Cardiology

St. John's Mercy Heart and Vascular Hospital in St. Louis recently started a cardiology hospitalist program to increase focus on care for hospitalized heart patients, according to a St. Louis Today report.

The Brain Attack Coalition has updated recommendations for primary stroke centers, which the coalition believes should be the central point for stroke treatment, according to a National Institutes of Health news release.

Comprehensive stroke centers can decrease the "weekend effect," in which stroke patients admitted on weekends have a higher risk of death, according to a study published in Stroke.

Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville has opened a new chest pain emergency room, according to a hospital news release.

St. John's Mercy Hospital in Washington, Mo., is extending its catheterization laboratory hours to 24 hours a day starting Sept. 6, according to a Missourian report.

Chandler (Ariz.) Regional Medical Center plans to open its $9.9 million expansion of its cardiac catheterization laboratory on Sept. 6, according to an East Valley Tribune report.

A new heart scan is faster and has lower radiation exposure than MRI and invasive angiography, according to a study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging.

Door-to-balloon time at hospitals decreased from a median of 96 minutes in 2005 to a median of 64 minutes in 2010, according to a study published in Circulation.

Researchers suggest patients with heart devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators, face twice the risk of infection compared to the 1990s, according to U.S. News and World Report.

PET imaging can detect the pathogen that causes acute endocarditis, according to a study published in Nature Medicine.