August 29, 2008

• Blood Test For Heart-Transplant Rejection Approved
  (TheHeart.org ) -- AlloMap measures the activity of genes related to allograft rejection, allowing patients to potentially avoid invasive endomyocardial biopsies and improving clinicians' ability to make management decisions.
  

• Phen-Fen Lawyer Freed On Bail
  (Louisville Courier-Journal ) -- Cunningham is out on bail, which was lowered last week from $45 million to $1.25 million. Gallion, whose bond was reduced from $52 million to $2.5 million, is still in the Boone County Jail, where Cunningham had been held.
  

• Nation's First Child to Receive Heart-Double Lung-Liver Transplant Celebrates 10th Anniversary
  (MarketWatch ) -- Brendon was born without bile ducts in his liver or a pulmonary artery -- the blood vessel that connects the heart with the lungs. If Brendon had not received the transplant, doctors at Children's Hospital determined he would have suffered liver and heart failure and would have died within a year.
  

• Human Genome Sciences Completes Enrollment In Second Phase 3 Lymphostat-B® Trial
  (Human Genome Sciences ) -- We are on track to have data from our first Phase 3 trial by mid-2009, and data from our second Phase 3 trial by fall 2009. Assuming positive results, we anticipate a BLA filing in the United States in the first half of 2010.”
  

• Pulmonary Hypertension Drug (Citrulline)
  (WHOI ) -- An earlier study found patients who received citrulline had lower rates of pulmonary hypertension compared to those who received a placebo treatment. Now, a larger, multi-national trial is underway to verify the effects of the drug.
  

• Infection, Rejection, And Hospitalizations In Transplant Recipients Using Telehealth
  (RedOrbit ) -- Context-Telehealth technology serves individuals who live in geographical areas that prohibit easy access to specialized health care and can provide transplant recipients with access to transplant center personnel for adjunctive follow-up care. Objective-To compare infection, rejection, and hospitalization events in subjects randomized to telehealth or to standard posttransplant care.
  

• No More Open Heart -- In-depth Doctor's Interview
  (Ivanhoe.com ) -- Evan M. Zahn, M.D., Chief of Cardiology at Miami Children's Hospital, discusses the new Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve.
  

• Two Orlando Hospitals Win OK For Transplants
  (Orlando Sentinel ) -- The state gave approval Friday to the area's largest hospital chains -- Orlando Health and Florida Hospital -- to start the programs at their main facilities in town. Florida Hospital also was cleared to do lung transplants.
  

• Looking For Lupus Clinical Trials?
  (The Ledger ) --

• Judge Reduces Bail For Lawyers In Fen-Phen Case
  (Louisville Courier-Journal ) -- U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves reduced bail yesterday for William Gallion to $2.5 million, from $52 million; and to $1.25 million, from $45 million, for Shirley Cunningham Jr.
  

• Thromboembolic PH May Respond To Sildenafil Over Long Term
  (Medscape/Reuters ) -- Statistically significant improvements were evident in several secondary endpoints -- namely, pulmonary vascular resistance, change in World Health Organization functional class, and quality of life based on the Cambridge Pulmonary Hypertension Outcomes Research Score (CAMPHOR).
  

• Fruit Juice 'Could Affect Drugs'
  (BBC ) -- Drinking fruit juices may not be as healthy an option as thought - they could reduce the effectiveness of some medicines, it is being claimed.
  

• Lack of Insurance, High Medical Costs Put More in a Bind
  (Washington Post ) -- Americans are struggling to pay medical bills and are accumulating medical debt at an increasing rate, according to a survey released today.
  

•   State Plan To Pay For Organ Donors’ Funerals
  (The West Australian ) -- The State Government would help cover the costs of organ donors’ funerals under a proposal promoted by Health Minister Jim McGinty and endorsed at an organ donation summit yesterday.
  

• Oklahoma City Teen Paints Hope Despite Battle With Rare Disease
  (NewsOK.com ) -- Most pulmonary hypertension patients don't have the energy for such an undertaking, but Lauren and her family were up for the challenge. Painting a Stroke of PHenomenal Hope will be Saturday in Oklahoma City.
  

