Blood vessels grown from patient's own tissues used successfully in human patients

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 1 month (www.nytimes.com)

Thirteen months and so far so good. Unlike earlier techniques used in Japan, which involved growing cells on a scaffold that slowly dissolved after implantation, scientists in Argentina grew whole stretches of blood vessel from the patients' own cells. The patients in question have damaged veins and arteries in their arms from regular dialysis.

This does not involve stem cells of any kind. A strip of skin is removed from the patient, but the fibroblast and endothelial cells are taken from the inside of the veins in that strip of skin

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: rejection tissue rejection epithelial cells fibroblasts arteries veins cardiovascular surgery cardiovascular vascular vascular surgery stem cells stem cell in vitro tissue culture transplants dialysis

Medicare will not cover stents for neck arteries

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.nytimes.com)

Heart stents made the news recently, but this article discusses stents that are placed in neck arteries to prevent stroke. The issue isn't whether or not they work but who will pay for them.

Dr. Barry T. Katzen, director of the Baptist Cardiac and Vascular Institute in Miami, says that this will actually help research: By linking their willingness to pay to the efficacy of clinical trials, he says, they will influence doctors to be more stringent with those trials.

He sure sounds as though he's making the best of it. Thoughts?

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: risk factors for stroke stroke arteries stents Medicare politics insurance clinical trials

Ambulatory Arterial Stiffness Index Is Not a Specific Marker of Reduced Arterial Compliance

julie submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (hyper.ahajournals.org)

"Ambulatory arterial stiffness index (AASI), a measure based on the relative behavior of 24-hour systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), has been suggested as a marker of arterial stiffness and a predictor of cardiovascular mortality."

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: ambulatory blood pressure monitoring arteries blood pressure arterial stiffness left ventricular hypertrophy