October 8, 2010 – New data from the HORIZONS-AMI trial shows that administering the anticoagulant bivalirudin (Angiomax) enhances survival in heart attack patients undergoing angioplasty after three years. The results were presented at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) 2010 symposium in Washington, D.C.

October 7, 2010 – The Superior Court of Massachusetts has ruled against LightLab Imaging in the company’s optical coherence tomography (OCT) trade secret case against Volcano and its wholly owned subsidiary, Axsun Technologies. LightLab Imaging is a wholly owned subsidiary of St. Jude Medical.

October 7, 2010 - Taking medication at night instead of in the morning significantly increases efficacy in keeping blood pressure within a healthy range, according to a new study in Chronobiology International. Additionally, taking medication at night offers extra protection against heart attacks, strokes and other types of cardiovascular diseases.

October 6, 2010 – Physicians have prescribed more than 30,000 wearable defibrillator vests for patients at high risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). The LifeVest Wearable Defibrillator, by Zoll Medical, gives a physician time to assess the patient’s long-term arrhythmic risk and make appropriate plans.

October 5, 2010 - The 37th annual VEITHsymposium, for vascular disease specialists, will be held Nov. 17 – 21 at the Hilton New York. The five-day event will feature more than 450 rapid-fire presentations from world-renowned vascular specialists with emphasis on the latest advances, changing concepts in diagnosis and management, pressing controversies, and new techniques.

October 5, 2010 – Data from a prospective study show physicians may benefit from knowing complication rates associated with pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) generator replacement and upgrade procedures. Results from the REPLACE Registry also established new benchmarks for making electrophysiology (EP) device replacement decisions.

October 5, 2010 – After a period of capital budget cuts and freezes, hospitals are seeing a thaw in capital expenditures, according to a survey published in the Premier healthcare alliance’s September 2010 Economic Outlook analysis.