Cardiovascular Risk Report: New Metabolic Syndrome Score Tracks Risk Over Time

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Cost-reducing guidelines like the ACC's guidelines concerning cardiac imaging from 2012 require better profiling of what makes patients high risk for cardiovascular disease - especially when they make caveats based on "high-risk markers."

Are all high-risk markers known? What's on the horizon in markers for cardiovascular disease?

We've already discussed two new high-risk markers - a factor known as "stem cell factor" that's as predictive as cholesterol levels and a gene that interacts negatively with estrogen in women.

Here's another recent case of researchers building a better preventative mousetrap - a new test can measure the severity of metabolic syndrome and thus track and predict cardiovascular disease risk over time - from youth.

new test for teens tracks risk

Continue reading Cardiovascular Risk Report: New Metabolic Syndrome Score Tracks Risk Over Time

A Clinical Ladder in the Procedural Setting

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Are you climbing the clinical ladder?

Often in clinical settings, there are limited opportunities for upward mobility. In fact, the clinical "ladder" in your organization might be a single position---Team Leader---or you might not be climbing at all.

Continue reading A Clinical Ladder in the Procedural Setting

RMH Cardiac Team Works with Local EMS to Improve STEMI Calls

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

imageIn 2015, Sentara Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg, Virginia earned the American College of Cardiology's ACTION Registry®-GWTG™ Platinum Award for the second consecutive year for providing superior care to high-risk STEMI patients.

Sentara RMH was also recently awarded the American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline® Silver Award for STEMI.

An important quality consideration in the ACTION Registry, door-to-balloon time sets Sentara RMH and its cardiac team apart.

In a recent interview, cardiac operations manager Linwood Williams reported that Sentara RMH's average door-to-balloon time is 46 minutes compared to the national average of 59.2.

We reached out to Williams, an active Alliance of Cardiovascular Professionals member, to profile his excellent cardiac team and ask the question---how did they improve STEMI?

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Simple Test After Heart Attack Predicts Heart Failure

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

heartattackThe University of Glasgow presented research at the British Cardiovascular Society's annual conference, yesterday that proves a pressure- and temperature-sensitive wire inserted into a coronary artery after a heart attack can predict heart failure.

The standard assessment, a coronary angiogram, "can only identify narrowed vessels and cannot tell the doctor if, or how much, heart blood vessel damage has occurred," writes Medical News Today. Using the wire, the level of damage to arteries after a heart attack can be assessed in minutes -- a key indicator of high risk for heart failure.

The new assessment could lead to quicker treatment of patients at greatest risk for heart failure and improve outcomes.