Cardiothoracic
From the Journals
‘Stunning variation’ in CV test, procedure costs revealed at top U.S. hospitals
Should an echocardiogram cost $200 or $2,500? Such costs varied more than tenfold in some cases, not only among hospitals but also at individual...
Feature
Pig heart transplants and the ethical challenges that lie ahead
Keeping a deceased recipient in a brain-dead state is part of xenotransplantation research, but experts debate the question: For how long, and...
Latest News
Transplanted pig hearts functioned normally in deceased persons on ventilator support
The experimental procedure could enable future widespread use of xenotransplantation to treat end-stage heart failure.
From the Journals
Heart attack care not equal for women and people of color
Over time, even with improvements across the board in care, women and people of color wait longer for treatment of myocardial infarction than...
From the Journals
Early cardiac rehab as effective as later start after sternotomy
Cardiac rehabilitation can start 2 weeks after sternotomy rather than waiting the usual 6 weeks, a randomized noninferiority trial suggests.
From the Journals
Pig-heart transplant case published with new details, insights
For example, heart injury at autopsy didn’t resemble standard graft rejection in humans or other primates, researchers said, nor did viral...
FDA/CDC
Class I recall for Medtronic’s HeartWare HVAD batteries
Welding defects could cause separation of the two cell battery packs used to power the system, leading to power failure; one death has been...
From the Journals
Add AFib to noncardiac surgery risk evaluation: New support
Preexisting atrial fibrillation should again be part of pre–noncardiac surgery cardiac risk assessment, argues a new report.
Feature
Cause of death in pig heart recipient: New clues
New details on efforts to identify the mechanism of David Bennett’s death tentatively rule out a few possible suspects that had been at the top of...
Conference Coverage
Harmony pulmonary valve update: Regurgitation resolved 1 year out
The Harmony transcatheter pulmonary valve has been shown to largely resolve severe pulmonary regurgitation without endocarditis after a year.
Feature
Data concerns mount despite ISCHEMIA substudy correction
A second correction is forthcoming, and cardiac surgeons are calling for full disclosure of the trial’s coronary artery disease severity data for...