Allina News

[Grand Rapids-Herald Review, August 21] In May 2010, Grand Rapids resident John Webster was about to die, by all reasonable suspicion. He has a history of heart-related issues, including a heart attack in 2005 at which time he had a stent put in. With rapidly declining health, Webster at 67 years old was quickly losing [...]

[WHYY Radio, August 27, 2010] The death of a standout Philadelphia high school basketball player has renewed the debate about how to detect heart trouble in competitive athletes. In an interview about this issue, a pediatric cardiologist cites Barry Maron, MD, Minneapolis Heart Institute® at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. Maron leads a national registry that tracks [...]

[Heart Matters, ReachMD XM Radio] Takotsubo, or stress-induced cardiomyopathy (also known as ‘broken heart syndrome’), was first recognized in Japan in the 1990s. Acute emotional or physical stress trigger the condition, which mimics the symptoms of a myocardial infarction (or MI). How can physicians differentiate between stress-induced cardiomyopathy and a more conventional MI, and how [...]

[CardiovascularBusiness, July 26, 2010] In-hospital mortality rates for patients diagnosed with aortic dissection are high at 26 percent, according to a study published in this month’s Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. Implementing quality improvement protocols and a multidisciplinary approach to treat this condition can result in a 43 percent reduction in mortality and improve delays [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, July 21, 2010] Former Vice President Dick Cheney is recuperating after doctors installed a mechanical heart pump that supplements the amount of blood being pumped through the body. The device is being given to a growing number of people with heart failure so severe that they would most likely die without it. [...]

[WCCO-TV, July 21, 2010] Allina’s Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis is the site of trials for a new kind of heart pump that holds promise for the estimated five million Americans suffering from heart failure. The DuraHeart is a left ventricular assist system made by Terumo Heart, Inc. WCCO’s Dennis Douda [...]

[Star Tribune, July 19, 2010] Jim Meis, 60, didn’t die that day. About an hour after he collapsed at his home in Monticello, he was landing on the helipad at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, pumped full of drugs and with a breathing tube down his throat. Meis’ survival that harrowing night is the story of [...]

[Fox 9 News, June 3, 2010] For the past 10 years, John Riebel suffered from a burning sensation in his throat. He even went to a doctor about it. Recently, he attended an educational conference on heart attacks. That very same night he woke up at 3 a.m. Remembering the conference, he drove to the [...]

[West Sherburne Tribune, June 3, 2010] John Riebel is grateful to be alive. The busy county commissioner and Becker True Value Hardware business owner suffered a heart attack in February, the same evening he attended a heart education class at New River Medical Center. Attending the class by himself, Riebel listened as Dr. Kevin Graham [...]

[Heartwire, May 25, 2010] Researchers at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern are excited about a small study known as the Steroid after Ablation (SAAB) trial, lead by Dr. Daniel Melby, a cardiologist with the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern. Interim results showed that steroid therapy following the ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) resulted in a [...]

[Star Tribune, May 15, 2010] As the weeks passed this spring, Anna Linck’s heart condition grew progressively worse, and death closed in. The 24-year-old Long Lake woman needed a new heart—and fast. Just down the hall at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, 30-year-old Keilee-Rae Miller, a Richfield resident, was on the list for a new heart, too. [...]

[KSTP-TV, April 28, 2010] Four weeks to the day after Minneapolis Heart Institute cardiac surgeons at Allina’s Abbott Northwestern Hospital transplanted a new heart for her, Keilee Miller was on KSTP urging people to register to be organ donors. KSTP anchor Megan Newquist interviewed Miller and surgeon Nader Moazami, a member of Miller’s transplant team, [...]

[Newswise, April 26. 2010] Who: The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Mayo Clinic, and University of Minnesota are convening The Women and Heart Disease Summit in Minneapolis. Minnesota First Lady Mary Pawlenty is the honorary chair person; and co-chair people are Elizabeth Zane Grey, M.D., Sharonne Hayes, M.D., and [...]

[Medical News Today, April 24, 2010] A 3-year, retrospective study determined that 28.8% of patients with significant coronary artery disease (CAD) who did not undergo complete revascularization had a higher mortality rate than patients completely revascularized. The research team led by Timothy Henry, MD, reviewed angiographs and clinical data from 493 patients treated at the [...]

[Star Tribune, April 20, 2010] Two Minneapolis doctors who were the first to speak out about a potentially deadly defect in a popular model of heart defibrillator made by the Guidant division of Boston Scientific Corp. have asked a federal judge to reject a $296 million plea agreement that would settle the case. In an [...]

[MedPage Today, April 13, 2010] Lack of insurance and financial concerns keep patients from treating a heart attack like the emergency it is, researchers affirmed. More than two in every five heart attack patients in the study fit into these two groups, they wrote in the April 14 issue of the Journal of the American [...]

[Fox 9 News, April 13, 2010] A man, who slipped into a coma after his heart stopped, woke up five days later. This winter, at 48 years old, Bill Dunbar was suffered from pneumonia. Late at night, his wife, Marilyn, woke him up gasping for air. The nurse who just happened to get her CPR [...]

[Book of Odds, April 6, 2010] It’s a timeworn theme, dying of a broken heart. The poet of the Psalms recognized that “by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken” (Psalms 15:13). In Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, a broken heart takes Enobarbus. Reports of dying of a broken heart have appeared in recent news, [...]

[MedPage Today, April 6, 2010] Most triathlon participants who drop dead during the competition do so in the water, researchers said. Investigation of 14 sudden deaths among triathletes from 2006 to 2008 showed that all but one occurred during the swimming portion, reported Kevin M. Harris, MD, of the Minneapolis Heart Institute of Abbott Northwestern [...]

[Pioneer Press, March 30, 2010] Heart doctors are cheering news that Fridley-based Medtronic is moving closer to marketing the first MRI-compatible pacemaker in the U.S. “I think it’s an advantage for Medtronic,” said Dr. Robert Hauser, a cardiologist at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. “(But) there are multiple factors that physicians must weigh in selecting [...]

[Star Tribune, March 26, 2010] Legend has it that Philippides, a Greek messenger, inspired the first marathon when he ran 26 miles from the city of that name to Athens to report the outcome of a battle. As he reached the marketplace, he reportedly gasped, “We have won,” and dropped dead. To Dr. Robert Schwartz, [...]

[heartwire, March 23, 2010] Long-term marathon training and racing might not be as good for the heart as some runners think, a new study suggests. Researchers have shown that long-term marathon runners, those who have completed at least 25 marathons over the past 25 years, have increased coronary calcium and calcified plaque volume. Presenting the results [...]

[Minnesota Public Radio, March 16, 2010] Heart device manufacturer Boston Scientific’s financial struggles have been exascerbated by news this week that shipments of its implantable cardioverter defibrillators, or ICDs, have been halted for failure to get approval of manufacturing changes on the devices. As word of Boston Scientific’s news circulated, it did not appear to [...]

[Cardiovascular Business, Mar. 11, 2010] Slightly more than one-third of patients without known disease, who underwent elective cardiac catheterization, had obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) out of nearly 400,000 patients at 663 sites, based on study findings published March 11 in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, in an interview, Timothy D. Henry, MD, [...]

[St. Paul Pioneer Press, Mar. 11, 2010] It’s parents’ worst nightmare — watching children collapse from ill-timed baseballs or pucks that strike their chests and shut down their hearts. Since this phenomenon was identified 15 years ago, a Minneapolis registry has collected information on 224 U.S. cases — most of which resulted in the deaths [...]