August 31, 2011 — A recent study revealed more than 1,000 cardiac arrest deaths over 15 years are connected to the failure of automated external defibrillators (AEDs); battery failure accounted for almost one-quarter of the failures. The study was published online last week in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Analysis of Automated External Defibrillator Device Failures Reported to the Food and Drug Administration").


August 30, 2011 – Results from a study presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2011 show that transcatheter aortic-valve implantation (TAVI) in low-risk patients met with 100 percent procedural success (versus 95.3 percent in the high Euroscore group (p=0.1). While researchers expected a lower mortality among patients with low Euroscore, the observed difference was much greater than anticipated.  In fact, the mortality rates with the Edwards Sapien valve have approached the results with conventional surgery.

August 30, 2011 – Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the best reperfusion therapy for patients presenting with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Researchers used the Western Denmark Heart Registry to describe the implementation of primary PCI in Denmark. Their study (including almost 10,000 patients) showed that a strategy with early diagnosis, based on electrocardiogram (ECG) recording in the ambulance and directing the patients straight to the catheterization laboratory in the primary PCI center, was associated with a lower mortality. The data was presented this week at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in Paris.

August 30, 2011 – Compared with patients who had persistently high platelet reactivity, those who achieved low platelet reactivity, according to the VerifyNow P2Y12 Test, had a reduced incidence of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stent thrombosis, as indicated by a clinical trial presented today at the ESC Congress 2011.

Aortic valve stenosis (intraoperatively)
CoreValve prosthesis

August 30, 2011 – Single center data of the German Heart Centre in Munich demonstrate a sustained improvement of hemodynamic values up to three years after CoreValve implantation. There are no signs of unexpected early degeneration of the CoreValve prostheses. The data was presented at the European Society of Cardiology this week in Paris.

August 29, 2011 — An observational study demonstrates the percutaneous catheter-based MitraClip treatment improves symptoms and promotes reverse left ventricular (LV) remodeling in patients with mitral regurgitation (MR) who do not respond to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). The results were presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) meeting in Paris.

August 29, 2011 — A German team has developed a completely new non-invasive method to identify heart failure. It consists of an "electronic nose" which could make the "smelling" of heart failure possible. The project was presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress 2011. “The early detection of chronic heart failure (CHF) through periodical screening facilitates early treatment application,” said investigator Vasileios Kechagias from the University Hospital Jena.

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