The Superior Court of Massachusetts has ruled against LightLab Imaging, a subsidiary of St. Jude Medical, in the companys trade secret case against intravascular ultrasound technology provider Volcano and its subsidiary, Axsun Technologies.

High-dose dobutamine stress MRI (DS-MRI) can be used to accurately identify patients at high risk for cardiac death and heart attack, a study published Oct. 5 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found. Patients with wall motion abnormalities and perfusion deficits were significantly more likely to experience cardiac death, heart attack or revascularization, according to the study.

Cardiac MR is effective for predicting the risk of cardiac events in patients with frequent premature ventricular complexes (PVCs), according to a study published in the Oct. 5 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

After reviewing nearly 7,000 chest CT scans, researchers in the Netherlands developed a model that reliably predicts the onset of cardiovascular disease (CVD) based exclusively on ancillary CT findings, according to an article published in the October issue of Radiology.

GE Healthcare showcased its latest interventional cardiology offerings, Innova Vision Technologies, at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2010 symposium in Washington, DC, last week.

PHILADELPHIAThe use of the pharmacologic stressor regadenoson (Lexiscan, Astellas Pharma) in patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is safe regarding events of bronchospasm, according to a late-breaking clinical trial of more than 1,000 patients presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC).

Researchers used an automated software program to accurately measure noncalcified coronary plaque volumes with CT in less than 20 seconds, a fraction of the time of an invasive IVUS measurement and five to 15 minutes less than a standard CT coronary plaque measurement, according to a study published in the October edition of Radiology.

WASHINGTON, D.C.Use of BridgePoint Medical's Chronic Total Occlusion (CTO) Crossing and Re-entry system increased procedural success and shortened procedural and fluoroscopy times when compared with other CTO-specific devices, according to a presentation at the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium, sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF).