ABBOTT PARK, Ill., May 3, 2018 — Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of the Advisor™ HD Grid Mapping Catheter, Sensor Enabled™. Advisor HD Grid employs a new design that allows physicians to see things differently, capturing and analyzing data in a novel manner to create highly detailed maps of the heart that better differentiate healthy from unhealthy tissue.

A new nationwide study from Japan highlighted the importance of timely ambulance arrival, showing that bystander defibrillation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are essentially worthless if EMS response times are slower than 13 minutes and 11 minutes, respectively.

Physician-manned ambulances could improve the quality of advanced life support given to people who experience traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), suggests a study published April 25 in JAMA Surgery.

Individuals with obesity are more likely to develop atrial fibrillation (AFib), according to a study published April 18 in the American Journal of Cardiology.

The FDA has approved a firmware update aimed at addressing two previously reported issues with some of Abbott’s implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds).

A regular intake of up to 300 mg of coffee a day appears to be safe and may even be protective against heart rhythm disorders, including atrial fibrillation (AFib), according to a new review published April 16 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Only half of medical advice on an online message board dedicated to implanted cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) appears to be accurate, according to preliminary research presented April 7 at the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2018.

Atrial fibrillation (AFib) ablation techniques used on individuals without cardiac abnormalities can be safely applied to adults with congenital heart disease (CHD), according to a new study in JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology. But in many cases, multiple ablation procedures are needed to boost the chances of arrhythmia-free survival.