1.   Doctors have been given permission to implant five mechanical hearts in patients too ill to qualify for a live organ transplant.

2.   Abiomed still faces competition from several other companies seeking to develop versions of self-contained mechanical hearts that do not require any connections outside the body.

3.   Dr. Forest D. Dodrill, a pioneer in the use of mechanical heart pumps to assist in heart surgery, died on Monday in Baltimore, where he lived.

4.   Frazier has had extensive experience in implanting various types of mechanical hearts.

5.   He has pioneered development of a number of mechanical hearts, including an assist device called the HeartMate, which was tested in the study reported last week.

6.   Mechanical hearts, known as ventricular assist devices, are now used as temporary bridges to transplants at Columbia and other hospitals.

7.   On Tuesday, a expert in mechanical heart devices from that institute, Dr. O.H. Frazier, was attending the same Washington meeting as Dowling.

8.   The acquisition would be the second this year for St. Jude Medical, a leading producer of mechanical heart valves and pacemakers, and its first in interventional neurology.

9.   The valves also work well in adults, although fewer surgeons are as familiar with them as mechanical heart valves.

10.   A man suffering from chronic heart failure died from severe bleeding during surgery to become the sixth person with a self-contained mechanical heart, doctors said Wednesday.