SAN FRANCISCOWhile a large amount of data have shown that medical therapy for heart failure may reduce sudden cardiac death (SCD), JoAnn Lindenfeld, MD, of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, said we are still not out of the woods yet in terms of finding the proper management strategies for SCD, during a May 5 presentation at the annual Heart Rhythm Society meeting.

SAN FRANCISCOAdding cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) to implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy reduces mortality in mild to moderate heart failure (HF) patients, according to the results of the RAFT trial presented May 6 at the 32nd annual meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society.

Patients have begun to be enrolled in the INOVATE-HF clinical study, a multi-center investigational device exemption trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of BioControl Medicals CardioFit system, an implantable electrical stimulation device to improve heart function in congestive heart failure (HF) patients.

The number of hospital admissions for acute heart failure syndromes (AHFS) has reached 1 million annually across the U.S. and Europe, and despite the fact that patients symptoms may improve during hospitalization; the rate of post-discharge readmission within 60 days is still almost 30 percent. Researchers in a commentary published in this weeks Journal of the American Medical Association have proposed an algorithm for evaluating AHFS at presentation, which may be the first step to optimizing treatment.

Employing a multidisciplinary team-based approach to care for heart failure (HF) patients that includes the development and dissemination of patient-friendly, standardized educational materials can both streamline resources and decrease readmissions, according to a poster presented at this years annual leadership meeting of the American College of Cardiovascular Administrators (ACCA) in Chicago.

Juventas Therapeutics, a regenerative medicine company, has competed a Phase I clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of JVS-100, an encoder of Stromal-cell Derived Factor (SDF-1) that can promote tissue repair through the recruitment of endogenous stem cells, in heart failure (HF) patients.

Causes for hospital readmission differ after left ventricular assist device therapy (LVAD) depending on the pump; however, at six months, freedom from hospital readmission with a rotary LVAD was comparable to medical management of heart failure (HF). Patients with a BMI less than 35 and COPD fared worse, according to research presented April 14 at the 31st annual International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation scientific sessions in San Diego.

NEW ORLEANSCan early interventions with cardiac resynchronization therapy plus defibrillation (CRT-D) really improve outcomes? This is the question N.A. Mark Estes, director of the cardiac arrhythmia center at Tufts New England Medical Center, Boston, set out to answer during a plenary session April 4 at the American College of Cardiology scientific sessions.