American Heart Association

Shares of ATS Medical Inc. climbed Monday after the company announced that it received approval to distribute its sutureless aortic heart valve in the European Union. The Minneapolis company said its ATS 3f Enable Aortic Bioprosthesis is the first surgical aortic valve replacement approved for use that is implanted without suturing. The valve includes a self-expanding frame that holds it in "optimal position," the company said in a statement. "This valve is an important step toward the goal... Read Full Story

According to reports, about 150 million Americans spend more than half of their waking hours at work. So don’t you think it’s wise to keep an AEDs where you spend the majority of your day. A sudden cardiac arrest can occur anytime without any pronounced symptoms. It occurs due to a condition called as ventricular defibrillation which causes the heart to beat in an erratic manner and this makes the heart pump blood ineffectively and to suddenly stop. The person loses consciousness and... Read Full Story

Advanced life support (ALS) implies that an emergency medical technician (EMT) is capable of performing advanced life support skills as either an EMT-A (Advanced), EMT-I (Intermediate) or an EMT-P (Paramedic), commonly referred to simply as a paramedic or medic. Canadian paramedics may be certified in either ALS or in only basic life support (Wikipedia). Advanced Life Support is emergency medical care for sustaining life, including defibrillation, airway management, and drugs and medications... Read Full Story

Chances of surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest have practically remained unchanged since the 1950s, according to a new report. The analysis by University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) shows only 7.6 percent of victims survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. It's a dismal trend considering enormous spending on heart research, new emergency care protocols, and the advent of new drugs and devices. Each year, 166,000 people in the US experience cardiac arrest -- an... Read Full Story

NORMAL ANATOMY There are four valves in the heart: aortic valve, mitral valve, tricuspid valve, and pulmonary valve. The valves are designed to control the direction of blood flow through the heart. The opening and closing of the heart valves produce the heart-beat sounds. INDICATION Heart valve replacement may be recommended for: narrowing of the heart valve (stenosis) leaking of the heart valve Valve problems may be caused by infections (rheumatic fever) or birth defects and may cause... Read Full Story

You make time to take your kids to the doctor for their checkups. You make sure they learn to swim. You take them to soccer, ballet, art and music classes. You care that they grow up to be well-rounded and well-adjusted. But what about protecting your kids in the case of an emergency? There’s one thing you may not have thought to put on your to-do list: getting summer-ready by getting CPR trained. If you and your family plan to spend more time around the pool , lake or beach like my family... Read Full Story

I asked my husband what is defibrillator is and he explained it to me and I have an understanding for it now and he said to me that AED or Automated External Defibrillator used when someone has a heart attack or someone who do not have a heartbeat and I told him, I saw it like that in TV when there is an emergency. I am glad that I learned what is that called, learning new things which is a good thing. Just in case you're searching a site that offer the newest and the most reliable AEDs... Read Full Story

Not one or two but 325,000 people die each year in the United States due to Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). However, when CPR - Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is provided immediately after the attack it can double a sufferers chance of survival. But administering CPR, unlike a pharma drug , is easier said than done, here's why? When in a study, thirty-eight doctors and nurses of both genders were evaluated for their ability to perform manual CPR, a considerable loss in their ability to provide... Read Full Story

U.S. Congress has decided that October as National Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month (Reuter, Pittsburgh October 1, 2008). This determination is made not without reason, because cardiac arrest is the number one cause of death in American society. Cardiac arrest mortality rate higher than the combined numbers of breast cancer, lung cancer, and HIV / AIDS death (The American Heart Association - 2008). Wise man said, ‘The disease came suddenly and the recovery took a long time’. But, in fact... Read Full Story

The Pediatric cardiac team at Wockhardt Hospitals has written a new chapter in the history of Pediatric Heart Surgery in India. An 11 month old baby girl from Orissa has become a rare case to be successfully operated for Congenitally Corrected Transposition of Great Arteries (CCTGA) which occurs in less than 1% of children born with heart defects. The Pediatric cardiac team at Wockhardt Hospitals led by Dr. Devananda, Consultant Cardiac Surgeon successfully completed this six hour surgery on... Read Full Story