Technology
March 21, 2013
Parkinson’s Patients May Be Harmed by Novel Treatment
The study examined the progression of 1,098 patients who had their DNA sequenced at the Mayo Clinic and were contacted as many as 15 years later to determine how they were faring…Alnylam, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, licensed alpha- synuclein technology from the Mayo Clinic and is developing a product that would be delivered directly into […]
Tags: Alnylam, Bloomberg Businessweek, DNA sequence, new technology, parkinson's disease
March 20, 2013
AAN: DaTscan Imaging May Improve Dementia
Differential diagnosis of dementia in patients with equivocal clinical presentations may be sharpened with an imaging technique recently approved for other purposes, a researcher said here. SPECT imaging with a radioactive iodine-based tracer — sold under the name DaTscan — distinguished patients with Lewy body dementia and non-amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from those with […]
Tags: alzheimer's disease, DaTscan, dementia, Dr. Bradley Boeve, imaging technique, Lewy Body Dementia, MedPage Today, mild cognitive impairment, SPECT imaging
March 13, 2013
Mayo Prostate Cancer Test Gives Hope When Tumors Return
Mike Hawker travels 3,200 miles from his home in Anchorage to the Mayo Clinic every six months to get a test for microscopic signs that a rare form of prostate cancer he beat three years ago may have returned. For Hawker, a Republican state representative in Alaska, the trips are a matter of life and death…Mayo’s medical center in Rochester, Minnesota, is […]
Tags: Bloomberg, cancer cells, cancer test, prostate cancer, Rep. Mike Hawker
March 11, 2013
Boston Scientific’s Watchman Heart Device Was Safer in Study
Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX)’s Watchman device, designed to help prevent strokes in patients with an erratic heartbeat, was safer than previously thought in a second study requested by U.S. regulators, researchers said…The procedure itself triggered strokes, clots or major complications in 2.2 percent of patients within a week, an acceptable risk in return for helping […]
Tags: Bloomberg, Boston Scientific Corp, Dr. David Holmes, erratic heartbeat, safety issues, stroke, Watchman device
March 5, 2013
Robosurgery Suits Detail Injuries as Death Reports Rise
In 2009, the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona found the complication in 21 of 510 robot hysterectomies done between 2004 and 2008, according to a study. The lead author of that report, Rosanne Kho, a gynecologic surgeon at the clinic, said in a telephone interview that while changes in surgeon techniques have lessened instances of the complication since, she […]
Tags: Bloomberg, complication, Dr. Rosanne Kho, Hysterectomies, lawsuit, robosurgery, surgeon techniques
February 22, 2013
New Mayo Clinic protocol allows for MRI in select pacemaker patients
A new protocol at Mayo Clinic in Arizona allows select patients to have an MRI exam even though they have a pacemaker…”While it is likely that, in the next decade, MRI-conditional pacemakers will become standard, there is a large population of patients who in the interim may require MRI scanning,” says Win-Kuang Shen, M.D., a cardiac electrophysiologist and […]
Tags: Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Dr. Win-Kuang Shen, HealthCanal, MRI, pacemaker
February 20, 2013
Mayo: High-def imaging in colonoscopies turns up a higher rate of precancerous polyps
Recent studies at the Mayo Clinic’s campus in Jacksonville suggest that using high-definition imaging tools during colonoscopies reveals potentially precancerous polyps in a higher percentage of individuals at average risk of colorectal cancer than has been found using traditional methods. The study, published in the latest online issue of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, found that use of […]
Tags: adenoma detection, colonoscopies, Colorectal Cancer, Florida Times-Union, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, high-definition imaging
January 4, 2013
Phoenix-Area Organ Recipients Honor Donors in Rose Parade
Okeke, a husband and father of three, made news when he became the first patient in the country to be discharged from the hospital with an artificial heart in May 2010. The 13-pound heart, known as the “Freedom Driver” by the staff at the Mayo Clinic, replaced the 400-pound device that had kept Okeke alive, […]
Tags: Arizona Republic, Artificial Heart, Freedom Driver, heart transplant
January 4, 2013
Mayo Clinic Spinoff Gets Approval to Sell Heart Device
NeoChord Inc., a Mayo Clinic spin-off that makes technology for repairing heart valves, has received regulatory approval to sell its device in Europe. The Eden Prairie-based company will begin selling the device in Europe this month, NeoChord CEO John Seaberg said in an interview. The company makes artificial heart “strings” and an accompanying device that treat mitral valve regurgitation, […]
Tags: artificial heart strings, heart valve, John Seaberg, mitral valve regurgitation, Mpls St. Paul Business Journal, NeoChord Inc.
January 4, 2013
Phoenix-Area Organ Recipients Honor Donors in Rose Parade
Okeke, a husband and father of three, made news when he became the first patient in the country to be discharged from the hospital with an artificial heart in May 2010. The 13-pound heart, known as the “Freedom Driver” by the staff at the Mayo Clinic, replaced the 400-pound device that had kept Okeke alive, […]
Tags: Arizona Republic, Artificial Heart, Freedom Driver, organ donation, organ transplant