Tech

NEW YORK, NY AND ATLANTA, GA – MARCH 13, 2010 – The announcement of a new clinical trial, EXCEL (Evaluation of Xience Prime versus Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery for Effectiveness of Left Main Revascularization), that will compare drug-eluting stents to coronary artery bypass graft surgery in patients with left main coronary artery disease, was made today at "Optimizing PCI Outcomes: Evolving Paradigms," a symposium presented by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation.

NEW ORLEANS, LA – A new minimally invasive sports hernia repair gets athletes back in the game 3 times faster than the traditional repair, according to a new study presented today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day in New Orleans, (March 13). Sports hernia were often difficult to diagnose and prior to this new repair had a lengthy rehabilitation time.

NEW ORLEANS, LA – Seventy percent of healthy professional and collegiate hockey players had abnormal hip and pelvis MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging), even though they had no symptoms of injury, according to a study presented today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day in New Orleans, (March 13). The study's surprising findings could serve as a warning for surgeons to not depend excessively on imaging when diagnosing patients.

A new study presented today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Specialty Day in New Orleans, (March 13), found that 95 percent of skeletally mature high school pitchers were satisfied with their "Tommy John" elbow reconstruction surgery. Almost as many, (94.7 percent) returned to competitive baseball.

Eighty-four percent of children 18 and younger had successful clinical outcomes during an eight year follow-up to repair a torn meniscus (cartilage that provides cushioning to distribute your body weight across the knee joint) at the same time as reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), according to a new study presented today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day in New Orleans, (March 13). The success of the meniscus repair, however, depended on whether the tear type was simple, complex or a "displaced bucket-handle," the study found.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A research team led by Mayo Clinic has found a national trend toward younger, more diverse patients having total knee replacement surgery. The findings were presented today at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (http://www.aaos.org/education/anmeet/anmeet.asp) in New Orleans.

COLLEGE STATION - - Using green algae to produce hydrocarbon oil for biofuel production is nothing new; nature has been doing so for hundreds of millions of years, according a Texas AgriLife Research scientist.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A University of Michigan study recently published in Academic Emergency Medicine says that it is common for patients 65 and older to receive potentially inappropriate medications when treated in an emergency room.

Correct management of soil and irrigation is a vital factor in modern viticulture, due to the influence of the water balance of the vineyard on wine quality and the environmental impact of agricultural practices on vineyard soils. In order to innovate in this area, the NEIKER-Tecnalia technological centre is carrying out research on the influence of temporary cover crop and different irrigation regimes –for the typical flat and sloping soils of Rioja Alavesa region– on yield, vine vigour and grape and wine quality.

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) patients may be able to participate in high-impact sports without increasing risk of early implant failure, according to a new study presented today at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). In addition, the authors observed better clinical scores in the group of patients who participated in activities discouraged by the Knee Society (KS) than those of the control group.

Tropical Storm 90Q is the second known tropical cyclone to form in the cooler South Atlantic Ocean, and two NASA satellites confirm it is now moving away from Brazil's coast. The first tropical cyclone ever seen in recorded history in the Southern Atlantic was called "Catarina" in 2004.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — March 11, 2010 — Many women live with breast cancer that does not respond to standard medical treatment, a condition that researchers at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare want to change by aggressively targeting specific genes.

Improving quality of life and potentially keeping the cancer under control for a longer period of time are goals of a new clinical trial at the cancer center's TGen Clinical Research Services, a partnership of Scottsdale Healthcare and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).

MADISON — Materials scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have designed a way to harvest small amounts of waste energy and harness them to turn water into usable hydrogen fuel.

The process is simple, efficient and recycles otherwise-wasted energy into a useable form.

WASHINGTON, March 11—A presentation at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) in San Diego on March 24 will examine the technologies that will emerge in the next three to four years to power warehouse-scale computing data centers, upon which companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, and many more are increasingly relying.

KNOXVILLE – Early detection is key to more effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease and other forms of cognitive impairment, and new research shows that a test developed at the University of Tennessee is more than 95 percent effective in detecting cognitive abnormalities associated with these diseases.

The test, called CST -- for computerized self test -- was designed to be both effective and relatively simple for medical professionals to administer and for patients to take.