A former cath lab medical technician dubbed the “serial infector” has been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with a hepatitis C outbreak in New Hampshire and several other states.

Patients who undergo bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement surgery likely will benefit from anticoagulation therapy that is extended three months beyond the duration recommended in guidelines, researchers report in the Nov. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The results offer compelling evidence to change practice, according to the researchers and authors of a companion editorial.

Morton Plant Mease Health Care and its affiliated hospitals, which serve two Tampa Bay counties in Florida, have agreed to pay more than $10 million to the federal government to resolve allegations that they improperly billed for interventional cardiac and vascular procedures.

It is possible to predict the risk that a patient will develop stent thrombosis after PCI for treatment of acute coronary syndrome using an assessment tool that considers several readily available variables, according to a study published in the November issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions.

A class action complaint was filed on Nov. 16 in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts by Karse Simon and Arlene Simon, on behalf of themselves and persons or entities that purchased or acquired Abiomed's securities between Aug. 5, 2011, and Oct. 31, 2012, against Abiomed, Michael R. Minogue, Abiomed's chairman, president and CEO, and Robert L. Bowen, Abiomed's chief financial officer.

People older than 51 years of age who lose their jobs have a significantly higher risk of suffering acute MI (AMI) after that event, according to a study published online Nov. 19 in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Proper treatment of stable ischemic heart disease requires an individualized approach developed in consultation with the patient, but is often best managed through appropriate lifestyle changes and drug therapy, according to Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Patients with Stable Ischemic Heart Disease, released Nov. 19 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines and endorsed by several other societies.

A federal appeals court upheld a jury decision that Medtronic CoreValve infringed the Andersen transcatheter heart valve (THV) patent owned by Edwards Lifesciences.