A new 3D device created with the help of a printer precisely fits the entire epicardium and may help clinicians predict a heart attack as well as deliver treatment and assess heart health, according to research published online Feb. 25 in Nature Communications.

Lack of evidence and lack of awareness of the evidence create many conundrums. We saw that play out in several ways in recent days.

Scripps Green Hospital has become the first hospital in the United States to implant the world’s smallest implantable cardiac monitoring device. Scripps Clinic cardiologist John Rogers, M.D., successfully completed the first implant of the Reveal LINQ™ Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM) in 71-year-old San Diego resident Chuck Beal on Saturday.

An FDA advisory warning that CT imaging may interfere with cardiac rhythm management devices may have overstated the risk, based on a retrospective study of 516 scans. The analysis, published online Feb. 26 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found radiation to the devices did not result in any clinically significant events.

Transfusion rates for patients undergoing PCI vary widely in the U.S., according to a study published Feb. 26 in JAMA. The variation may be driven more by local practice patterns than clinical need.

Although the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines recommend initiating ACEI/ARBs after MI, a study published online Feb. 25 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes found about one in five patients who meet the criteria for ACEI/ARB therapy do not receive it.

The death of a life partner may increase a person’s risk for a heart attack, stroke or other major cardiovascular event within a few weeks of the loss, according to a study published online Feb. 24 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) have set-up a new 'cluster' on pharmacovigilance (medicine safety) topics. Clusters are regular collaborative meetings between the EMA and regulators outside of the European Union, which focus on specific topic areas that have been identified as requiring an intensified exchange of information and collaboration. Building on the experience of previous regular videoconferences between the FDA and the EMA in this area and on the recent creation of the EMA’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee, this cluster will provide a forum for a more systematic and focused exchange of information on the safety of medicines.