St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, today announced that the first patient implants occurred in the Portico Re-sheathable Transcatheter Aortic Valve System U.S. IDE Trial (PORTICO trial). The trial is evaluating the Portico Transcatheter Aortic Valve System, the first aortic heart valve that is repositionable until fully deployed. The trial will enroll patients who are considered to have a high or an extreme surgical risk (meaning they would not be considered) for open-heart surgery.

After two decades of arduous research, a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded investigator at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan (CHM) at the Detroit Medical Center (DMC) and the Wayne State University School of Medicine has published a new study showing that many children with an often fatal type of heart disease can recover “normal size and function” of damaged sections of their hearts.

Abbott today announced that its revolutionary, catheter-based MitraClip(r) therapy has received Health Canada approval, providing physicians in Canada with a breakthrough treatment option that can significantly improve symptoms, disease progression and quality of life for certain people with a heart condition called mitral regurgitation (MR).

Joseph F. Sabik, III, MD, chairman of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, offers tips to reduce the chance of developing a surgical site infection from a cardiac operation in a video on the clinic’s HealthHub site.

University of Arizona neuroscientist Nicholas Strausfeld, PhD, and a team of researchers unearthed a fossil in China with the earliest known cardiovascular system. The fossil is of Fuxianhuia protensa and it dates back to the Cambrian Period, the Arizona Daily Star reported.

The Adult Congenital Heart Association (ACHA), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving and extending the lives of adults with congenital heart defects (CHD), announced today the appointment of Glenn R. Tringali as its new National Executive Director.

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE: EW), the global leader in the science of heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring, today announced it has received CE Mark for the advanced EDWARDS INTUITY Elite valve system. This next-generation, rapid deployment system facilitates smaller incisions in surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) procedures, and is built upon extensive evidence supporting the durability of the Carpentier-Edwards PERIMOUNT heart valve design.

College football players tend to have stiffer arteries than other college students, even before their college athletic careers have started, cardiology researchers have found.