For the first time, European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines give the highest degree of recommendation for the radial over the femoral approach for coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). The ACS without persistent ST-segment elevation (NSTE-ACS) guidelines, drafted by an international multidisciplinary task force, are published online in European Heart Journal and on the ESC website.

SynCardia Systems initiated a Class I recall of the Freedom Driver Systems used with the company’s temporary Total Artificial Heart (TAH-t) on Aug. 6, 2015. The recall focused on a specific part of the Freedom Driver drive mechanism that the company said may fail and cause the device to stop pumping.

At the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) 2015 Mo-99 Topical Meeting, Novation offered its support of efforts to encourage the adoption of processes to create a reliable domestic supply of non-highly enriched uranium (HEU) molybdenum-99 (Mo-99).

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has released a new report offering a comprehensive review of currently available evidence on two new interventions as potential advances in the care of congestive heart failure (CHF) patients. The report is titled CardioMEMS HF System (St. Jude Medical) and Sacubitril/Valsartan (Entresto, Novartis) for Management of Congestive Heart Failure: Effectiveness, Value, and Value-Based Price Benchmarks.

A novel radiopharmaceutical probe developed at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has the potential of providing physicians with information that could save the lives of patients with ischemic stroke or pulmonary embolism. Both conditions are caused when important blood vessels are blocked by a clot that has traveled from another part of the body. In a report that will appear in the October issue of the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology and has been published online, the MGH team describes using this new probe to conduct full-body scans in an animal model. Preliminary results also were reported earlier this year at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Michigan hospitals participating in the American College of Cardiology’s “See You in 7” program demonstrated important reductions in 30-day readmission rates for Medicare heart failure patients compared to non-participating hospitals.

The Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute (TCAI) at St. David's Medical Center recently became the first facility in the United States to use the EpiAccess system to access the pericardial cavity of the heart during an epicardial ablation.