To "keep up with the growing challenges within the healthcare industry," Medtronic said it will combine its U.S. Cardiac and Vascular group sales functions to form a single, unified sales organization.

NEW ORLEANS Outcomes of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) when compared with the gold standard of aortic valve replacement are similar, and TAVI is now being called the new standard of care for high-risk patients who are ineligible for surgery, even though these percutaneous devices are not yet FDA-approved, according to data from the PARTNER trial presented today during the late-breaking clinical trials at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual meeting.

NEW ORLEANSWith a projected life expectancy of approximately 1.9 years, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) patients compared with the non-surgical standard of care have an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of about $50,200 for each additional year of life gained, or approximately $62,000 for each quality-adjusted life year gained, based on the cost-effectiveness analysis of cohort B of the PARTNER trial, which assessed TAVI for patients with severe aortic stenosis who are deemed inoperable patients, according to a study presented April 3 at the American College of Cardiologys (ACC) 60th annual scientific sessions.

NEW ORLEANSCo-investigator Saibil Kar, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, explained the two-year follow-up results of the EVEREST II randomized controlled trial, which compared the results observed at 12 months to determine the durability of outcomes through 24 months for the device and control groups using the MitraClip device (Abbott) or surgical repair for patients with mitral regurgitation. The late breaking clinical trial was presented April 4 at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Scientific Sessions.

CHICAGOAfter 30 years of advocating for EHRs, Its disappointing where we are at this point, said C. Peter Waegemann, vice president of mHealth Initiative, during his keynote speech at the mHealth Initiative Conference March 30-31.

High-dose atorvastatin (Lipitor, Pfizer) compared with placebo is associated with a slightly increased risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes, based on one of three large randomized trials, which researchers evaluated and published April 5 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. However, baseline fasting glucose level and features of the metabolic syndrome are predictive of new-onset type 2 diabetes across the three trials.

In cardiac arrest patientsin-hospital and pre-hospitaldoes resuscitation produce a good quality of life for survivors after discharge from the hospital? The answer, simply put, is yes, according to a systematic review of the literature published in this month's Resuscitation.

Implementation of a rapid response system had a significant impact on medical and surgical patients with the occurrence of and survival from a cardiac arrest out of the intensive care unit. However, researchers could not explain the disproportionate number of arrests in the medical patients, according to a study published in the April issue of Resuscitation.