The Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute at St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, was the first facility in the country to use a new heart catheter device approved by the FDA in August.

During a six-month period, only 26 percent of patients taking warfarin to treat atrial fibrillation had stable international normalized ratio (INR) values, according to a registry analysis. In addition, only 34 percent of those patients continued to have stable INR values in the following year.

More communities have started to place AEDs in public locations. Still, a recent Canadian study showed those initiatives might not be enough to provide people with a better chance to survive cardiac arrests.

A registry analysis found that patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation who received dabigatran etexilate (Pradaxa) had low rates of stroke, major bleeding and life-threatening bleeding after two years of treatment.

After 12 months of follow-up, 96 percent of patients who received the Micra transcatheter pacing system (Medtronic) had no major complications.

For patients with systolic heart failure that was not caused by ischemic heart disease, implanting prophylactic implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) did not reduce the long-term rate of death of any cause compared with patients who did not receive an ICD, according to a randomized trial.

A recent retrospective, population-based cohort study in Canada showed that proximity to an AED might not always lead to using the device. More than 20 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occurred near a public AED that was inaccessible at the time of the arrest.

CIEDs with remote monitoring capabilities can provide a wealth of information, yet some physicians and hospitals aren’t making the most of this resource.