CardioExchange Archive

Diabetics in SYNTAX: The one-year results of the subset of diabetic patients enrolled in the SYNTAX trial, the ongoing trial comparing PCI to CABG in patients with left main or multivessel disease for five years, were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Although the investigators found an increase in revascularizations in the PCI arm, there were no significant differences in the safety endpoint of death, stroke, or MI. In an accompanying editorial, Harold Dauerman asks whether drug-eluting stents have “removed the ‘death penalty’ associated with diabetes and multivessel PCI?”

Obesity in the USA: The good news is that the rate of increase for obesity in the US appears to be stabilizing. The bad news, of course, is that the overall prevalence of obesity remains high: in 2007-2008 it was 33.8%. The new findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were published online today in JAMA. J Michael Gaziano, in an accompanying editorial, calls for ” a massive public health campaign to raise awareness about the effects of overweight and obesity.” Another NHANES study reports on trends in children and adolescents.