Twenty-three hospitals from across Arkansas have joined the Arkansas Heart Attack Registry (AHAR), a collaborative effort to reduce the impact of myocardial infarctions in the state, THV 11 reported this week.

Mitral valve prolapse (MVP)—a common condition that’s rarely serious—might boost heart patients’ risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD), researchers reported in the BMJ journal Heart this week.

Resolute Onyx, a polymer-coated zotarolimus-eluting stent, has been proven safe and effective in an all-comer population of more than 2,000 heart patients, according to late-breaking results of the BIONYX trial.

Despite having the highest burden of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. and averaging more comorbidities than white patients, blacks are less likely to receive guideline-concordant care after a non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), researchers reported this week.

The prevalence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the heart transplant (HT) population is “very low,” according to research published in the current online edition of the American Journal of Cardiology, but HT patients who do suffer a heart attack are more likely to experience longer hospital stays, higher 30-day readmission rates and greater in-hospital morbidities.

Cerner and Duke Clinical Research Institute have teamed up to develop a new CVD risk calculator app, the companies announced late this summer—a move they hope will improve shared decision-making between physicians and their patients.

Patients with sepsis are at a greater risk for heart attack and stroke in the four weeks following hospital discharge, research out of Taiwan has found, with more than half of all adverse CVD events in the ensuing six months occurring within 35 days of leaving the hospital. 

Fewer Americans smoked or were physically inactive in 2015-16 than four years earlier, but there were also fewer on “appropriate” aspirin therapy to prevent cardiovascular events, according to a Vital Signs report released by the CDC.