Interventional cardiologists and hospitals should re-evaluate the practice of using intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABP) in high-risk percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) patients, advised authors of a study published online Dec. 6 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. Researchers found wide variation in IABP use across hospitals with no supporting evidence that greater use of IABPs improves outcomes.

Extremely obese patients present with STEMI at younger ages, yet have less extensive coronary artery disease and better left ventricular systolic function, adhering to the obesity paradox, a study published Dec. 13/20 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found. Additionally, obese patients have similar processes and quality of care when compared with normal-weight patients, but see higher risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality rates.

Median time for patients transferred from an emergency department to another hospital for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was double the recommended 30 minutes, according to a study published Nov. 28 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The researchers noted a great deal of variability between hospital characteristics, patient demographics and geographic locations.

Of the abundant number of patients who undergo a PCI procedure each year, nearly 10 percent are readmitted back to the hospital within 30 days of the procedure, according to a study published online first Nov. 28 in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Readmitted patients also have a higher risk of death within one year.

Placing intensivists who specialize in cardiothoracic surgery in the cardiac ICU could potentially enhance post-operative care efficiencies, which could decrease length of stay, according to a study published in the November issue of the Archives of Surgery. With nearly 500,000 patients undergoing open heart surgery per year in the U.S., this could equate to a savings of nearly hundreds of millions of dollars, the researchers estimated.

For patients with acute atherosclerotic extracranial internal carotid artery occlusions, carotid artery stenting (CAS) may be a feasible and safe option, at least within the first six hours of symptom onset, according to a study published in the Nov. 29 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. An accompanying editorialist summed that rather than continue turf wars, interventionalists must work together on stroke teams to perform CAS, which could expand on-call stroke coverage and improve stroke care.

Patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) who are treated invasively have an overall survival advantage compared with conservatively treated patients, with the latter group more likely to die from non-cardiac causes, according to a single-center retrospective study published Nov. 29 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. However, HCM-related mortality is similar, regardless of a conservative versus invasive strategy.

Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has dismissed Donald Poldermans, MD, PhD, who was previously professor of medicine and head of the section of perioperative cardiac care, because of a "violation of academic integrity."