients, according to the latest results from the SCAAR registry published May 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The Medicines Company has reported net losses for its fiscal 2009 first quarter results.

Despite considerable progress in treating patients who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, survival andespeciallyneurologic outcomes remain relatively poor. Two areas in which more progress can be made are improved resuscitative measures, including the use of an automatic support pump, and better ventilation control. A third area that is slowly gaining traction is hypothermia therapy, according to Timothy D. Henry, an interventional cardiologist and director of research at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minnesota.

Vascular closure devices after PCI are experiencing an increase in utilization and vendors often speak to their benefits. Yet, complication rates vary widely, with seemingly little intention to explore the root of the problem, particularly in randomized controlled trials.