Endologix Inc said that the Food and Drug Administration has approved the expansion of its main product line. The FDA approval covers 31 new sizes of its Powerlink stents, which it said should expand the number of patients they can be used on by to 5% to 10%. Endologix’s stents are used to reinforce a ruptured or ballooning section of an artery.

“Nanoburrs” are nanoparticles coated with a sticky protein that makes them cling onto artery walls while they slowly release drugs: the US researchers who are developing them hope they will one day provide an alternative to drug-releasing stents in fighting heart disease. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT) and Harvard Medical School researchers, wrote about how they developed and tested the nanoburrs as potential drug-releasing agents for targeting and repairing damaged blood vessels.

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Drug-coated stents increased the risk of death in certain heart attack patients by nearly five times according to a recent study presented at the meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Vienna. “Patients are now very wary about these stents,” lead researcher Gabriel Steg said. “Personally, I don’t use these stents in heart attack patients any longer.”

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