http://tinyurl.com/8wfog3n

EKOS Corporation Announces Two More Pulmonary Embolism Clinical Studies

No date on the press release but I assume in 2011 or 2012.
And since it's a press release--- all the accounts will be glowing. But it certainly does sound promising.

Question: How much?
Question: Will insurance companies pay for it?

[And I'm not sure that it's available in the U.S. yet-----but would love to know}

I seems that a thromolytic drug is used in conjunction of the ultrasound.

"The amount of
drug necessary to dissolve a blood clot is significantly reduced when using the EKOS system
because ultrasound increases the permeability of the clot while gently driving the drug into its
interior. We anticipate that delivery of Actilyse directly into the pulmonary embolism in the
presence of the ultrasound generated by the EkoSonic Device will result in prompt,
complete dissolution of the obstructing embolism with restoration of right heart function and a
reduction in the number of patients with long term side effects from their pulmonary embolism."

http://tinyurl.com/9kl4r8x

The journal article referenced in the press release leads to this abstract:

http://www.thrombosisresearch.com/article/S0049-3848(11)00248-9/abstract

"Catheter-directed ultrasound-accelerated thrombolysis for the treatment of acute pulmonary embolism"

There are several hospitals in the US perhaps 5. It may help some here to know of them ahead of any event. perhaps bring them to you own med facility. I will send notice to my HMO. I'm in the SF CA area.


This technology has demonstrated faster infusion times and thereby decreasing complications, hospital length of stay and the potential savings on thrombolytic drug costs.

Physicians have performed nearly 8,000 cases with EKOS technology in the past three years at more than 200 major U.S. medical centers, including Baptist Cardiac & Vascular Institute (Miami), Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Emory University Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, The Methodist Hospital (Houston), University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, and Swedish Medical Center in Seattle.

EKOS Corp. provides microsonic endovascular devices for treatment and the dissolution of thrombus. The companys EKOS EndoWave Peripheral Infusion System and EKOS Micro-Infusion Catheter are cleared for the delivery of therapeutic agents, including clot-dissolving thrombolytics, into the peripheral vasculature of patients with peripheral arterial occlusions (PAO) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

The EKOS Micro-Infusion Catheter is also cleared for the administration of contrast media into the brain. A Phase II study using the Micro-Infusion Catheter and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has shown promising results in the treatment of ischemic thrombo-embolic stroke. VTN

Thanks----- that procedure certainly sounds like a good thing. I wonder why 'we' haven't heard much about it.

From Heartwire.com

http://tinyurl.com/cjk7jpj

I wonder how thrombus aspiration compares to the EKOS method.

Thanks for the thrombus aspiration info. I had.not known of that. I had to look up aspiration --it is suction . genius- suck out the clot. I wonder why these aren't done routinely. But as the article states the procedure cant be patented so there isn't money for the trials.

Always follow the money!

"Thrombus aspiration is "not rocket science," says Frbert, explaining that it is easy, quick to perform, and a relatively cheap adjunct to PCI. But the relatively low-tech nature of it and the limited possibilities of future patents and economic revenue of thrombus-aspiration devices have meant that interest from medical-device companies to perform large scale studies in this area is low"

@elsners----- you sound as if your really interested in the science (and the politics) that are behind our medical 'discoveries'.

If so----- then read up on the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 and see how it has turned science into venture capitalism.

"[...]something alarming has been happening
over the past 25 years: Universities have evolved from public trusts
into something closer to venture capital firms. What used to be a
scientific community of free and open debate now often seems like a
litigious scrum of data-hoarding and suspicion. And what's more,
Americans are paying for it through the nose."

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/09/19/8272884/index.htm

Table 1 (http://www.cimit.org/news/regulatory/coi_part3.pdf) shows the problem clearly. Scroll down to page 7, out of 9) to view it.

Or read the entire, long article.