Nuclear medicine clinics could be operating at 25 percent capacity or less by the end of the week due to a shortage of Technetium-99m, said one hospital leader.

Coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring could be the key to determining which patients are most likely to benefit from statin therapy, according to a retrospective analysis published Nov. 5 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

INDIANAPOLIS, November 5, 2018 – Trulicity® (dulaglutide) significantly reduced major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), a composite endpoint of cardiovascular (CV) death, non-fatal myocardial infarction (heart attack) or non-fatal stroke, meeting the primary efficacy objective in the precedent-setting REWIND trial.

Ridgefield, Conn. and Indianapolis, November 5, 2018 — Initial results from the real-world EMPagliflozin compaRative effectIveness and SafEty (EMPRISE) study showed Jardiance® was associated with a 44 percent relative risk reduction in hospitalization for heart failure (HHF) compared with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors in routine clinical practice in the U.S.

Biopharmaceutical company Amarin announced top-line results for its purified eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) product in September, hailing the 25 percent risk reduction in a composite of cardiovascular outcomes associated with icosapent ethyl (Vascepa). But critics who commented on the results to Kaiser Health News worried the excitement over the trial is premature.

Automated cardiac valve tracking halved the analysis time and variability in blood-flow quantification with four-dimensional (4D) flow MRI, researchers reported in Radiology. The algorithm may help clinicians more efficiently assess the severity of congenital and valvular heart disease, they said.

Ischemic stroke patients—regardless of their individual characteristics or the severity of their stroke—are 20 percent more likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge if they acquire any kind of infection during their initial stay, researchers reported Nov. 1 in Stroke.

Eight European scientific societies joined forces to produce what they say is the first interdisciplinary position paper to help clinicians manage patients with patent foramen ovales (PFOs).

Physicians successfully reversed the bleeding risk-treatment paradox in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by prioritizing risk-concordant use of bleeding avoidance strategies like bivalirudin, radial access and vascular closure devices, according to a report published Oct. 31 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers have discovered a novel biomarker in stable, ambulatory patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a finding which may lead to earlier diagnoses of HFpEF.