CardioExchange Archive

October 28th, 2011

FDA Advisory Panel Votes 8-2 Against Approval of Medtronic AF Ablation System

Larry Husten, PHD

An FDA advisory panel has recommended against approval of Medtronic’s Ablation Frontiers Cardiac Ablation System for the treatment of symptomatic, drug refractory, persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) or longstanding persistent AF of up to four years in duration. In an 8-2 vote, members of the Circulatory System Devices Panel said that the risks of the device outweighed its […]

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October 26th, 2011

Danish Study Clarifies VTE Risk Associated with Newer Progestogens in Oral Contraceptives

Larry Husten, PHD

A large new study from Denmark provides the best evidence yet that third-generation oral contraceptives (OCs) containing drospirenone, desogestrel, or gestodene (sometimes used to treat dysmenorrhea) are associated with twice the risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE) as second-generation OCs containing levonorgestrel. In a paper published in BMJ,  Øjvind Lidegaard and colleagues analyzed data from national registries containing more […]

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October 25th, 2011

Genetic and Clinical Factors Linked to Stent Thrombosis

Larry Husten, PHD

French researchers have identified several genetic and clinical factors independently tied to early stent thrombosis. Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Guillaume Cayla and colleagues report on their case-control study comparing 123 patients with definite early stent thrombosis with 246 matched controls without stent thrombosis. The researchers found three genes with variants that […]

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October 24th, 2011

New Study Proposes Possible Causative Role for HPV in Atherosclerosis

Larry Husten, PHD

Human papillomavirus (HPV) may play a role in the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Hus-Ko Kuo and Ken Fujise speculated that HPV may be a risk factor for CVD because it inactivates the tumor-suppressor protein p53, which plays a regulatory […]

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October 24th, 2011

Midlife Obesity Increases Risk for CHD Mortality

Larry Husten, PHD

Obesity in early adulthood doubles the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality, but this association is eliminated after midlife BMI is factored into the equation, according to a report in Archives of Internal Medicine. Linsay Gray and colleagues utilized data from the Harvard Alumni Health Study, which included nearly 19,000 men who were undergraduates between 1916 […]

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October 20th, 2011

CDC and AHA Tussle Over Just How Bad the Salt Problem Really Is

Larry Husten, PHD

No matter how you slice it, a lot of people in the U.S. consume too much sodium. But the CDC and the American Heart Association (AHA) disagree about just how bad the salt problem really is. U.S. guidelines currently recommend that everyone keep their daily sodium intake below 2300 mg, but a large subpopulation, including people aged […]

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October 20th, 2011

EMA’s CHMP Finds No Cancer Link for ARBs

Larry Husten, PHD

Following the lead of the FDA earlier this year, the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has completed a safety review of angiotensin II receptor antagonists (ARBs) and found no evidence of any increased risk of cancer associated with the drugs. The FDA and EMA safety reviews were initially prompted by a meta-analysis […]

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October 19th, 2011

U.K. Registry Tracks Long-Term TAVI Outcomes

Larry Husten, PHD

The excitement over transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has been tempered by the absence of long-term outcomes data and concerns that the procedure may not live up to its initial promise in real-world settings. Now a report from the U.K. TAVI Registry, which keeps track of every TAVI procedure performed in the U.K., sheds new […]

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October 19th, 2011

First-Trimester Hypertension, Not ACE Inhibitors, Linked to Birth Defects

Larry Husten, PHD

Although the teratogenic properties of ACE inhibitors in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy are well-documented, the effects of their use in the first trimester have been unclear. Now a study suggests that hypertension itself, rather than ACE inhibitors or other antihypertensive drugs, is the likely cause of an increased risk for birth defects […]

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October 18th, 2011

Heart Failure Hospitalization Rate Drops 30% in 10 Years

Larry Husten, PHD

From 1998 through 2008, the rate of heart failure hospitalization in an elderly Medicare population declined by nearly 30%, according to a new study published in JAMA. Jersey Chen and colleagues  (including senior author Harlan Krumholz, editor-in-chief of CardioExchange) analyzed CMS data from 55 million fee-for-service Medicare patients hospitalized for heart failure between 1998 and 2008. After adjusting for […]

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