Sorensen’s PFO Closure Saga; Long QT and Pregnancy Loss; Another LAA Occluder OK’d

The story of interventional cardiologist Sherman Sorensen, MD, and his numerous patent foramen ovale closures, fraudulent billing, and pending malpractice lawsuits. (The Atlantic)

A cardiologist in Australia caught with “deviant, distressing and disturbing” child porn is now looking at a reduced sentence of 12 months in prison. (ABC)

Singapore is offering one-time payments to people suffering serious side effects from COVID-19 vaccination. One such recipient was a 16-year-old boy who survived a cardiac arrest and got $166,000. (Bloomberg)

Several biomarkers together may be sufficient to discriminate between people with type 1 MI, type 2 MI, and myocardial injury. (Journal of the American College of Cardiology)

A new high-sensitivity troponin algorithm can help rule out non-ST-segment elevation MI (STEMI) for more people presenting with acute chest pain at emergency departments. (Circulation)

Type 1 long QT syndrome, attributed to a mutation in the KCNQ1 gene, may explain a woman’s recurrent pregnancy losses. (Journal of the American Heart Association)

Approximately one in six heart failure patients in the U.S. experienced missed or delayed medical care from 2004 to 2015, and money was often the root of the problem. (JACC: Heart Failure)

Stroke survivors showed better survival rates with 3-4 hours of walking per week. (Neurology)

Now, an alternative to the Watchman: FDA approved the Amplatzer Amulet for minimally-invasive left atrial appendage occlusion to prevent stroke in people with atrial fibrillation, Abbott announced.

The agency also cleared new software for Acutus Medical’s AcQMap 3D system for the mapping of complex atrial arrhythmias.

People with COVID-19 infections had more than double the risk of short-term mortality if they had a prior coronary artery bypass grafting surgery, according to a meta-analysis. (American Journal of Cardiology)

The proliferation of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has given rise to regional clusters of TAVR-capable hospitals with higher risk-adjusted mortality. (Journal of the American College of Cardiology)

For TAVR candidates with pre-existing right bundle branch block, selective prophylactic permanent pacemaker implants were associated with fewer cardiac rehospitalizations but no survival benefit. (Catheterization & Cardiovascular Interventions)

Did 2018’s media coverage of sartan recalls lead to biologically infeasible cancer signals in the FDA adverse event reporting system database? (Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes)

Over nearly 20 years in Denmark, increasing recognition of cardiac amyloidosis had been accompanied by improved survival, even before drugs for light chain amyloidosis entered the market (JACC: CardioOncology)

Unlike the COMPLETE trial, registry data suggest no benefit to multivessel versus culprit-only percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with STEMI. (Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions)

Introducing Mount Sinai’s app designed to make it easier for hospitals without cath labs to coordinate transfers for STEMI patients.

In the PARAGON-HF trial, sacubitril/valsartan (Entresto) was associated with blood pressure reductions in people who have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and resistant hypertension. (European Heart Journal)

People with an indication for a pacemaker found modest reductions in systolic blood pressure after getting the Moderator device implanted for cardiac neuromodulation therapy, a randomized pilot study showed. (Journal of the American Heart Association)

Choosing animal models of neointimal hyperplasia and restenosis: go with mouse, rat, rabbit, pig, dog, or chimpanzee in the lab? (JACC: Basic to Translational Science)