Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/915879
BY STEVE BARRETT PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT COREVALVE EVOLUT M O R E P A T I E N T S W H O have s y m p t o m a t i c , s e v e re a o r t i c stenosis will benefit from the CoreValve Evolut transcatheter aortic valve replacement device. The FDA recently approved its use by patients who are at inter- mediate risk if they undergo open-heart surgery. Patients at intermediate risk are defined as having at least a 3 percent chance of mortality within 30 days after open-heart surgery. Patients at extreme or high risk were already indicated for the procedure, according to a news release by Dublin-based medical technology company Medtronic. The CoreValve Evolut platform has demonstrated better blood flow efficiency than surgical aortic valve replacement. A clinical trial showed the device is valuable for intermedi- ate-risk patients because of its "supra-annular design for unsur- passed hemodynamics, low rates of mortality and disabling stroke, earlier improvement in quality of life, fast functional recovery times, and short hospital stays," Michael Reardon, MD, Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Allison Family Distinguished Chair of Cardiovascular Research at Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, stated in the release. n OPTOFLUIDIC DEVICE S C I E N T I S T S A T R O V I R A I V I R G I L I U N I V E R S I T Y in Spain are advancing cancer monitoring with a mobile device that noninva- sively tracks tumor cells in blood. The optofluidic device, dis- cussed in S cientific Repor ts, provides real-time counts of tumor cells in blood samples, according to a news release by the university. The device has undergone testing on breast cancer patients and should also be valuable for use on patients w i t h o t h e r t y p e s o f t u m o rs , researchers say. Biopsies and other techniques are sometimes impractical for frequent monitoring. However, neither surgery nor radiation is required to use the recently developed device, which incor- porates two systems. "The first causes the blood cells to fl ow in alignment," the release states, "while the second uses two optic fi bers ... to analyze the cells and count those which are cancerous and those which are not." n SEEING AI APP PEOPLE W H O A R E blind or who have signifi cantly impaired vision can gather large amounts of data about the environment around them with Microsoft's Seeing AI app. Among the capabilities of the app, which utilizes artifi cial intelligence technology, are: + A beep that increases in frequency to help find bar codes and identify the items to which the codes are attached + An audio rendering of text when it becomes visible to the smartphone's camera + The ability to recognize the user's friends and other individuals and to describe their emotions and estimate their ages Users shift into different modes to enable the app to describe what is in front of the camera, according to the company. "[J]ust hold up your phone and hear informa- tion about the world around you," Microsoft states on a web page that provides information about the app. n 3 0