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The explosion of Internet-based advertising for genetic tests has provoked a sharp reaction from the European Unions top advisers on ethics. They issued a call for caution last month and promised to investigate the matter closely.
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CardioTech International (Woburn, Massachusetts) said it would complete the acquisition of Gish Biomedical (Rancho Santa Margarita, California) by April 7. The value of the stock-for-stock deal has not been disclosed.
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Abiomed (Danvers, Massachusetts) last month rolled out plans to develop a new line of ventricular-assist devices, suggesting both a return to its initial development effort and an inflection point in its progress with the AbioCor replacement heart program.
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AST Products (Billerica, Massachusetts), a developer of water-based coatings for medical devices, has completed a licensing agreement with MicroPort Medical (Shanghai, China) for its LubriLAST coating.
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Women who undergo open-heart surgery are more likely than men to develop acute renal failure (ARF), according to research conducted at The Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, Ohio).
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Senior management at CryoCath Technologies (Montreal, Quebec) was elated over the result of an FDA advisory panel meeting last month, despite a list of conditions the company must now address.
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In one of the more bizarre stories of the year, the FDA has uncovered files of counterfeit Procrit (epoetin alfaJohnson & Johnson) in routine surveillance.
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The true function of the meniscofemoral ligaments remains unclear, but it may have profound implications for treatment of PCL-deficient knees and lateral meniscal tears.
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ACL braces were least effective in controlling abnormal knee laxity during the transition from nonweight bearing to weight bearing.
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A randomized, prospective study found equivalent clinical outcomes for articular cartilage defects treated with either osteochondral plug grafts or autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI). ACI improvement took longer, and the histology revealed mainly fibrocartilage, calling into question any advantage to this technique.
