Health - Heart latest news

The Arrhythmia Alliance is proud to announce that entries for the Arrhythmia Alliance Excellence in Practice awards 2008 are now open. These prestigious awards aim to recognise outstanding achievements and contributions to arrhythmia management services. The three finalists of each category will be invited to attend a prestigious awards ceremony, which will be held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole, on the evening of Tuesday 21st October 2008.

Amiodarone is the most powerful antiarrhythmic drug ever developed - but it is also the most toxic. DrRich describes this unique drug - its benefits, the risks, and how...

AstraZeneca welcomes the recommendations by the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on the treatment of Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) 1, a genetic condition resulting in high cholesterol levels. As part of its comprehensive review on the identification and management of people with FH, NICE has recommended that adults with the condition be treated with high intensity statins in order to reduce LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels by 50%.

Stereotaxis, Inc. (Nasdaq: STXS), announced that it has received regulatory clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its magnetically tipped, PowerAssert(TM) radiofrequency (RF) guidewire to cross chronic total occlusions in the peripheral vasculature.

Intervention Triage strategY study, published in the September 2, 2008 issue of the Journal of American College of Cardiology, shows that Angiomax® (bivalirudin) monotherapy provides moderate- and high-risk (unstable angina (UA)/non - ST elevation myocardial infarction) acute coronary

The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (http://www.asnc.org) will be pleased to host its Annual Scientific Session from September 10 - 14, 2008 in Boston, MA. Imaging specialists from around the globe will gather at ASNC2008 to discuss the meeting's theme -- "Imaging for Primary and Secondary Prevention: Improving the Detection Gap.

BIOTRONIK announced the enrollment of the first patient into the EchoCRT (Echocardiography guided Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy) study. Drs William T. Abraham and Ralph Augostini at The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, USA, enrolled and implanted the Lumax HF-T CRT-D device in the first patients in EchoCRT.

Scientists at the National cancer Institute in the US say more research is needed into the effects of low-dose radiation on cardiovascular risk, an area that remains controversial and about which there is too much uncertainty to give reliable estimates of numbers affected, compared to the well documented risks of cancer from radiation exposure.

An international study, led by the University of Edinburgh, raises concerns that some patients may not be receiving the optimum medical treatment and follow-up care because doctors are misjudging the risk of a further heart attack. Researchers looked at data taken from the Global Registry of Coronary Events that included more than 46,000 heart attack patients from 115 hospitals in 14 countries.

The Endocrine Society has released a new clinical practice guideline for the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with primary aldosteronism. The guidelines appear in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), a publication of The Endocrine Society. Primary aldosteronism (PA) refers to conditions in which production of aldosterone, a steroid hormone produced in the adrenal gland, is inappropriately high.