Heart Rhythm

Hearts should have normal rhythm to their beats, but when these beats are out of synch, it causes inefficient pumping of blood. Irregular heart arrhythmias occur when the electrical signals that coordinate the heart's beats do not work properly. This can cause beats that are too fast (tachycardia), or too slow (bradycardia). Tachycardias include atrial fibrillation (AFib), supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, and ventricular tachycardia (VT). Bradycardias include sick sinus syndrome and conduction block. Electrophysiology arrhythmia treatments include medications, life style changes, and the EP lab interventions of catheter ablation, and implantable pacemakers or defibrillators.

Hands-only CPR training kiosks teach skills to more than 100K people

More than 100,000 individuals across the nation learned about hands-only CPR through training kiosks since the American Heart Association (AHA), along with Anthem Foundation, launched its program in 2016.

August 21, 2018
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Chagas disease increases the risk of CVD

Chagas disease—the result of infection with a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi (T cruzi)—causes heart disease, including heart failure, stroke, arrhythmia and sudden death in one-third of those infected, according to a scientific statement issued by the American Heart Association and the Inter-American Society of Cardiology.

August 20, 2018

Edoxaban tops warfarin in study of Asian patients with AFib

The factor Xa inhibitor edoxaban might reduce the risk of several adverse events—including stroke, major bleeding and all-cause death—when compared to warfarin, according to a real-world study of Korean patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib).

August 14, 2018

Researchers ID potential genetic marker for tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy

Japanese researchers believe they’ve identified a genetic risk marker that could pinpoint which people with atrial fibrillation (AFib) are at risk of developing tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy.

August 13, 2018

Cardiac screening in young athletes yields mixed results

A screening program for top teen soccer players in England identified heart disorders associated with sudden cardiac death in one out of every 266 individuals. But among the eight athletes who eventually died of sudden cardiac arrest, six of them had normal electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings.

August 9, 2018

Medtronic’s extravascular ICD implanted in 1st patient

Medtronic has launched the pilot study of its extravascular implantable cardioverter defibrillator (EV ICD), which is designed to deliver defibrillation and antitachycardia pacing without transvenous leads.

August 9, 2018

Atrial flutter doesn’t equal AFib in stroke risk scoring

Atrial fibrillation (AFib) and atrial flutter (AFL) are often regarded as interchangeable when informing the management of stroke risk. However, a new study in JAMA Network Open suggests clinical outcomes are worse for patients with AFib, even if they have the same values on the standard CHA2DS2-VASc scoring system.

August 7, 2018

Cardiologist gets prison time for swindling $238K from VA

A New Jersey cardiologist specializing in electrophysiology was sentenced July 31 to 20 months in prison for billing the Veterans Affairs (VA) program hundreds of thousands of dollars for services he never performed.

August 3, 2018

Around the web

Eleven medical societies have signed on to a consensus statement aimed at standardizing imaging for suspected cardiovascular infections.

Kate Hanneman, MD, explains why many vendors and hospitals want to lower radiology's impact on the environment. "Taking steps to reduce the carbon footprint in healthcare isn’t just an opportunity," she said. "It’s also a responsibility."

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