March 22, 2010 – The FDA’s Circulatory System Devices Panel last week unanimously recommended expanding the indication for cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds) to slow the progression of heart failure in patients with asymptomatic or mild heart failure (HF).

March 22, 2010 – An FDA committee voted unanimously in favor of approval with conditions of a new pacemaker that is safe for use in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems. MRI procedures are not recommended in the United States for patients who currently have implanted pacemakers.

March 19, 2010 – An experimental factor Xa inhibitor given to patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter and at least one risk factor for stroke, reduced the incidence of major and clinically relevant non-major (CRNM) bleeds compared to dose-adjusted warfarin.

March 18, 2010 — New data from two subanalyses of the Treating to New Targets (TNT) trial showed an increased dose of atorvastatin calcium (Lipitor), lowered cardiovascular events among high-risk patients with both coronary heart disease (CHD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) who were obese or had metabolic syndrome.

March 15, 2010 — Investigators reported the long-term follow-up of the largest randomized comparison between the two drug-eluting stents during the American College of Cardiology annual meeting this week in Atlanta.

March 15, 2010 — An FDA-pending 3D advanced visualization software package for cardiologists includes a broad array of cardiovascular-specific image analysis applications and boasts several workflow benefits over the use of third-party systems.