WALTHAM, Mass., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that, as a result of new anticoagulants that show improved efficacy over unfractionated heparin in the treatment of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), anticoagulant sales will double over the next decade, growing from $56.7 million in 2007 to more than $114 million in 2017.

FAIRFAX, Va., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ATTRACT -- the first major national trial of a catheter-based treatment for deep vein thrombosis -- will evaluate the use of clot-dissolving drugs in combination with clot removal devices to prevent post-thrombotic syndrome in patients with DVT (the formation of a blood clot in a leg vein). PTS, a common irreversible complication of DVT, causes permanent damage to the veins, resulting in debilitating chronic leg pain, swelling, fatigue and/or skin ulcers. About 25- 50 percent of DVT patients develop PTS when treated with blood thinners alone. While early treatment with blood thinners is important to prevent a life- threatening pulmonary embolism, blood thinners alone do not dissolve the existing clot, which remains in the leg. Preliminary studies have shown that interventional clot-busting treatments can -- unlike standard DVT therapy -- remove clots and have strong potential to prevent PTS. The outcomes of this pivotal multicenter trial -- to be funded at more than $10 million by the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) -- are likely to change the way DVT is treated in the United States.

MUNICH, Germany, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A sub-analysis of the TRITON-TIMI 38 clinical trial showed that treatment with prasugrel compared with clopidogrel significantly reduced the risk of new or recurrent heart attacks (7.4 percent vs. 9.7 percent, p<0.0001), regardless of whether the events occurred around the time of an artery-opening procedure known as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), or if they occurred spontaneously during the longer-term maintenance phase. The analysis was presented today at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in Munich, Germany.

MUNICH, Germany, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Patients who were diabetic and diagnosed with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) were 40 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack if they were treated with prasugrel vs. clopidogrel, according to a sub-group analysis of the TRITON-TIMI 38 trial (8.2 percent vs. 13.2 percent, P<0.001). In addition, according to this same analysis, the combined rate of cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack and non-fatal stroke was reduced by 30 percent in diabetes patients treated with prasugrel compared to those treated with clopidogrel (12.2 percent vs. 17.0 percent, P<0.001). In patients without diabetes, there was also improvement in outcomes with prasugrel, with the primary endpoint occurring in 9.2 percent of patients treated with prasugrel and 10.6 percent of patients treated with clopidogrel (P=0.02).

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Aug. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- The Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation is pleased to announce the convening of the first major International Symposium dedicated to the current and future use of magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) -- a breakthrough therapeutic technology for treating a variety of serious medical conditions including cancer, neurological disorders, and uterine fibroids.

NORTHBROOK, Ill., July 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) has published new evidence-based clinical guidelines for physicians that for the first time suggest the use of pharmacomechanical thrombolysis for acute iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in conjunction with anticoagulation drug therapy. The new guidelines appear in the July supplement to the CHEST journal.

EDISON, N.J., April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Nostrum, a privately-held company based in Edison, New Jersey, announced today that it has successfully completed its early, primate, proof-of-concept study for its novel thrombolytic clot-buster protein currently known as SMRX11. Nostrum's Symmetrix subsidiary, based in Singapore, is developing this therapeutic protein drug under Nostrum's license from the Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, India, which Nostrum obtained in July 2006.

CHICAGO, March 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) -- which uses a combination of catheter-mounted balloons and stents to open a completely blocked coronary artery and restore blood flow to the heart -- is the best treatment for heart attack when performed rapidly. However, few hospitals can meet the 90-minute treatment goal unless they have a cardiac catheterization laboratory on site.

CHICAGO, March 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The investigational antiplatelet drug prasugrel plus aspirin produced a marked and highly statistically significant reduction in the risk of coronary stent thrombosis (ST) - a major concern for physicians and patients with potentially fatal consequences - in patients who received a stent as compared to standard therapy with clopidogrel (Plavix(R)) plus aspirin (1.13 percent vs. 2.35 percent, p<0.0001), according to a stent analysis from the head-to-head TRITON-TIMI 38 trial.