Despite the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology guidelines that outline the most appropriate treatment for congestive heart failure, physicians are slacking on prescribing proper drug therapy that would be most beneficial, according to a study published in the Aug. 9/23 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic are proposing patients should have the right to refuse or request withdrawal of ventricular assist devices, according to an article published online June 28 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Medtronic has launched the Defeat-HF (Determining the Feasibility of Spinal Cord Neuromodulation for the Treatment of Chronic Heart Failure), a prospective, randomized trial evaluating the clinical feasibility of spinal cord stimulation, or neurostimulation, to improve clinical signs and symptoms of heart failure.

New guidelines published in this week's Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) outline the specific methods needed to properly manage heart failure (HF) and heart transplant patients, including practicing at an institution with the proper infrastructure to necessitate care, working in a multidisciplinary team-based approach and utilizing a disease management approach to care.

Bronchodilator use is a powerful independent predictor of worsening heart failure (HF) and increased mortality in a broad spectrum of patients with HF, according to the CHARM trial results published online July 9 in the European Journal of Heart Failure.

The cost of exercise training was relatively low for the healthcare system, but patients incurred significant time costs, based on an economic sub-study of HF-ACTION, published online June 15 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. In this economic evaluation, the researchers said there was little systematic benefit in terms of overall medical resource use with this intervention.

Middle-aged and older men diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea run a greater risk of developing heart failure (HF) and coronary heart disease, according to results of the Sleep Heart Health Study published July 12 in Circulation.

A new initiative launched by the New Jersey Hospital Associations Institute for Quality and Patient Safety will bring together 50 organizations to work towards reducing readmissions for heart failure patients.