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Study Highlights: Older people may benefit from implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) as much as younger people. Overall health, not age alone, should determine how well people will do after receiving an ICD.

Today’s Supreme Court decision on gene patents is a win for Americans with heart disease and stroke,” said Dr. Gordon Tomaselli, chief of cardiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and past president of the American Heart Association.

Representative Lois Capps (D-Calif.) today introduced the Teaching Children to Save Lives Act of 2013. If passed, this legislation would authorize the Secretary of Education to award grants to local educational agencies and schools to implement nationally recognized cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) training courses. The legislation also requires the Secretary of Education to report back to Congress within the first year on grant amounts and recipients, the use of the program funds, and the impact of the funds.

Study Highlights: Opening clogged heart arteries via the radial artery in the wrist is becoming more common. The wrist route may have fewer complications than the traditional route through the femoral artery in the groin. Use of the procedure increased 13-fold in a six-year period.

DALLAS, June 6, 2013 – After two days of hearings, an advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted to ease existing restrictions for the diabetes drug rosiglitazone (brand name, Avandia).

Study Highlights: Making small lifestyle changes could reduce your stroke risk. Every one-point increase toward a better health score was associated with an 8 percent lower stroke risk. A better health score was associated with a similar reduction in s stroke risk in blacks and whites.

WASHINGTON (June 5, 2013) — The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association today released an expanded clinical practice guideline for the management of patients with heart failure, updating definitions and classifications for heart failure, and increasing emphasis on patient-centric outcomes such as quality of life, shared decision making, care coordination, transitions, and palliative care.