eCardio Diagnostics, a leader in remote arrhythmia monitoring services, today announced the opening of its second Independent Diagnostic Testing Facility (IDTF) in San Francisco, California.

This February during American Heart Month, Vivek Reddy, MD, of Mount Sinai Heart at The Mount Sinai Hospital implanted the United States' first miniature-sized, leadless cardiac pacemaker directly inside a patient's heart without surgery.

iRhythm Technologies, a healthcare information services company, today announced that Aetna, the third largest health plan in the United States, has issued a positive coverage policy for long-term continuous monitoring of patients with suspected heart arrhythmias, which includes use of the ZIO Service. The new policy now makes iRhythm's solution - comprised of the ZIO Patch, proprietary algorithms and the ZIO report - available as a potential covered service for the insurer's medical members.

Beaumont Health System is the first center outside of Japan to use a new balloon ablation technology to treat atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disorder that affects about 3 million people in the U.S.

Medtronic, Inc. (NYSE: MDT), today announced that the Medtronic SureScan(r) pacing systems - the first and only pacing systems in the United States that have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) - are now approved for MRI scans positioned on any region of the body. Patients implanted with the Advisa DR MRI(r) or Revo MRI(r) SureScan pacing systems now can have MRI scans without positioning restrictions, including the chest area, which previously had been restricted.

CSL Behring today announced that Kcentra® (Prothrombin Complex Concentrate [Human]) has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for an expanded indication -- urgent reversal of acquired coagulation factor deficiency induced by vitamin K antagonist (VKA, e.g., warfarin) therapy in adult patients needing an urgent surgery or other invasive procedure. Kcentra, approved by the FDA in April 2013 for the urgent reversal of warfarin therapy in adult patients with acute major bleeding, is the only non-activated 4-factor prothrombin complex concentrate (4F-PCC) indicated in the U.S. for these uses.

Results for a pilot registry on the management and treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) in Europe were presented yesterday by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). AF is the commonest cardiac rhythm disorder and each of us have a one-in-four lifetime risk of developing it. Statistics show that oral anticoagulant use has increased, but new oral anticoagulant (NOAC) use is still low. Authors also concluded that compliance with treatment guidelines for patients with the lowest and higher stroke risk scores remains suboptimal.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a new technology that could dramatically reduce the number of open-heart surgeries for people with pacemakers.