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Written by Justine Cadet
ATLANTA—Implementing a blood management program across a health system optimizes blood utilization in cardiac surgery and saves blood acquisition costs, according to a poster presentation featured during the American College of Cardiology Administrators (ACCA) annual cardiovascular administrators leadership conference this week.
Edwards Lifesciences, a provider of products to treat advanced cardiovascular disease, has reported strong income and sales gains in the fourth quarter of 2009, as well as the 2009 fiscal year, mainly bolstered by an uptick in heart valve sales.
Orlando, Fla.—The addition of clopidogrel to aspirin did not lead to a significant reduction in vein graft intimal hyperplasia during the first year after CABG, according to the CASCADE trial presented Monday during the late-breaking clinical trials session at the 2009 American Heart Association conference.
Thomson Reuters today released its annual study identifying the 100 U.S. hospitals that set the nation's benchmarks for inpatient cardiovascular care, examining the performance of 971 hospitals by analyzing outcomes for patients diagnosed with heart failure and heart attacks.
Patients in the off-pump group had worse composite outcomes and poorer graft patency compared with patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with the use of a cardiopulmonary bypass machine at one year of follow up, according to a study in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
ATS Medical, manufacturer of cardiac surgery products and services, has received the CE Mark for the ATS CryoMaze 10-S surgical cryoablation probe for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias.
Cardiac events are the major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery, and new guidelines issued Monday by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) at its annual congress in Barcelona, Spain, address this common and complicated challenge.
Pre-operative therapy with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors is associated with an increased risk of mortality, use of inotropic support, post-operative renal dysfunction and new onset of post-operative atrial fibrillation, based on research reported online Aug. 12 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md., near Baltimore, has reached an agreement with the federal government to settle claims that may arise during an investigation of a cardiology group with which the hospital has done business.
Edwards Lifesciences, a provider in products and technologies to treat cardiovascular disease, has reported net income of $47.5 million for the second quarter that ended June 30, compared with net income of $39.7 million for the same period in 2008.
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Written by Justine Cadet
Now that continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) are available as a destination therapy, rather than just a bridge-to-transplant therapy, options for late-stage heart failure patients have expanded. The new indication is welcome news, but the debate has begun regarding which patients are the best candidates, and when in their care cycle to implant LVADs.
While indications for atrial fibrillation (AF) patients have changed considerably over the last two decades, using certain surgical ablation procedures to treat AF can have a cure rate of more than 90 percent, according to a presentation Jan. 14 at the 15th annual Boston AF Symposium (BAFS).
Orlando, Fla.—The 30-day and one-year mortality rates are similar at hospitals with or without on-site cardiac surgery for STEMI patients undergoing primary PCI, based on results taken from the Mass-DAC registry presented Monday during the late-breaking clinical trials session at 2009 American Heart Association conference.
Patients who have undergone an aortic valve replacement with either a bioprosthetic (BP) or mechanical valve display the same rates of adverse events, as well as similar survival rates after 13 years, but those who received a BP valve have more incidence of valve failure and reoperation, according to an eight-year study in the Nov. 17 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Edwards Lifesciences has reported net income for the 2009 third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, of $73.5 million, compared with net income of $32.9 million for the same period in 2008.
Overblown fears about surgical risk and lack of awareness about the risk of not operating are among the reasons only half of eligible patients were referred for mitral valve repair, according to a study in the Aug. 25 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The FDA has approved a U.S. clinical study of ATS Medical, in which cardiac surgeons will implant the ATS 3f Aortic Bioprosthesis in a younger aortic valve replacement patient population that has not been previously studied in a controlled manner.
Baptist Health is expanding its cardiovascular surgery program with new hires at the cardiac and thoracic surgical group.
Inpatient volumes are expected to decline but outpatient volume will increase correspondingly, according to Healthcare Financial Management Association's (HFMA) Healthcare Financial Pulse survey. Some financial executives surveyed anticipate that volume will grow in selected inpatient areas, including cardiac, surgical and intensive care unit/critical care unit (ICU/CCU) services.
The Medicines Company is discontinuing its phase 3 CHAMPION clinical trial program of antiplatelet drug cangrelor in patients undergoing PCI after failing to prove clinical efficacy as a result of safety findings by the independent Interim Analysis Review Committee (IARC).
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Middle age introduces itself in many ways; one is atrial fibrillation (AF). My onset of AF seems to have coincided with a mountain bike accident in the woods of North Carolina that resulted in some cracked ribs.
The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).