Cardiac Arrest News and Research

Latest Cardiac Arrest News and Research

Assisted ventilation in cardiac arrest rescue may lower chances of survival

Arizona researchers have added another piece to the mounting body of evidence that suggests during resuscitation efforts to treat patients in cardiac arrest, "passive ventilation" significantly increases survival rates, compared to the widely practiced "assisted ventilation."

12 Aug 2009

Therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest is cost-effective

A brain-preserving cooling treatment called therapeutic hypothermia is a cost-effective way to improve outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, which claims the lives of more than 300,000 people each year in the United States and leaves thousands of others neurologically devastated.

6 Aug 2009

Cooling unconscious cardiac arrest survivors increases survival, cost effective

Cooling unconscious cardiac arrest survivors can increase survival and has a cost effectiveness comparable to other widely accepted treatments in modern health care, researchers report in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

4 Aug 2009

Heart medication errors too frequent in children

Infants and young children treated with heart drugs get the wrong dose or end up on the wrong end of medication errors more often than older children, according to research led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center to be published July 6 in Pediatrics.

7 Jul 2009

New understanding on how "trans fats" gum up cellular machinery

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in processed foods contain trans fatty acids that interfere with the regulation of blood flow. A new report reveals a new way in which these "trans fats" gum up the cellular machinery that keeps blood moving through arteries and veins.

17 Jun 2009

GOP balking at public plan in health care reform

Inclusion of a government-run public insurance plan to compete with private insurers could endanger bipartisan support of a health care reform bill as Republicans stand firm against it, The Associated Press reports.

5 Jun 2009

Trial tests potential new angina treatment

As part of a multi-center clinical trial, UC San Diego Medical Center is evaluating the safety and effectiveness of a potential new way to treat angina - by injecting a protein that stimulates the growth of new oxygen-rich blood vessels directly into the heart. Angina is a debilitating form of chest pain caused by coronary artery disease that affects more than nine million Americans.

20 May 2009

Low blood pressure may increase risk of heart attack and stroke

Data from the Treating to New Targets (TNT) trial presented today at the American Society of Hypertension's Twenty Fourth Annual Scientific Meeting (ASH 2009) show that low blood pressure levels may lead to increased risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attack and stroke. These data supplement previous findings from the TNT trial of atorvastatin showing aggressive LDL cholesterol-lowering reduced cardiovascular events.

7 May 2009

New hope for potential heart attack victims

Twenty percent of American deaths each year are caused by heart attack or angina, sometimes without any warning.

27 Apr 2009

Coronary angiography improves outcomes for cardiac arrest patients

People who suffer cardiac arrests and then receive coronary angiography are twice as likely to survive without significant brain damage compared with those who don't have the procedure, according to a study by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers.

1 Apr 2009

New model helps predict risk of new onset heart failure in the elderly

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine created the Health ABC Heart Failure Model for predicting risk of new onset heart failure in the elderly.

30 Mar 2009

Targeted drug therapy prevents exercise-induced arrhythmias

A 12-year-old Dutch boy - bedridden for three years because of an inherited cardiac arrhythmia syndrome - can now join his friends on the soccer field thanks to a discovery made by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers.

30 Mar 2009

Physio-Control receives FDA 510(k) clearance for LIFEPAK monitor/defibrillator

Physio-Control, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Medtronic, Inc., has announced it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market the LIFEPAK 15 monitor/defibrillator within the United States.

29 Mar 2009

Therapeutic hypothermia is promising strategy to minimize tissue damage

Recognition of the benefits of cooling strategies to protect the brain and spinal cord after traumatic injury has led to a wealth of cutting edge research, prime examples of which are featured in a special hypothermia issue of Journal of Neurotrauma , a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

20 Mar 2009

1 in 4 Americans lacks timely access to optimal care during time-sensitive medical emergencies

Although most Americans live close to some type of emergency room, as many as one in four Americans are more than an hour away from the type of hospital that's most prepared to save their life during a time-sensitive medical emergency, according to a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study published in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine.

17 Mar 2009

New understanding of how anger can ventricular arrhythmias

New research published in the March 3, 2009, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds that anger-induced electrical changes in the heart can predict future arrhythmias in patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs).

23 Feb 2009

FDA approves first ablation catheters for the treatment of atrial fibrillatio

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first ablation catheters for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (uncoordinated contractions of the upper heart chambers), one of the most common types of arrhythmias-or abnormal heart rhythms--affecting more than two million Americans.

8 Feb 2009

Rhythm abnormality of unknown origin strongly predicts sudden death risk in heart disease patients

Researchers conducting a large, ongoing study to improve detection and prevention of sudden cardiac death were surprised to discover that a specific heart rhythm abnormality – idiopathic QT interval prolongation – increased risk five-fold among patients with coronary artery disease.

2 Feb 2009

Pfizer joins URMC initiative for safety of experimental drugs

Pfizer Inc. has agreed to provide the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) with a unique set of electrocardiographic data that will help researchers develop new methods to ensure the safety of experimental drugs.

12 Jan 2009

ZOLL Medical cleared to market defibrillator with WiFi option

ZOLL Medical Corporation, a manufacturer of resuscitation devices and related software solutions, has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market and sell the ZOLL R Series Code-Ready clinical defibrillator with a WiFi option that allows wireless communication between the defibrillator and standard hospital networks to help ensure code-readiness and download patient data.

16 Dec 2008