CardioExchange Archive

Liraglutide Approved: Late Monday, the FDA announced that it had approved liraglutide (Victoza, Novo Nordisk) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, but not for initial therapy. The label contains a black-box warning about thyroid cancers.

Catheter Ablation of AF: Results of the industry-funded ThermoCool AF Trial were published in JAMA. Trial investigators randomized 167 patients with paroxysmal AF unresponsive to 1 or more drugs to either catheter ablation or drug therapy. “Catheter ablation provided significantly better rhythm control and improved [quality of life] with a favorable safety profile. These findings argue for early use of catheter ablation therapy in patients with paroxysmal AF unresponsive to initial attempts with pharmacologic control,” the authors concluded.

3-D Cath Lab Images: A feasibility study in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions examined the first use in humans of a new system that automatically generates computer-reconstructed 3-D images in the cath lab using rotational angiography and ECG-gated iterative reconstruction.