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Patients are more likely to see a consultant on admission to hospital, due to the increase in numbers of consultants in acute medicine, according to the annual consultant census from the Federation of the Royal College of Physicians of the UK*.

Viron Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company* which is developing immune-modulating protein therapeutics derived from pathogens, has recently reported encouraging results from a Phase IIa clinical trial evaluating VT-111 (Serp-1), an anti-inflammatory protein derived from the myxoma virus, in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients.

Dr Mary Sheppard, Consultant Cardiac Pathologisat at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, reviews a recently published book on, Sudden cardiac death.

The use of implantable devices for the treatment of heart failure increased “enormously” in Europe between the years 2004 and 2008, but there still remain large differences between countries, according to a study reported recently in the European Journal of Heart Failure (1). The findings suggest that there is an underuse of devices in many of the 15 countries surveyed (2).

All patients with diabetes should monitor their blood pressure and lipid levels to lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) recommends.

Haemodialysis patients are at increased risk of sudden death for many reasons. This important topic was reviewed by Dr Paul R Roberts, Consultant cardiologist and electrophysiologist, Southampton University Hospital, at a recent meeting of the Cardiorenal Forum. The author briefly reviews the data here also.

BMI and waist circumference explain one half of all fatal and one quarter of all non-fatal cardiovascular disease in those overweight and obese according to a recent ten-year follow-up study.

Sanofi-aventis has announced today that the European Commission has granted marketing authorization for Multaq® (dronedarone – 400mg Tablets) in all 27 European member states. The compound will be the first antiarrhythmic drug to be approved in the EU in the last ten years. This approval follows the European Commission positive opinion issued on September 25, 2009 by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicine agency (EMEA).

Over one thousand delegates attended this year’s Heart Rhythm Congress (HRC) in Birmingham. This report highlights some of the key elements of the meeting from the perspective of Dr Andy Hogarth (Pictured) a first time delegate and trainee in electrophysiology and devices.

The CPR Improvement Working Group, formed to help improve cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skill performance, has recently announced the results of the first ever multinational attitudinal survey concerning the performance of CPR by healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses and paramedics.