| ■ Innovative Heart Valve for Elderly Shows Promise: Report | 2011.07.22 |
| An experimental heart valve -- the first artificial valve designed to be implanted without open heart surgery, seems to benefit elderly patients too frail to undergo an invasive operation, U.S regulators say. The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing a heart valve made by Edwards Lifesciences that can be inserted into a patient through one of the body's major arteries, the Associated Press reported. The FDA said more patients in a company-funded study who got an Edwards' valve were alive after one year than those who didn't get one. But, there were higher rates of stroke and bleeding in the brain among valve recipients, the AP said. |