Atrial fibrillation could be an independent predictor of worse outcomes in heart patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), according to a meta-analysis published this November in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Regardless of clinical and socioeconomic factors, black patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are significantly less likely than whites and Hispanics to receive appropriate treatment with oral anticoagulants (OACs), researchers reported Nov. 28 in JAMA Cardiology.

People who experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) are nearly twice as likely to survive if they are transferred directly to a hospital with 24-hour capability to perform PCI or targeted temperature management (TTM) versus another center, according to a meta-analysis published Nov. 28 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

When consumers think of wearable personal health devices, they likely picture smartwatches or other wrist-worn gadgets. But as Forbes pointed out in a Nov. 26 article, new headphone-type wearables—dubbed “hearables”—have already grown into a $5 billion market and offer unique capabilities.

Almost 1 in 5 patients are rehospitalized within 30 days of undergoing catheter ablation of MI-associated ventricular tachycardia (VT), according to a study from the Nationwide Readmissions Database. These patients rack up 38.9 percent higher cumulative hospital costs than those who aren’t readmitted, researchers reported in Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology.

Monitoring digoxin concentration and platelet activation in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients treated with vitamin K antagonists could be important for reducing those patients’ inherently elevated risk for CVD, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association Nov. 15.

Half a decade of planning and millions of dollars have culminated in the Alliance for Cardiovascular Diagnostic and Treatment Innovation (ADVANCE), a joint engineering and cardiology center launched by Johns Hopkins University in an attempt to improve the diagnosis and treatment of a range of arrhythmia disorders.

Even after adjusting for cardiovascular, behavioral and socioeconomic factors, black adults remain twice as likely to die from sudden cardiac death (SCD) as whites, suggests a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.