CardioExchange Archive

June 3rd, 2010

• CANOE Paddles Into the Avandia Storm
• Ticagrelor NDA Scheduled for July FDA Panel

Larry Husten, PHD

CANOE Paddles Into the Avandia Storm: Rosiglitazone is effective in preventing progression to diabetes, but very public concerns have been raised about its cardiovascular safety. Investigators in Canada sought to assess the efficacy of a low-dose regimen, in the hopes that adverse effects would be reduced. The CANOE (CAnadian Normoglycemia Outcomes Evaluation) trial randomized 207 patients with […]

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June 2nd, 2010

• Heart Failure Monitoring Finds a CHAMPION
• Oxygen After Cardiac Arrest: More May Not Be Better

Larry Husten, PHD

Heart Failure Monitoring Finds a CHAMPION: Results of the phase III CHAMPION (CardioMEMS Heart Sensor Allows Monitoring of Pressure to Improve Outcomes in NYHA Class III Heart Failure Patients) Trial were presented by William Abraham at the Heart Failure Congress 2010 earlier this week in Berlin, Germany. Some 550 NYHA Class III HF patients were randomized to […]

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June 1st, 2010

• Shorter Hospital Stays Not Necessarily Better
• Shorter Delays to Reperfusion Are Better
• Better Use of Bleeding Avoidance Strategies in PCI

Larry Husten, PHD

Shorter Hospital Stays Not Necessarily Better: Shorter hospital stays for heart failure patients have resulted in fewer deaths in the hospital, but at the cost of more readmissions, leading researchers to speculate that “because length of stay has substantially decreased, improvement is less than what might be suggested by in-hospital mortality.” Writing in JAMA, Hector […]

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May 28th, 2010

• Enrollment in Eplerenone Trial Stopped Early
• Aspirin Recommended for Primary Prevention in High-Risk Diabetics
• TCD Stratifies Risk in Asymptomatic C

Larry Husten, PHD

Enrollment in Eplerenone Trial Stopped Early: The Data Safety Monitoring Committee has ended enrollment in the EMPHASIS-HF trial after determining that the trial had met its primary efficacy endpoint. According to a press release issued by Pfizer, the trial was testing eplerenone versus placebo in patients with established mild-to-moderate heart failure who were also at […]

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May 26th, 2010

• Endarterectomy or Stenting?
• Growing FAME at 2 Years

Larry Husten, PHD

Endarterectomy or Stenting? The results of the Carotid Revascularization Endarterectomy Versus Stenting Trial (CREST), which compared carotid endarterectomy to carotid stenting in 2,502 patients at centers in the U.S. and Canada, have now been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The CREST investigators report that the 30-day rate of stroke, death, and MI […]

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May 25th, 2010

• Hypertension — Good News and Bad
• Breaking Press Releases from EuroPCR

Larry Husten, PHD

Hypertension — Good News and Bad: New results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), published in JAMA, show that although hypertension control improved dramatically from1988-1994 to 2007-2008 (from 27.3%  to 50.1%), the overall rate of hypertension increased (from 23.9% to 28.5% ) over the same period. Of note, hypertension control was lower in […]

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May 24th, 2010

• Beta-Blockers May Benefit COPD Patients
• Evaluation of ALLHAT ‘Academic Detailing’

Larry Husten, PHD

Beta-Blockers May Benefit COPD Patients: Although many physicians prefer not to prescribe beta-blockers to patients with COPD, a new observational study from the Netherlands suggests that COPD patients — even those who don’t have overt cardiovascular disease — may benefit from beta-blocker therapy. In their paper in Archives of Internal Medicine, Rutten and colleagues analyzed records of […]

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May 21st, 2010

Statins in the Real World: The Good and the Bad

Larry Husten, PHD

To ascertain unintended effects of statins, researchers in the U.K. analyzed data from more than 2 million patients, including 200,000 patients taking statins for the first time. In a paper in BMJ, the researchers found a reduced risk for esophageal cancer among statin users, and an increased risk for moderate or serious liver dysfunction, acute renal […]

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May 20th, 2010

Endovascular Repair of AAA: DREAM and Reality

Larry Husten, PHD

Confirming the recent finding of the EVAR 1 trial, the DREAM Study Group reports the results of 351 patients who underwent open or endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The report appears in the New England Journal of Medicine along with the print publication of the EVAR 1 and 2 trials. The six-year survival […]

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May 19th, 2010

Novel Platinum Chromium Alloy Stent Found Safe and Effective 

Larry Husten, PHD

Novel Platinum Chromium Alloy Stent Found Safe and Effective: The Taxus Element paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES), which features a novel, thin-strut platinum chromium alloy “designed to enhance radiopacity, radial strength, and conformability,” was found safe and effective in the PERSEUS (Prospective Evaluation in a Randomized Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of the Use of the […]

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