News tips for Monday, Nov...( To complement our news releases here a...),Health

To complement our news releases, here are additional news tips reported by The American Heart Association's News Media Relations from more than 3,700 abstracts. Note: Stories are embargoed until papers are presented or poster sessions begin. Times are indicated with each entry; however, all embargoes will lift by 4 p.m. EST each day.

9 a.m. Abstract #1788 Do women with implantable defibrillators have fewer arrhythmias than men? In population studies, women with coronary artery disease (CAD) have a lower rate of sudden cardiac death (SCD) than men with CAD. Researchers wondered if female CAD patients with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) also have fewer arrhythmias ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation (VT/VF). Comparing data on 59 women and 340 men, they found that sustained VT/VF occurred in 52 percent of men and 34 percent of women. Men also had more shocks from ICDs. "Gender independently predicted VT/VF endpoints after adjustment for clinical factors," reported the scientists, who found that women were less likely to experience VT/VF than men. "This study suggests that differing susceptibility to arrhythmia may underlie the known differences in SCD rates between men and women," they concluded. Also see Abstract #1807 (Monday, 9:15 a.m.) for a report showing that women undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery have "significantly lower" death rates and fewer complications when the operation is performed "off-pump."

9:30 a.m. Abstract #1808 Robotic assisted coronary bypass: good as conventional surgery. Initial results are in from the first U.S.-approved prospective multi-center trial of "robotic assisted endoscopic coronary anastomosis" a minimally invasive closed-chest technique using robotic technology to perform micro-vascular coronary bypass surgical tasks. Twenty-four patients were randomized into either conventional or robotic assisted surgery. After one patient was excluded, 13 had standard open-c
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Contact: Carole Bullock
carole.bullock@heart.org
214-706-1279
American Heart Association
10-Nov-2003

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1. News tips for Monday, November 8, 2004