In Global News: Lowering the Maximum Nicotine in Cigarettes, iPS Cells for Heart Failure, and Anticoagulants and CKD

Patient Care

Some Syrian refugee children have received surgery for congenital heart defects in Jordan, however many refugees in need of complex medical care are unable to receive such care.

A hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is working to increase the rate of patient referral for cardiac rehab after surgery.

Several Rwandan heart patients will receive surgical treatment as part of a free surgery camp at King Faisal Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda, an initiative sponsored by the Rwandan Ministry of Health, King Faisal Hospital, and the non-profit organization Team Heart.

Drugs and Devices

The US Food and Drug Administration took the first formal step toward a major policy change that would reduce the amount of nicotine allowed in cigarettes.

The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency announced plans to review anticoagulant usage after a study published in the BMJ suggested increased risk for atrial fibrillation patients with chronic kidney disease.

Research, Trials, and Funding

Japanese researchers have received approval from Osaka University to test the ability of iPS cell-derived sheets of cardiac muscle to treat ischemic cardiomyopathy. The team must now gain approval from the Japanese Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry.

Researchers from the US and Canada find that COPD patients selected for lung transplant have better survival than one would expect based on their BODE score, potentially because the transplant qualification process reduces comorbid conditions that are unrelated to lung function in this group of patients.

Early studies on wearable devices for atrial fibrillation screening were presented at the recent meeting of the American College of Cardiology, but the findings don’t yet address whether the increased screening results in improved patient outcomes.