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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/business/23device.html?src=busln"A new way of replacing a failing heart valve in patients too sick to undergo open-heart surgery proved successful in a large-scale clinical trial, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Many patients developing a condition known as aortic stenosis, a narrowing of that valve, are too old or too sick to withstand open-heart surgery to replace a diseased aortic valve, which controls blood flow into the aorta from the heart. Many die within two years after the disease is diagnosed.
In the new procedure, which has not been approved in the United States, a so-called percutaneous heart valve is implanted through a catheter, much in the way that artery-opening stents are. Using a small opening in the groin or chest, the catheter is snaked through blood vessels into a patient’s heart where it deploys the valve. The new valve effectively compresses the diseased valve and replaces it.
The large-scale clinical trial, reported on Wednesday, found a significantly higher survival rate after one year in patients who underwent the new procedure compared with patients who went without a replacement valve.
..."------------------------ Very cool! :)
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