The ability to function with heart failure and a patient’s acceptance of his or her condition may go hand in hand. A Polish study used illness acceptance screening to reveal patterns in patient responses to quality of life surveys.

Patients who arrived at the emergency department with acute heart failure syndromes and mildly elevated blood glucose levels may be at increased risk for death or hospitalization within the first 30 days, according to a study published online Jan. 7 in the European Heart Journal.

PARADIGM-HF already underscored the mortality benefit of a new combo drug for patients with chronic heart failure. Now a study that looked into clinical outcomes gave it high scores for halting the progression of heart failure in survivors.

Continuing the debate over the so-called “obesity paradox,” more obese and overweight patients may develop heart failure, but fewer die from it than lean counterparts, according to a study published in the Dec. 30 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The FDA approved two quadripolar leads for use in cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators for patients with heart failure.

Patients awaiting heart transplants can continue on ventricular assist devices for longer periods now, thanks to smaller profile devices with improved functionality, the Boston Globe reports.

It was only a pilot study, and only in mice, and it requires harvesting venom from scorpions—no easy task. But a first report on a venom-based peptide points to a new compound for treating patients with acute heart failure.

Cardiac resynchronization with defibrillators (CRT-D) or pacemakers (CRT-P) fared well in an assessment of their benefits to Medicare beneficiaries. The document will remain available for review and comment through Dec. 15.