Cardinal Health is offering to buy the stent pioneering company Cordis for almost $2 billion, Johnson & Johnson announced.

Lowered response to statin therapy may indicate more rapidly progressive atherosclerosis, according to a meta-analysis. These patients, representing one-fifth of the study population, were more likely to have significant arterial blockage progression at follow-up than those who responded to treatment.

St. Jude Medical put aside $15 million to privately settle about 950 claims and other disputes over its Riata and Riata ST leads, the company reported in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Long-term results from a French study on persistent atrial fibrillation suggest that a stepwise catheter ablation strategy may terminate atrial fibrillation in some patients for as long as five years after a procedure.

High-resolution imaging may get physicians closer to the areas that most need epicardial ablation when addressing ventricular tachycardia (VT). Real-time multidetector CT to assist with epicardial ablation proved useful for determining optimal ablation while avoiding coronary arteries and phrenic nerves.

Robotic technology is allowing cardiac surgeons to perform delicate surgery that is less invasive and minimizes risk, the Mayo Clinic News Network reported.

Many younger women think they’re too young for a heart attack, and healthcare providers don’t take their initial symptoms seriously enough, researchers concluded after interviewing 30 women hospitalized for acute MI.

Rates of optimal care following PCI or CABG surgery were uncomfortably low, according to a study published online Feb. 24 in Circulation. The analysis revealed that by five years of follow-up, only around a third of patients in either group were receiving guideline-based therapies.