The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and GE Healthcare have teamed to provide a cardiovascular ultrasound training event for healthcare providers caring for underserved populations in rural northwest India.

Technological improvements in image acquisition and software processing in nuclear cardiology should allow physicians to shave patient imaging times dramatically or cut radiation doses fourfold, according to a new preferred practice statement from the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC).

Stenting stenosis in the internal pudendal artery as a treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED) appears to be safe and effective, but more needs to be understood about disease prevalence and pelvic vasculature, cardiologists say. More immediate is leveraging ED to reduce cardiovascular risk factors.

There is growing concern among cardiac sonographers about the amount of radiation exposure they experience on the job and few say their workplace has a formal policy to address radiation safety for sonographers, according to a survey conducted by the American Society of Echocardiography.

The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) has published new guidelines to improve the existing norms of the right heart in the July issue of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography. The recommended procedures will establish a more uniform method of evaluating the size and function of the right ventricle, said the society.

According to research presented during the 21st annual scientific sessions of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) in San Diego this week, cardiac troponin plasma concentrations and longitudinal strain can predict the development of cardiotoxicity in patients treated with anthracyclines and trastuzumab chemotherapies.

Martyn Thomas, MD, director of cardiothoracic services, Guys and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London, reported Tuesday on the one-year mortality rates with transcatheter heart valve implantations with the Sapien valve (Edwards Lifesciences) using either a transfemoral or transapical approach, based on results of 1,038 high-risk patients assessed in the SOURCE Registry at EuroPCR in Paris. Slides

Medtronics Resolute zotarolimus-eluting stent was found to be as safe and effective as Abbott Vasculars Xience V everolimus-eluting stent in a predominantly off-label population, based on the results of the RESOLUTE all-comers trial, presented Tuesday by Patrick W. Serruys MD, PhD, at EuroPCR in Paris. Slides