• Surgical Weight Loss Does Not Eliminate Obstructive Sleep Apnea
  (Science Daily ) -- Surgical weight loss results in an improvement of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), but most patients continue to have moderate to severe OSA one year after undergoing bariatric surgery according to new research.
  

• Bosentan Aids Treprostinil In PAH
  (Medscape/Reuters Health ) -- In certain patients with moderate-to-severe pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH), the addition of oral bosentan to subcutaneous treprostinil-based therapy can produce further clinical improvement, investigators report in the July issue of Chest.
  

•   Canada Has A New Organ, Tissue Donation Registry System
  (Canada.com ) -- "With a more highly integrated system in Canada we can have a better collection and utilization of very important data that is needed and required in the organ donation and transplantation process."
  

• EPIX Pharmaceuticals Initiates Phase 2b Right-Heart Catheterization Study Of PRX-08066 In Patients With COPD And Moderate-to-Severe PH
  (EPIX Pharmaceuticals ) -- EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that it has initiated its Phase 2b right-heart catheter study of PRX-08066 in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and moderate-to-severe pulmonary hypertension (PH). PRX-08066 is a novel serotonin type 2B receptor (5-HT2B) antagonist that may represent a new mechanism of action for treating PH.
  

• Medimmune Initiates First Phase 2 Trial In Lupus Patients With Its Antibody Targeting Interferon-Alpha
  (MedImmune ) -- The study is designed to assess the safety and tolerability of the antibody, also known as MEDI-545 in patients with moderately to severely active lupus, despite standard of care.
  

• Organ Donation 'Helps Families To Heal'
  (The Province ) -- Pia Henriksson of North Vancouver, whose son's organs saved five lives, supports a new B.C. study that shows 97 per cent of donor families are glad they gave.
  

• B Cells Can Act Alone In Autoimmune Diseases
  (HealthDay News ) -- B cells may be more responsible for causing autoimmune diseases like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis than initially thought, according to a new study.
  

• Joyful Wedding For Lung Transplant Recipient
  (San Francisco Chronicle ) -- On Dec. 29, 2003, she underwent a double-lung transplant. Six years earlier, at age 20, she'd been diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and Osler-Weber-Rendu syndrome, a genetic disorder.
  

• Exercise-Induced PH Common In Systemic Sclerosis
  (Medicexchange/Reuters ) -- "Pulmonary hypertension in scleroderma is a very serious and deadly complication," Dr. Virginia Steen from Georgetown University, Washington, DC told Reuters Health.
  

• Design Of The REVEAL Registry For US Patients With PAH
  (RedOrbit ) -- The Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-term PAH Disease Management (REVEAL) has been designed to meet the need for current information about patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The main objectives of REVEAL are to better define and understand PAH and to assess the consequences of treatment strategies.
  

• Hi-Tech Projects Make Life Easier For Sufferers
  (RedOrbit ) -- The device directly removes carbon dioxide and adds oxygen to blood without using the lungs. The novel control system integrates with the body's natural control systems and, as patient oxygen demand increases, the device responds by providing oxygen faster and removing carbon dioxide faster.
  

• Tracleer® Receives EU Approval For Treatment Of Patients With Mildly Symptomatic PAH
  (Actelion ) -- Tracleer® is the first PAH treatment ever to be investigated in a clinical study that exclusively enrolled patients with mildly symptomatic WHO FC II. This 185-patient randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study provided the basis for this EU approval. The indication extension reads: "Some improvements have also been shown in patients with PAH WHO functional class II (see section 5.1)"
  

• Sleep Apnea Linked To Higher Risk Of Death
  (Medical News Today ) -- A US study that followed a random sample of men and women for 18 years showed that those with sleep apnea, where breathing pauses during sleep, had more than three times the risk of death from any cause compared to those who did not, and the risk went up when the condition was not treated.
  

• Problems Managing Very Obese In Cath Lab Highlighted
  (MedWire News ) -- "Often, the risks for patient injury, substantial cost, and the loss of revenue from equipment failure dissuade cardiovascular interventional laboratories from performing these services on the very obese," explain Thomas Vanhecke and colleagues in the American Journal of Cardiology.

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