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An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is a small device that's placed in your chest or abdomen. This device uses electrical pulses or shocks to help control life-threatening, irregular heartbeats, especially those that could lead the heart to suddenly stop beating (sudden cardiac arrest). If the heart stops beating, blood stops flowing to the brain and other vital organs. This usually causes death if it's not treated in minutes.
Viewpoints: Mass. experience may not be true test for national health law; 'Dishonest' campaign by medical device makers

Viewpoints: Mass. experience may not be true test for national health law; 'Dishonest' campaign by medical device makers

Massachusetts is often held up as a window into America's health insurance future, because it embarked on what came to be called the Romneycare reform six years ago. Like the Affordable Care Act provisions going into effect nationwide next year, Romneycare aimed to increase the fraction of the population with health insurance by imposing mandates on employers and employees and by subsidizing health insurance plans for middle-class families without employer plans. [More]

Study shows dual-chamber ICDs are associated with higher risk of device-related complications

Even though patients receiving an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator for primary prevention often receive a dual-chamber ICD, an analysis that included more than 32,000 patients receiving an ICD without indications for pacing finds that the use of a dual-chamber device compared with a single-chamber device was associated with a higher risk of device-related complications and similar 1-year mortality and hospitalization outcomes, according to a study in the May 15 issue of JAMA. [More]

TYRX's AIGISRx Antibacterial Envelope reduces CIED infection rates by more than 90%

Use of TYRX, Inc.'s AIGISRx- Antibacterial Envelope reduced major infection rates by more than 90% in patients undergoing Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Device replacement procedures compared to similar high-risk cohorts, according to the CITADEL & CENTURION clinical study results presented on Saturday at the Late Breaking Clinical Trials session at Heart Rhythm 2013, the Heart Rhythm Society's 34th Annual Scientific Sessions. [More]
Operating without interrupting warfarin treatment during cardiac device surgery reduces hematomas

Operating without interrupting warfarin treatment during cardiac device surgery reduces hematomas

A new Canadian study shows that operating without interrupting warfarin treatment at the time of cardiac device surgery is safe and markedly reduces the incidence of clinically significant hematomas compared to the current standard of care. [More]

BIOTRONIK receives FDA approval for ICD/CRT-D series

BIOTRONIK, a leading manufacturer of cardiovascular medical technology, announced that the Food and Drug Administration granted approval for its Ilesto 7 implantable cardioverter-defibrillator/cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator series. [More]
Toshiba offers InfinixTM-i cardiovascular X-ray system for EP procedures

Toshiba offers InfinixTM-i cardiovascular X-ray system for EP procedures

Electrophysiology (EP) clinical teams require a unique set of technologies to perform accurate and safe exams. Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. offers these clinicians an InfinixTM-i cardiovascular X-ray system tailored for EP procedures with a new package of features, accessories and technologies. This package maximizes room utilization, improves workflow and enhances safety. [More]
Prompt use of AED can increase the survival rates of people who suffer cardiac arrest

Prompt use of AED can increase the survival rates of people who suffer cardiac arrest

Prompt use of an automated external defibrillator, or AED, can greatly increase the survival rates of people who suffer a cardiac arrest. [More]
Researchers develop formula to determine best locations to place AED

Researchers develop formula to determine best locations to place AED

Prompt use of an automated external defibrillator, or AED, can greatly increase the survival rates of people who suffer a cardiac arrest. And MIE Professor Tim Chan, working with Dr. Laurie Morrison at St. Michael's Hospital, has developed a formula to determine where best to place these costly but life-saving devices. [More]
Biventricular pacing best in atrioventricular block patients

Biventricular pacing best in atrioventricular block patients

Use of biventricular rather than conventional right ventricular pacing results in better clinical outcomes in patients who have heart failure with atrioventricular block and left ventricular systolic dysfunction, show the results of BLOCK HF. [More]
New online tutorials for sports, cardiology doctors now available to take care of athletes

New online tutorials for sports, cardiology doctors now available to take care of athletes

Progress on curbing the leading killer of athletes-sudden cardiac death-by spotting heart problems early, has been slow. But the development of a series of online tutorials for sports and cardiology doctors looks set to reverse this trend. [More]

UCSF Medical Center doctors implant new cardiac defibrillator to diagnose arrhythmias

Doctors at UCSF Medical Center implanted a new cardiac defibrillator that uses a single-lead to sense vital changes in the heart rhythm on March 14, 2013, becoming one of the first heart centers in Northern California to perform this procedure. [More]
State Highlights: St. Jude lawsuits could change medical-device liability protection; Calif. weighs charity minimum for nonprofit hospitals

State Highlights: St. Jude lawsuits could change medical-device liability protection; Calif. weighs charity minimum for nonprofit hospitals

A raft of lawsuits filed Thursday against St. Jude Medical Inc. over an implanted heart device could challenge the broad liability protection that medical-device makers have enjoyed since a key Supreme Court ruling in 2008. [More]

First Edition: April 5, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how President Barack Obama's budget proposal -- to be released next week -- will handle Medicare and Medicaid. [More]

Emergency response training is needed to reduce cardiac arrests in K-12 schools

One of the leading causes of death in the United States is sudden cardiac arrest, which claims the lives of more than 325,000 people each year. In a study published in the April issue of the journal Resuscitation, Beaumont doctors found that cardiac arrests in K-12 schools are extremely rare, less than 0.2 percent, but out of 47 people who experienced cardiac arrest over a six-year period at K-12 schools, only 15 survived. [More]

UCLA team uses brain aneurysm treatment technique to treat irregular heart rhythms

For the first time, a UCLA team has used a technique normally employed in treating brain aneurysms to treat severe, life-threatening irregular heart rhythms in two patients. [More]

Policy and practice changes could improve in-hospital cardiac arrest care, authors say

Policy and practice changes by healthcare institutions, providers and others could greatly improve medical care and improve survival for people who have a sudden cardiac arrest in the hospital, according to an American Heart Association consensus statement in its journal, Circulation. [More]
Minor weight loss may increase risk of cardiac events among patients implanted with CRT-D

Minor weight loss may increase risk of cardiac events among patients implanted with CRT-D

Even minor weight loss is associated with worse health outcomes among patients implanted with a certain type of defibrillator known as cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillator (CRT-D), according to research being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. [More]

Study evaluates patients with regional myocardial wall thinning

Among patients with coronary artery disease referred for cardiovascular magnetic resonance and found to have regional myocardial wall thinning (of the heart muscle), limited scar burden was associated with improved contraction of the heart and reversal of wall thinning after revascularization, suggesting that myocardial thinning is potentially reversible, according to a study appearing in the March 6 issue of JAMA. [More]

Abell Foundation to award $50,000 to 3 Johns Hopkins researchers for medical inventions

Johns Hopkins' John Wong, Ph.D., has won a BioMaryland LIFE Award, and Ronald Berger, M.D., Ph.D., and Hien Nguyen, M.D., were awarded funds from the Abell Foundation, the researchers learned last week. Each of the winners will receive $50,000 to help develop their discoveries for clinical use. [More]

BIOTRONIK receives FDA approval for Lumax 740 DX System

BIOTRONIK, a leading manufacturer of cardiovascular medical technology, announced the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted final approval for the BIOTRONIK Lumax 740 DX System. [More]