Dr. Ankur Kalra, MD, the chief cardiovascular fellow at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, will present today at the Tenth Annual Cardiovascular Young Investigators' Forum behind held in Chicago, Illinois on November 6-9, 2014. Dr. Kalra's presentation, titled "Doppler Tissue Imaging Predicts Progressive Heart Failure Prognosis in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy," is the product of a study conducted using the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation's extensive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) database, which was compiled in large part by MHIF Research Cardiologist Dr. Barry Maron.

Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) is the first medical center in Southern California, post-Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, to implant a new wireless device for heart failure patients. The device is designed to reduce readmissions to the hospital and empower patients to be involved in their own health information.

Today, St. Vincent Heart Center officials announced that the faith-based hospital is the second in the nation to implant the new investigational “heart pump.” Dr. Christopher Salerno, cardiothoracic surgeon at St. Vincent Heart Center implanted the new Left Ventricular Assist System (LVAS) called the HeartMate III on a 19-year-old patient. 

On Sept. 24, 2014Heart Hospital of Austin became the first facility in Texas to implant a new miniaturized, wireless monitoring sensor to manage heart failure (HF). The CardioMEMS HF System is the first and only FDA-approved heart failure monitoring device that has been proven to significantly reduce hospital admissions when used by physicians to manage heart failure.

Amgen today announced data from the Phase 3 SHIFT (Systolic Heart failure treatment with the If inhibitor ivabradine Trial) study evaluating ivabradine in patients with chronic heart failure (HF) were presented at the 18th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) in Las Vegas.

Cardiac Dimensions, Inc. today announced that new long-term outcomes data from the TITAN II clinical trial of its enhanced CARILLON Mitral Contour System showed significant and sustained improvements in mitral regurgitation, functional improvement, quality of life and reverse cardiac remodeling. The long-term safety and efficacy data, which was consistent with previous trials of the system, was presented Sept. 13 at the 26th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics Conference (TCT) in Washington, DC by TITAN II investigator Professor Dr. Michael Haude of Lukaskrankenhaus in Neuss, Germany.

Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that its experimental heart failure compound has been shown to be effective in animal models following oral (capsule) dosing. The preclinical results demonstrate an alternative to intravenous infusions that could pave the way for convenient outpatient therapy with HNO prodrugs. The data were presented yesterday at the Heart Failure Society of America’s (HFSA) 18th Annual Scientific Meeting in Las Vegas.

Experts discussed the benefits of Home Monitoring technology from the perspective of patients, hospitals and payers for the first time at a press conference held by BIOTRONIK at the European Society of Cardiology's annual congress, ESC Congress 2014.