DUBLIN — December 3, 2018 — Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) today announced the first patient treated in the TERMINATE AF trial, a multi-center study evaluating two surgical ablation devices — the Cardioblate(TM) Irrigated RF (IRF) System and the CryoFlex(TM) Surgical Ablation System — for the treatment of non-paroxysmal (persistent or longstanding persistent) atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients undergoing open-heart surgical procedures.

Fractional flow reserve (FFR) assessment before coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) didn’t improve outcomes compared to angiography-guided surgery, Danish researchers reported Nov. 26 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

A team in the U.K. published research Nov. 30 suggesting cancer patients are at an elevated risk for major bleeding events and in-hospital death following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), the most common interventional treatment in patients with coronary heart disease.

A possible deal between controversial e-cigarette company Juul and tobacco giant Altria could be a matter of weeks away, the Wall Street Journal reported in late November—and Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, isn’t pleased at the prospect.

Industry payments to cardiologists remained largely stable in the first three years those payments were made publicly available, a new analysis found, with biomedical manufacturers distributing about $520 million to more than 30,000 U.S. cardiologists from 2014 to 2016.

Regardless of clinical and socioeconomic factors, black patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are significantly less likely than whites and Hispanics to receive appropriate treatment with oral anticoagulants (OACs), researchers reported Nov. 28 in JAMA Cardiology.

People who experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) are nearly twice as likely to survive if they are transferred directly to a hospital with 24-hour capability to perform PCI or targeted temperature management (TTM) versus another center, according to a meta-analysis published Nov. 28 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Hospitals ranked highest for cardiology and heart surgery by the U.S. News and World Report (USNWR) boast lower 30-day mortality rates for acute MI, heart failure and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), according to research published in JAMA Cardiology—but those same hospitals also see similar or higher readmission rates compared with hospitals that aren't ranked at all.

The Tampa Bay Times published a lengthy investigative piece Nov. 28 about recent problems at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, where the heart surgery unit saw a tripling in its mortality rate from 2015 to 2017.

A man who says his nearly fatal myocardial infarction was triggered by January’s false missile alert in Hawaii is now suing the state and then-administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency for damages, CBS News reported.