With use of cardiac implantable electronic devices on the rise, experts stress device selection, prophylactic antibiotics, pre-procedural protocols and post-implementation vigilance.

Hypertensive patients who had periventricular white matter abnormalities progress from one brain scan to the next showed a six-fold increased risk of mild cognitive impairment, researchers reported Jan. 4 in Hypertension.

Compared to drug therapy alone, catheter ablation nearly halved the risk of death and improved a range of clinical outcomes for patients with both heart failure and atrial fibrillation (AFib) in a meta-analysis.

About one-quarter of adults in the world will experience a stroke in their lifetime, according to new estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study published online Dec. 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The Mediterranean diet nudged the DASH diet out of the top spot for the best overall diet of 2019 in rankings released Jan. 2 by U.S. News and World Report. Those two approaches shared the No. 1 billing last year.

Three more executives resigned from Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, in the continued fallout from an investigation by the Tampa Bay Times that revealed mortality rates tripled over just a few years in the pediatric heart surgery unit.

About 1 in 6 patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AFib) who are considered at low risk of stroke advance to a higher risk category within one year, according to a registry study published in the Jan. 1 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

The Sapien 3 Ultra heart valve has received FDA approval for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in patients with severe, symptomatic aortic stenosis who are considered to be at intermediate or high risk of open-heart surgery, device manufacturer Edwards Lifesciences announced on Dec. 28.