Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
New Hope For Patients With Severe Heart Failure: Tiny Clip Used To Repair Valve Reduces Death Rates, Readmissions
The New York Times: Tiny Device Is A ‘Huge Advance’ For Treatment Of Severe Heart Failure
Almost two million Americans have severe heart failure, and for them even mundane tasks can be extraordinarily difficult. With blood flow impeded throughout their bodies, patients may become breathless simply walking across a room or up stairs. Some must sleep sitting up to avoid gasping for air. Drugs may help to control the symptoms, but the disease takes a relentless course, and most people with severe heart failure do not have long to live. Until now, there has been little doctors can do. (Kolata, 9/23)
The Washington Post: A Hole In The Heart Can Go Unnoticed, Or Sometimes Lead To A Stroke
Everyone is born with a hole in the heart. During pregnancy, this hole allows blood to bypass the fetal lungs — which aren’t yet working — and deliver oxygen to the unborn baby’s heart and brain. The small opening, located between the left and right chambers, usually closes on its own within a few months after birth. But in about 1 in 4 babies, it never does. Most of those babies will be fine, and will live their lives not even knowing it. But for some, the defect can prove dangerous. (Cimons, 9/22)
Stat: Amarin Fish Oil Capsule Shows Dramatic Benefit For Cardiovascular Patients
The biopharma company Amarin is making some heart-medicine history Monday with its proprietary, prescription formulation of fish oil, called Vascepa. In a stunning clinical trial result that upends years of skepticism about the long-term heart benefit of products containing omega-3 fatty acids, Amarin’s Vascepa significantly reduced the risk of deaths, heart attacks, strokes and other serious cardiovascular events compared to a placebo. (Feuerstein, 9/24)
