nContact Surgical Inc. aims to merge the best of surgical and interventional techniques to provide a truly minimally invasive, single procedure solution for atrial fibrillation patients. Its Numeris Coagulation system with VisiTrax is used in the surgical portion of the procedure, in which VisiTrax integrates suction, perfusion and radiofrequency energy to create long linear lesions on the outside of a beating heart. The electrophysiologist then uses a catheter to complete the biatrial lesion pattern inside the heart.

Patients afflicted with acute stroke may soon have their brain protected from reduced cerebral blood flow by being induced with selective hypothermia, as opposed to being subjected to systemic cooling, which lowers the entire body's temperature, but may stop the heart in the process. ThermopeutiX Inc.'s DuoFlo is a dual-lumen catheter system that removes warm blood from the body through one lumen and delivers cold blood to the brain through a second lumen. The novel technology is designed to be used primarily by interventional cardiologists and interventional radiologists -- rather than neurologists -- to treat not only stroke, but cardiac arrest and trauma as well.

“There is no bright-line requirement that a company possess randomized, controlled clinical studies before making so-called ‘health benefit’ claims for dietary supplements,” CRN states in petition. FTC, however, says it “makes no bright-line distinctions between categories of health-related products or claims.”