CardioExchange Archive

. . . or almost. Here are some abstract and session titles that have caught my eye so far:

Nightmares in the Cath Lab. A session where fellows presented cases gone wrong. I missed this one and sorry I did. Wonder if TCT had anything similar.

My Most Challenging Cases: Shock and Awe in the Interventional Suite. Along the same theme — and with presentation titles like Coronary Disaster, Peripheral Disaster, and Structural Disaster — you can only imagine what these talks will be like. I think this shows that despite our reputations, we cardiologists can still be very much humbled by patients, disease, and events.

Future of ACS Care: More Drugs or Less Bleeding. You can guess which side this presenter is on.

Exercise Training Fails to Reduce Blood Pressure in Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Trial. In the midst of publication bias toward positive results, this one stands out. The idea is that diabetes stiffens the arteries beyond what conventional antihypertensive therapies can reverse. Probably should have been accepted as an oral instead of a poster. Hope to see this one in print soon.

A Choice Architecture Intervention Improved Healthy Food and Beverage Choices in a Large Hospital Cafeteria. Lesson: Put unhealthy food in hard-to-reach places. I should implement this in my own kitchen — and we could advise patients to do the same.

Power and Suicide: The Might of Mitochondria in the Heart. Not to be outdone, basic scientists can also come up with punchy titles for their sessions. While I’m not qualified to say much about the research, the number of abstracts on mitochondria makes it look like a burgeoning field.

Some Like It Cool — Seasonal Temperature, As Well As Clinical and Demographic Factors, Predicts Compliance with the Wearable Cardioverter-Defibrillator. Enough said.

Upright T Waves in Lead aVR are Associated with Cardiac Death or Hospitalization for Heart Failure in Prior Myocardial Infarction. Yet another reason not to overlook aVR on the ECG.

Increased Blood Pressure Variability During Early Bereavement. Unfortunately, no surprise.

The Remote Monitoring of Unexplained Syncope in the Elderly. In this small RCT, use of an implantable loop recorder, especially in combination with a syncope clinic evaluation, improved diagnostic yield. I’m guessing we’ll see more research in this area in coming years and, with the aging of the population, there will definitely be a need for it.

Incidence of Amiodarone Hypersensivity Reaction in Hospitalized Patients with Prior Allergic Reaction to Iodine or Iodinated Contrast. Guess what, it’s actually less than 1%. Nice pearl.

Effect of Dietary Intake of Kiwi Fruit on 24-Hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure. Reportedly, 3 kiwis a day lowers BP more than an apple a day, potentially due to high concentrations of lutein (an antioxidant). Anyone who can stick to eating 3 kiwis a day for 8 weeks likely has the discipline to do a lot of things. On this one, New Zealanders will obviously have a head start.

Did other presentations (and their titles) stand out for you at this AHA? I’m sure many more pearls, lessons, and interesting tidbits are out there.