Spectranetics will pay $30 million to acquire a drug-coated angioplasty balloon platform from Covidien, if the transaction passes muster with regulators.

Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. today announced that it has received CE (Conformité Européenne) Mark for its Stealth 360º Orbital Atherectomy System (OAS). Stealth 360 is a percutaneous OAS that is indicated to treat patients who suffer from peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

An FDA advisory panel voted 9-1 in favor of approval of the anticoagulant edoxaban to reduce the risk of stroke and systemic embolism in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation.

When a patient’s peripheral artery disease (PAD) is in the middle of two extremes, which is the best method of treatment: open bypass or angioplasty and stenting? A randomized trial is under way to compare treatment outcomes for patients with the middle two tiers of PAD in the superficial femoral artery (SFA). 

Essential Medical, Inc., a privately held medical device company, announced today that it has received CE mark approval for X-Seal, a new vascular closure device with superior handling and closure features. 

Brain hemorrhage survival was highest among patients taken to high-volume stroke care units, according to findings published in the November issue of Neurosurgery. Comprehensive stroke centers and other high-volume stroke care units had the fewest subarachnoid hemorrhage in-hospital deaths, researchers found. 

The FDA approved the Ever-Flex Self-Expanding Peripheral Stent System for use in the common and external iliac arteries.

Blood pressure may not be the key to improving stroke outcomes after all. In an international study published online Oct. 22 in The Lancet, stroke patients randomized to have blood pressure control within 48 hours of infarct did no better than patients whose high blood pressure remained untreated. They did no worse, either.