While approved therapeutic agents such as dabigatran and rivaroxaban have proven to be a welcome alternative to the difficult-to-manage warfarin, a letter to the editor published Nov. 24 in the New England Journal of Medicine questioned the overarching safety and efficacy of dabigatran and urged the FDA to conduct more pragmatic trials.

With nearly 600,000 people affected by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a disease that goes largely undetected and can decrease life expectancy, the American Heart Association (AHA) and American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF) put forth new guidelines about recommendations on how to detect, treat and manage patients with the genetic disease.

Cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) infections are hazardous and debilitating. The rate of these infections has swelled over the past decade, affecting patient outcomes and healthcare costs. Many questions remain, including the causes for this spike, and what strategies are most helpful to curb them.

The administration of optimal medical therapy (OMT) to patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) may decrease mortality; however, according to a research letter published online Nov. 14 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, nearly one in four of these patients are not prescribed beta-blockers or ACE inhibitors/ARBs.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has updated the safety label for Boehringer Ingelheims dabigatran (Pradaxa) after several cases of fatal bleeding events were reported. The number of increased bleeds may stem from the increased use of the drug as a result of approval of a new indication (preventing stroke and systemic embolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation patients), EMA said in a statement.

ORLANDO, Fla.--Based on results from the PALLAS trial, the antiarrhythmic agent dronedarone should not be used as a treatment for patients with permanent atrial fibrillation (AF), the study's chair said Nov. 14 during a press conference at the 2011 American Heart Associations conference. Panelists added that the drug, which is approved for management of patients with intermittent AF, should continue to be prescribed as indicated but they recommended regular monitoring to ensure patients remain in guideline parameters.

ORLANDO, Fla.Jens Cosedis Nielsen, MD, principal investigator of MANTRA-PAF, spoke with Cardiovascular Business about how the findings from this study could lead to radiofrequency (RF) ablation being used as a first-line therapy for patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF), as opposed to antiarrhythmic drugs. MANTRA-PAF was presented as a late-breaking clinical trial Nov. 14 at the 2011 meeting of the American Heart Association (AHA).

SAN FRANCISCONow with dabigatran and rivaroxaban on the anticoagulation market, warfarin, after nearly 40 years of being the lone wolf for prevention of stroke in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, finally has some competition. However, when is warfarin still acceptable and cost-effective?  This is what Matthew R. Reynolds, MD, MSc, Harvard Clinical Research Institute and the VA Healthcare System, both in Boston, questioned during a presentation Nov. 9 at the 23rd annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) symposium.