CardioExchange Archive

CardioExchange, an NEJM practice community for medical professionals dedicated to improving cardiac patient care, was active from 2009 to 2015. CardioExchange fostered discussion between clinicians from across the globe.

March 17th, 2010

March Madness—In the Wake of ACC, Name the Head-to-Head Match-Ups You’d Like to See

If you work for the NIH, you’re not allowed to bet on your favorite NCAA basketball team. But here at CardioExchange, you can channel your enthusiasm into a different set of brackets.

The elegant simplicity of March Madness, despite the chaos, is that we get our questions answered: “Who’s better? Syracuse or Georgetown? UCLA or USC? Kansas or Kentucky?” Teams are ranked and placed in brackets, face-off over three weeks, and one team is left undefeated at the end of the Tournament. This year, the ides of March bring us not just to beginning of the NCAA’s March Madness Tournament, but also to the end of the ACC’s Scientific Session. There was no tournament at the ACC, but we did see the results of several interesting head-to-head comparisons:

  • Lenient vs. strict heart-rate control for A-Fib in RACE II
  • Ablation vs. anti-arrhythmic drug therapy for persistent A-Fib in CABANA
  • Sirolimus-eluting stents vs. zotarolimus-eluting stents for PCI in SORT OUT III
  • Dual-antiplatelet therapy with clopidrogrel and aspirin vs. aspirin monotherapy after DES placement for PCI from REAL-LATE and ZEST-LATE

This led me to wonder: What if we could set-up head-to-head, comparative-effectiveness research, tournament style? Which “games” would you be most interested in seeing?

Was the valsartan effect on diabetes incidence in NAVIGATOR substantial enough that you’d want to compare valsartan to any of the other ARBs for glucose intolerant hypertensive patients?
Do you want to see amiodarone and dronedarone compared head-to-head for maintenance of sinus rhythm for patients after cardioversion of A-Fib?

What head-to-head comparisons would best inform your clinical practice? Fill in your brackets!

Categories: General


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One Response to “March Madness—In the Wake of ACC, Name the Head-to-Head Match-Ups You’d Like to See”

  1. Dan Hackam, MD PhD says:
    March 18, 2010 at 4:46 pm

    1) high dose statin plus niacin versus high dose statin plus ezetimibe (will never see this)
    2) renin/aldo-profiling guided BP lowering vs JNCV 7/8 guided BP lowering