CHICAGO--Kenneth A. Ellenbogen, MD, director of clinical cardiac electrophysiology and pacing at Virginia Commonwealth University Pauley Heart Center in Richmond, shares the disappointing results from the three-arm randomized, controlled SMART AV trial, which sought to assess whether patients with cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) would better respond to fixed empiric atrioventricular (AV) delay, echocardiographic optimization of AV delay or AV delay optimization based on the SmartDelay algorithm (Boston Scientific).

CHICAGO--The addition of eplerenone to recommended medical therapy was well tolerated, and had a 37 percent reduced combined risk of death and hospitalization in patients with systolic heart failure (HF) and mild symptoms, compared with placebo, based on the findings of the EMPHASIS-HF trial presented as a late-breaking study today at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions.

CHICAGO--Despite previous safety questions, the embattled nesiritide can now be considered a safe therapy in patients with acute decompensated heart failure (HF), based on the late-breaking ASCEND-HF trial presented today at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions. However, nesiritide had little effect on dyspnea, and no signficant effect on hospital readmission or death rates in this same patient population.

CHICAGOAdding cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) to an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) reduce rates of death and hospitalization by 25 percent for patients with class II or III heart failure, a wide QRS complex and left ventricular systolic dysfunction, based on the results of the late-breaking RAFT study presented today at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions.

CHICAGOThe American Heart Association (AHA) should develop a comprehensive hospital certification program with policies and evidence-based criteria for cardiovascular disease and stroke care in the U.S., according to an AHA Presidential Advisory published Nov. 12 in Circulation, and released this week during the annual AHA Scientific Sessions.

Using a collaborative approach to heart failure (HF) care increased the use of drug therapy and diagnostic testing, and patients fared better under this model as opposed to being treated by a primary care physician (PCP) alone, according to an analysis published Nov. 2 in Circulation.

Each year since 2006, the Cleveland Clinic has surveyed its physicians to gauge the Top 10 medical innovations that will have the most influence the following year, and the list has proved to be quite prophetic. The two innovations from the current list that will impact cardiovascular medicine in 2011 are the JUPITER study and home-monitoring for heart failure patients. 

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has granted the University of Illinois at Chicago $12 million to bolster heart failure (HF) research, particularly to evaluate markers for diagnosis and treatment of the disease.