Novo Nordisk, a Bagsvaerd, Denmark-based pharmaceutical maker, has agreed to pay $25 million to resolve its civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of its hemostasis management drug, NovoSeven, according to the Department of Justice.

University of California, Irvine researchers are calling for international action after results from a recent study indicated that only 35 percent of anesthesiologists surveyed are monitoring cardiac output in patients undergoing high-risk surgery, according to findings presented June 12 at the European Anaesthesiology Congress. Study authors said the measure can significantly impact patient recovery.

Declines in non-HDL cholesterol levels, increased HDL cholesterol levels, decreased systolic blood pressure and smoking cessation may be just some of the reasons why patients in the U.K. saw a 74 percent decrease in incidence of MI, according to a 20-year follow-up of the Whitehall II cohort published online June 8 in the European Society of Cardiology. However, these rates could have been even lower, but  the rise in body mass indexes (BMIs) stunted further improvement.

Health Canada has approved ticagrelor (Brilinta, AstraZeneca), an oral antiplatelet treatment that seeks to prevent atherothrombotic events (e.g., cardiovascular death, heart attack or stroke) in patients with acute coronary syndromes.

CABG surgery carries an estimated price tag of $100,000 per admission. And researchers from University of Albany in New York have found that 30-day readmission rates for this costly procedure are high despite the fact that mortality rates have decreased. The study, published in the May issue of JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, set out to better understand what causes CABG readmissions in hopes of avoiding them, and found that infection may be the number one problem.

Patients followed by younger physicians (age 45 and under) had a higher prevalence of cardiovascular (CV) disease, according to the results of the EFFECTUS study published in the International Journal of Clinical Practice. And while these patients may be sicker, younger physicians may be more apt to administer prescription drugs compared to older physicians who may prefer focusing on lifestyle changes.

In the healthcare systems of Germany, France, Italy and the U.K., fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided stenting is cost saving compared with aniography-guided procedure in patients with multivessel coronary artery disease, according to a late-breaking clinical trial presented last week at EuroPCR in Paris. Uwe Siebert, MD, MPH, told Cardiovascular Business: Even in Germany, where stents are quite inexpensive, FFR not only improves patient outcomes, but also reduces costs.

To optimize outcomes for PCI procedures, new technologies have emerged to assist interventionalists with patient selection, clinical decision making and post-stent assessment.