In recognizing both the chance of adverse cardiac events associated with sporting events and the value of CPR and automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to help save lives, 15 members of USA Volleyball this month completed the American Heart Association's first aid certification.

Study participants who viewed a brief hands-only CPR video were more likely to attempt CPR, and perform better quality CPR in an emergency than participants who did not view the short videos, according to research reported in the April issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Stratifying cardiac disease risk is evolving along with the advancements in imaging technology, which help risk stratification become more highly individualized, taking us further toward personalized medicine.

While there are a multitude of drugs and lifestyle changes that are prescribed for chronic angina, properly managing this patient population continues to challenge cardiologists. However, recent studies have begun to reveal new therapies that might better relieve this chronic pain.

Compared with placebo, pioglitazone (Actos, Takeda Pharmaceuticals) reduced the risk of conversion of impaired glucose tolerance to type 2 diabetes mellitus by 72 percent, but was associated with significant weight gain and edema, according to a study published March 24 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

LDL-particles (LDL-P) can better predict atherosclerotic risk and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk when LDL-P and LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) were discordant, according to a study published in the March-April issue of the Journal of Clinical Lipidology.

In patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS), implementation of a sensitive troponin assay increased the diagnosis of MI and identified patients at high risk of recurrent MI and death in the following year, according to a study in the March 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. However, one researcher expresses caution about lowering the troponin threshold for MI.

Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Takeda Pharmaceutical have suspended clinical activities in an ongoing phase II study examining the safety and effectiveness of the investigational combination therapy pramlintide/metreleptin for the treatment of obesity.