Having reduced cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is as harmful to survival as coronary artery disease, smoking cigarettes or diabetes, suggests a retrospective study published Oct. 19 in JAMA Network Open.

Canadian physicians are calling for nationwide CVD screening for all competitive high school athletes, CTV News reported this week of new guidelines issued at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Toronto.

Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston has hired two new cardiac surgeons and an administrator in an effort to revamp a heart transplant program that recently lost Medicare funding due to poor patient outcomes, the Houston Chronicle and ProPublica reported.

Good oral health—in particular a lack of periodontal disease—has been linked to lower systolic blood pressure and a better chance at successful antihypertensive therapy in patients with high BP, according to research published Oct. 22 in Hypertension.

Coronary artery calcium (CAC) is predictive of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality across all racial and ethnic groups, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association—but the risk of those outcomes is significantly higher across all CAC scores for black and Hispanic patients than for whites and Asians.

The FDA rejected Norvartis’ bid to expand the indications for canakinumab to include cardiovascular risk reduction among heart attack survivors, Reuters reported Oct. 18.

Patients with heart disease should aim to be physically active seven minutes for every 20 they’re sedentary to prolong life and prevent further cardiovascular damage, according to research presented at the 2018 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Toronto.

DUBLIN — October 21, 2018 — Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) announced today that its co-founder, Earl E. Bakken, passed away peacefully on October 21, 2018 at his home on Kiholo Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii. He was 94 years old.

Aspirin alone may be sufficient to balance the risks of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and bleeding following total knee replacement surgery, according to a study published online in JAMA Surgery.

Recreational marijuana use is linked to an increase in stroke prevalence in the U.S. population, according to a study presented at the 11th World Stroke Congress in Montreal. Results of the study were released just two days after Canada legalized recreational cannabis nationwide.