CardioExchange Archive

January 10th, 2014

ESC Spotlights Growing Problem of Radiation Exposure in Cardiology

Larry Husten, PHD

Both medical professionals and patients have a general sense that radiation used in medical imaging and procedures carries some danger, but they often underestimate the risk. And certainly most are unaware of the increasingly large proportion of the problem occurring during cardiology procedures. “Cardiologists today are the true contemporary radiologists,” said Eugenio Picano, lead author of […]

---

January 9th, 2014

Pivotal Renal Denervation Trial Fails to Show Efficacy

Larry Husten, PHD

Medtronic announced today that the SYMPLICITY HTN-3 trial of its much-anticipated  renal denervation device had failed to meet its primary efficacy endpoint. Renal denervation has been widely touted as a breakthrough product that could dramatically lower blood pressure by as much as 30 mm Hg, allowing physicians to cure the most severe form of high blood pressure, resistant hypertension. “SYMPLICITY […]

---

January 9th, 2014

Hospital Quality Helps Explain Some Racial Disparities in CABG Outcomes

Larry Husten, PHD

It has long been known that racial disparities exist in health care. A large body of research has found that nonwhite patients have worse outcomes than whites. But it has been difficult to understand the underlying reasons for these disparities.  Now a new study offers evidence that, at least in the case of bypass surgery, […]

---

January 6th, 2014

Mediterranean Diet Protects Against Diabetes, Regardless of Weight Loss

Larry Husten, PHD

Even if it doesn’t lead to weight loss, a Mediterranean diet could help prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes, according to a subanalysis of last year’s influential PREDIMED study. In the main trial, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, nearly 7500 people at high risk for cardiovascular disease were randomized to a low-fat […]

---

January 3rd, 2014

FDA Plans New Safety Assessment of Dabigatran (Pradaxa)

Larry Husten, PHD

Since the approval of dabigatran (Pradaxa, Boehringer Ingelheim) in Europe in 2008 and in the U.S. in 2010 there have been persistent and lingering concerns about the drug’s safety. Now the FDA plans to perform a large new assessment of the drug compared to warfarin. On December 30 the FDA posted a request for public comment on a proposed […]

---

December 19th, 2013

More Walking and More Fiber: Good for the Heart

Larry Husten, PHD

It probably won’t come as a surprise, but walking more and eating more fiber are probably good for your heart. That’s the conclusion of two new studies, but because the studies relied on observational data it should be emphasized that they are incapable of demonstrating cause and effect. And it’s by no means clear that most […]

---

December 18th, 2013

New Trial Confirms Role for Dabigatran in Venous Thromboembolism

Larry Husten, PHD

A new study helps support a role for  the new oral anticoagulant dabigatran (Pradaxa, Boehringer Ingelheim) in patients with venous thrombosis (VTE).  The RE-COVER II trial, published online in Circulation, confirms the finding of the earlier and highly similar RE-COVER trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2009, that dabigatran is as safe and effective as warfarin for […]

---

December 18th, 2013

Behind the Curtain: Study Reveals Big Role of Medical Communication Companies

Larry Husten, PHD

Everyone knows that medical information flows out of medical centers and schools; research institutions and the NIH; pharmaceutical companies; journals; and medical societies. But one important information source — medical communication companies (MCCs) — “are among the most significant but least analyzed health care stakeholders,” according to Sheila Rothman and colleagues. In a new report in JAMA, they set […]

---

December 18th, 2013

Missing High Blood Pressure Guideline Turns Up in JAMA

Larry Husten, PHD

After  years of delay and many twists and turns, the hypertension guideline originally commissioned by the NIH has now finally been published in JAMA. The evidence-based document contains a major revision of hypertension treatment targets and includes new and somewhat simplified recommendations for drug treatment. The previous U.S. hypertension guideline was published more than a decade ago. After […]

---

December 16th, 2013

Case Closed: Multivitamins Should Not be Used

Larry Husten, PHD

The editorialists are fed up: “Enough is enough.” Writing about three new papers in the Annals of Internal Medicine that find no benefits for the use of multivitamins — only the latest in a long line of negative findings — Eliseo Guallar and colleagues write: …we believe that the case is closed — supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults […]

---