A review of a national registry found that more than 20 percent of patients who received implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) did not meet evidence-based guidelines for the devices, putting them at a higher risk of in-hospital death than individuals who met criteria for the implants, according to a study in the Jan. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers discerned a strong association between the image quality of pulmonary CT angiography scans and the number of false positive findings using a prototype computer-aided detection (CAD) algorithm, and suggested two possible fixes: improving the CAD algorithm to differentiate between veins and arteries or adapting the contrast protocol to provide high arterial and venous intravascular contrast, according to a study in this month's American Journal of Roentgenology.

Prospectively gated step and shoot and retrospectively gated helical techniques delivered comparable image quality using a 256-slice CT scanner for cardiac CT angiography (CCTA) exams, with the prospectively gated step and shoot technique associated with a 62 percent reduction in radiation dose, according to a study published in the January issue of Academic Radiology.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation is increasing and is being offered to sicker patients; Recurrence post-ablation still plagues the field; Ballloon technologies promise to reduce procedure time; Delayed-enhancement MRI could be a game changer

Approximately 15 percent of strokes occur in people with atrial fibrillation (AF). Warfarin has been the standard of care for more than 50 years in the U.S. and Canada to prevent and treat thromboemboli. However, dabigatran was approved in the second half of 2010 and could be a game changer.

The incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) continues to increase and more AF patients than ever are being referred for ablation. Reimbursement, however, has not kept up with the procedures complexity, time-consuming nature and relatively expensive technology.

While ischemic stroke linked to atrial fibrillation (AF) has declined over the past two decades, whether or not to anticoagulate these patients remains debatable, and a model suggests the threshold to do so is higher, according to a study published online Dec. 7 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Six organizations are ready to test the Direct Projects software, moving the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) vision of integrated information exchange to a critical juncture, said Arien Malec, Coordinator of The Direct Project (formerly NHIN Direct), during a recent NHIN University presentation, The Direct Project: Where we are today.