The FDA has classified CareFusions Sept. 12 recall of 128 EnVe ventilators as Class 1. The company said in a statement that the recall and update affect 29 CareFusion customers who purchased EnVe units that were manufactured between December 2010 and May 2011.

Near-infrared spectroscopy provides rapid, automated detection of extensive lipid-core plaques that are associated with a high risk of periprocedural MI, presumably due to embolization of plaque contents during coronary intervention, according to a substudy of the COLOR registry, published in the October issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions.

The National Institute of Cancer, a Mexican oncologic center, is the first in the country to offer positron emission mammography (PEM), which is a breast application of Naviscan's PET scanner that shows the location as well as the metabolic phase of a lesion.

IQ scores can increase or fall significantly during a persons teenage years, and these changes are associated with changes in the brain's structure, according to a study published in the Oct. 20 issue of the journal Nature.

The prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in the U.S. declined from 6.7 percent in 2006 to 6 percent in 2010, according to a report released Oct. 14 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The results suggest that CHD incidence has declined, thanks to the prevention and control of CHD risk factors.

Numerous California healthcare associations and organizations helped craft and pass the Telehealth Advancement Act of 2011, signed into law Oct. 7 by Gov. Jerry Brown. Among the groups leading the charge was the Center for Connected Health Policy, which released a report Sept. 30 that highlighted the potential cost savings to be realized from an expansion of telehealth in the Golden State.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) does not propose that states collect personal data such as name, social security number or address for the risk adjustment program, wrote Steve Larsen, Director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight in a White House blog posting.

Sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, which is associated with fewer complications than axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), may be safe and effective for most patients who do not have axillary mode metastases. Furthermore, some SLN-biopsy positive patients can omit ALND at the physicians discretion, according to an article published in the November issue of the British Journal of Surgery.