Minneapolis Heart Institute Chief Cardiology Fellow Ankur Kalra, MD has been named as a finalist for the 2014 ACCF Young Investigators Awards. Kalra's research, funded by the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF), supports the ongoing quest to better identify, with noninvasive tools, which heart attack survivors are at greatest risk for sudden cardiac death, and therefore may benefit from ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) therapy. Kalra will present his research at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting in Washington, DC on March 31, 2014.

Patients should not undergo stress testing after PCI unless there is a clinical indication for this procedure, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) recommends. SCAI issued a list of procedures that should be avoided in patients with or at risk for cardiovascular disease.

The use of myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) has declined over the past few years, researchers wrote in a letter published March 26 in JAMA. The decrease, they explained, could be due to changing physician behavior as well as a lower incidence of coronary disease.

An elevated carotid atherosclerosis score (CAS) could indicate increasing plaque progression and a disrupted luminal surface and ultimately help stratify stroke risk, a study published online March 13 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging found.

Creating the best cardiac cath lab procedure report is the first step to bettering patient care and maximizing reimbursement in this competitive and complex zone.

When diagnosing coronary artery disease (CAD) in women, cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) may be a better option than SPECT, according to a study published in the March 11 issue of Circulation. The study found CMR to be more sensitive than SPECT in both sexes and there are no significant differences between the sexes with CMR, unlike SPECT.

A new Web-based platform that analyzes multimodal signals may help make electrophysiological data easier to evaluate and incorporate into clinical research, according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

An article by Bloomberg News claims that the cath lab at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City has sent patients with previously scheduled appointments through its emergency department (ED), a practice that may allow for uninsured patients’ costs to be covered. The hospital has not been accused of any wrong-doing and hospital officials said they are reviewing issues related to the allegations.