Global Medical Device Clinical Trials Involving Both the United States and Japan: Key Considerations for Development, Regulatory Approval, and Conduct.

As medical device development becomes increasingly global, the opportunities and potential advantages offered by international clinical trial and regulatory approval strategies are also growing. In particular, medical device clinical trials involving sites in both the United States and Japan and intended to support marketing in both countries may warrant particular consideration, given the similarities in their regulatory systems, patients and clinical practice patterns, and market sizes. Since 2003, the US-Japan Harmonization By Doing (HBD) initiative has been focused on identifying and addressing clinical and regulatory barriers to medical devices access in both countries via collaboration between governmental, academic, and industry stakeholders.

Long term follow-up concerning safety and efficacy of novel adhesion prophylactic agent for laparoscopic myomectomy in the prospective randomized ADBEE study.

We conducted a prospective randomized single blind - subject study in the University Clinic of Gynecology of Pius-Hospital Oldenburg. The primary objective of the ADBEE study was to assess the safety and manageability of ADBLOCK when used as an adjunct to laparoscopic surgery for the primary of myomas in women wishing to improve pregnancy outcomes. The study population included 32 women aged between 18-45 years, in good general health condition, who have not completed their family planning and who are undergoing primary ('virgin') laparoscopic myomectomy with an aim to improve pregnancy outcomes.

How to avoid risks for patients in minimal-access trials: Avoiding complications in clinical first-in-human studies by example of the ADBEE study.

A clinical trial is a prospective study designed to establish the safety and efficacy of investigational devices in humans, in accordance with the strict guidelines of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA; USA) or European Medicines Agency (EMA; Europe). Before a clinical first-in-human study is initiated, preclinical studies of the investigational product are mandatory, and the results should be sufficient to indicate that the investigational device is acceptably safe for the proposed evaluation in human subjects. The present paper describes an experience of clinical trials, highlighting ways of avoiding possible complications in clinical first-in-human studies.

Randomized study to assess the effect of thrombus aspiration on flow area in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction: an optical frequency domain imaging study--TROFI trial.

Aims: Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) with thrombectomy (TB) seems to reduce the thrombus burden, resulting in a larger flow area as measured with optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI).

Methods And Results: In a multi-centre study, 141 patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction <12 h from onset were randomized to either PPCI with TB using an Eliminate catheter (TB: n = 71) or without TB (non-TB: n = 70), having operators blinded for the OFDI results. The primary endpoint was minimum flow area (MinFA) post-procedure assessed by OFDI, defined as: [stent area + incomplete stent apposition (ISA) area] - (intraluminal defect + tissue prolapse area).