The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has joined recent efforts that call for a permanent fix to the flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula.

Medtronic has received FDA approval and launched its DF4 High-Voltage Connector system, a right ventricular lead and connector used with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds).

Covidien's Solitaire FR revascularization device has been FDA approved for investigational use in the Interventional Management of Stroke (IMS III) trial. The Solitaire FR device was approved by the IMS III executive committee in the thrombectomy arm of the trial and was included in a recently approved amendment submitted to the FDA.

Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and AstraZeneca have formed a three-year collaborative research agreement that will apply molecular imaging technologies to generate new diagnostic imaging tools.

Moanalua Medical Center, a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Honolulu, has received a Stage 7 Award from HIMSS Aanalytics, a nonprofit subsidiary of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). The award represents attainment of the highest level on the EMRs Adoption Model (EMRAM), which is used to track EMR progress at hospitals and health systems.

The Texas Department of State Health Services-Radiation Control Program has granted Positron's wholly owned subsidiary, Manhattan Isotope Technology, approval of its radioactive materials license amendment.

Although post-imaging use of cardiac catheterization and medical therapy increased in proportion to the degree of abnormality findings, noninvasive testing had only a modest impact on clinical management of patients referred for clinical testing, according to the SPARC trial published in the Jan. 31 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Inflammation, as assessed by 18F-FDG-PET uptake and histology, is increased in plaques containing high-risk morphological (HRM) features and rises with increasing number of HRM, according to a study in the January issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging. Study authors suggested that data support the concept that inflammation accumulates relative to the burden of morphological abnormalities.