Dabigatran (Pradaxa, Boehringer Ingelheim) was effective in preventing stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation, based on a post-hoc analysis of the randomized RE-LY trial. The analysis, presented at this week's European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress in Stockholm, and simultaneously published in the Lancet, also showed that local standards of care affect the benefits of switching to new treatments.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most commonly occurring cardiac arrhythmia and diagnostics account for a majority of the AF market, soaking up 25 percent. By 2015, the global AF market is estimated to reach $4.1 billion, according to a report conducted by Global Industry Analysts.

Hansen Medical, a developer of medical robotics and robotic technology for 3D control of catheter movement, has reported promising financial results for the second quarter, which ended June 30.

OJAI, Calif.--John P. Glaser, PhD, vice president and CIO of Boston-based Partners HealthCare System, told the AMDIS Physician-Computer Symposium audience last week to expect a bumpy road ahead, but assessed the current meaningful use framework as something that had to be done and has been started intelligently.

The launch and uptake of novel oral anticoagulants and antiarrhythmic agentsspecifically, drugs from Boehringer Ingelheim, Bayer HealthCare/Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventiswill drive the atrial fibrillation drug market to increase more than eight-fold, from $843 million in 2009 to $6.8 billion in 2019, according to a report from market research firm Decision Resources.

A 3D SPACE MR sequence outperformed conventional 2D weighted MRI techniques of the pelvis, conserving image quality and diagnostic data, providing reconstruction versatility and saving time, according to a study published in the July edition of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

Cambridge Heart has enrolled its first patients into the MTWA-CAD (Evaluation of Microvolt T-Wave Alternans Testing for the Detection of Active Ischemia in Patients with Known or Suspected Coronary Artery Disease) trial that will evaluate whether microvolt T-wave alternans (MTWA) technology can augment current testing methods that depict ischemia, such as cardiac stress testing.

Women in primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) trials have the same overall mortality as men, while experiencing significantly less appropriate ICD interventions, according to a meta-analysis of five randomized studies published in this months HeartRhythm Journal.