The RED-HF trial failed to meet its primary endpoint of reducing the composite endpoint of time to death from any cause or first hospital admission for worsening heart failure, Amgen announced.

A prospective, multicenter study of 145 patients who received ventricular assist devices (VAD) found that infection remains a persistent problem, and that depression and elevated creatinine levels are independent predictors of VAD infection.

An international and multidisciplinary team of experts has developed guidelines to assist physicians who treat patients with mechanical circulatory support devices (MCSDs). The executive summary with recommendations was published in the February issue of the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.

There is consensus that reducing hospital admissions and readmissions for heart failure (HF) is critical, but not on the best path to follow to reach those goals.

A study of in-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates in children found that hospitals participating in the Get With the Guidelines-Resuscitation (GWTG-Resuscitation) program have improved overall survival rates threefold over the past 10 years, without worsened neurological outcome among survivors. The overall survival rate remains under 50 percent, however. The study was published online Dec. 18 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Earlier this month, analysts at Fitch Ratings shared information that informed their outlook on the fiscal health of nonprofit hospitals and health systems in 2013. They foresaw a stable year, barring deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.

In what researchers acknowledge is a counterintuitive finding, a study of real-world outcomes in multidisciplinary heart failure (HF) clinics found a higher rate of hospitalizations in patients seen at clinics compared with those who were not.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has approved HeartMate II as a bridge-to-transplantation therapy for patients suffering from advanced heart failure.