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Boston Scientific's Urology/Gynecology Products Featured In Studies At International Urogynecological Association Annual Meeting
Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) announced that results from nine studies involving the Company"s Urology/Gynecology products will be presented at the 34th Annual Meeting of the International Urogynecological Association (IUGA). Presentations will feature Boston Scientific"s pelvic floor reconstruction systems and mid-urethral sling systems used to treat pelvic floor prolapse and stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The Company will also sponsor a symposium highlighting long-term registry data comparing the benefits of experienced-based versus evidence-based outcomes for patients treated with mid-urethral slings. The IUGA Congress will be held June 16-20 at the Villa Erba Conference Center in Como, Italy.
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Study Of Pulmonary Hypertension Treatment In Sickle Cell Patients Halted By NHLBI
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health has stopped a clinical trial testing a drug treatment for pulmonary hypertension in adults with sickle cell disease nearly one year early due to safety concerns. In an interim review of safety data from 33 participants who completed 16 weeks of treatment, researchers found that, compared to participants on placebo (dummy pill), participants taking sildenafil (Revatio) were significantly more likely to have serious medical problems. The most common problem was episodes of severe pain called sickle cell crises, which resulted in hospitalization. No deaths have been associated with the drug in the clinical trial.
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Health Care Reform Likely Will Not Provide Coverage To Undocumented Immigrants, Sen. Baucus Says
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, on Thursday said that he supports "a version" of government-run health insurance but that such a program would not cover undocumented immigrants, the Washington Times reports. Baucus was speaking at an event sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Families USA and the National Federation of Independent Business (Haberkorn, Washington Times, 5/22). Baucus said that health care reform likely would provide coverage to between 94% and 96% of U.S. residents but that it would be "too politically explosive" to provide coverage to undocumented residents (Young, The Hill, 5/21). Undocumented immigrants account for between 15% and 22% of the estimated 47 million U.S. residents who lack health insurance, according to analyses by the Center for Immigration Studies and the U.S. Census Bureau. Baucus said the finance committee has not yet discussed whether federal funding to treat low-income, uninsured patients should be expanded to treat undocumented immigrants. "I don"t have a good answer yet to undocumented workers," Baucus said, adding, "There will still be charity care." According to the Dallas Morning News, some immigration advocates have said health reform efforts will not be complete if undocumented immigrants do not have coverage. Jaime Torres, president of Latinos for National Health Insurance, said, "In light of what"s happening now with the flu pandemic, it"s pretty clear that, for any health care system to work, it has to cover everyone residing in the United States" (Landers, Dallas Morning News, 5/22). Torres added, "It"s unfortunate that Sen. Baucus and the Congress might not have the courage to include the undocumented" (Washington Times, 5/22). A podcast and video of the press conference are available online at kff.org.
Endocrinology

Improving Heart Function In Mouse Model Following Heart Attack

One approach being developed as a way to improve heart function following heart attack is the injection of heart stem/progenitor cells directly into the heart. Now, a team of researchers, at Tokyo Women"s Medical University, Japan, and Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, has found that transplanting sheets of clonally expanded heart cells expressing the protein Sca-1 (cells that are heart stem/progenitor cells and that the authors term CPCs) improves heart function after a heart attack in mice. The team, led by Katsuhisa Matsuura and Issei Komuro, found that CPCs not only formed heart muscle cells but also secreted a soluble molecule (sVCAM-1) that induced the migration of endothelial cells (which help form new blood vessels) and CPCs and prevented heart muscle cells dying from oxidative stress. In the mouse model of heart attack, preventing sVCAM-1 from binding to the protein VLA-4 inhibited the formation of new blood vessels and blocked CPC migration and survival, leading to a decreased ability of the transplanted CPC sheets to improve heart function. The authors conclude that these data provide new insight into the mechanisms by which heart stem/progenitor cells improve heart function following heart attack. Title: Transplantation of cardiac progenitor cells ameliorates cardiac dysfunction after myocardial infarction in mice https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=37456 Author: Katsuhisa Matsuura Tokyo Women"s Medical University, Tokyo, Japan. Karen Honey Journal of Clinical Investigation


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