Janssen Research & Development LLC (Janssen) announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued complete response letters (CRLs) regarding supplemental New Drug Applications (sNDAs) for the use of rivaroxaban, an oral anticoagulant, to reduce the risk of secondary cardiovascular events — defined as heart attack, stroke or death — in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and to reduce the risk of stent thrombosis in the same population, in combination with standard antiplatelet therapy.

Micell Technologies Inc. announced that imaging and clinical results from the DESSOLVE I and DESSOLVE II trials of its MiStent Sirolimus Eluting Absorbable Polymer Coronary Stent System (MiStent SES) were presented at the 25th Annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Conference held in San Francisco, Oct. 27 to Nov. 1, 2013.

iRhythm Technologies Inc., a healthcare information services company, announced that new study data support the use of its ZIO Service to help identify underlying cardiac arrhythmias in patients who have had a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA).

Countries across the globe are struggling to combat issues such as escalating healthcare costs, poor or inconsistent quality of healthcare, rapid expansion in healthcare insurance and changing healthcare reform mandates. Growing consumerism, globalization, changing demographics and lifestyles, and growing incidences of diseases that are expensive to treat further exacerbate these. Resolving these issues is a daunting task faced by healthcare stakeholders, highlighting the need for proactive, collaborative and systemic models. Several initiatives and healthcare reforms have been developed in order to support the adoption and implementation of clinical decision support software (CDSS) solutions.

After a heart attack, there is often permanent damage to a portion of the heart. This happens, in part, because cardiac muscle cells are terminally differentiated and cannot proliferate after blood flow is blocked off to the heart. This partial healing can be attributed to heart disease being one of the leading causes of death. What if the cells could be stimulated to divide and the heart could be induced to repair itself? This was the question posed by George Washington University researcher Scott Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., and his co-authors. They found cardiac regeneration may be a possibility with gene therapy.