CardioExchange Archive

December 13th, 2010

False-Positive CT Angiogram Leads to Heart Transplant

Larry Husten, PHD

A 52-year old woman with atypical chest pain ended up with a heart transplant after a CT angiogram to “reassure” her sparked a devastating sequence of events. Following a false-positive CT angiogram, the patient underwent coronary angiography and suffered a dissection of the left main coronary artery, followed by emergency CABG, subsequent graft failure, and […]

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November 15th, 2010

Let’s Bring CLOSURE to This Debate About PFO Treatment

Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA

In this blog, Rick Lange tells us how he would answer FAQs about PFO closure to prevent stroke. The controversy: Based on retrospective and nonrandomized studies, many physicians are convinced that percutaneous patent foramen ovale closure can reduce rates of cryptogenic stroke and transient ischemic attack. Although PFO closure devices are approved for stroke prevention in Europe […]

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November 14th, 2010

New LVAD Shows Promise as Bridge-to-Transplant

Larry Husten, PHD

ADVANCE (Evaluation of the HeartWare HVAD Left Ventricular Assist Device System for the Treatment of Advanced Heart Failure) evaluated the clinical efficacy of a novel small centrifugal flow pump as a bridge-to-transplant. In the trial, 140 patients who received the device were compared to a contemporaneous control group of 499 similar patients who had received a commercially […]

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November 5th, 2010

Independent doctors?

John Mandrola, MD, FACC

John Mandrola is a cardiac electrophysiologist and blogger on matters medical and general. Here is a recent post from his blog Dr John M. In response to my story on how physician consolidation and hospital ownership of doctors is affecting patient referral patterns, I received an email with this attached PDF file.  (Smudges mine) It is from […]

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October 18th, 2010

“Um”

Westby G Fisher, MD

CardioExchange welcomes this guest post reprinted with permission from Dr. Westby Fisher, an electrophysiologist practicing at NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL and a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. This piece originally appeared on his blog, Dr. Wes. I never like to hear “Um…” from nurses or industry representatives during surgical procedures. Most people […]

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October 13th, 2010

Transfusions and Cardiac Surgery: “A Major Concern”

Larry Husten, PHD

One new study in JAMA demonstrates very wide differences among hospitals in the use of transfusions during cardiac surgery. A second study finds no differences in outcome based on transfusions. Two editorialists write that “continued inappropriate transfusions among hospitals is a major concern.” Bennett-Guerro and colleagues analyzed the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database to […]

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September 27th, 2010

Carotid Endarterectomy Still Beneficial At 10 Years

Larry Husten, PHD

Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in asymptomatic patients under 75 years of age reduces the long-term risk of stroke, according to 10-year results from the Asymptomatic Carotid Surgery Trial (ACST), published in the Lancet. The ACST investigators randomized 3120 asymptomatic patients to immediate CEA or to indefinite deferral of CEA. At 5 years, CEA had been performed […]

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September 23rd, 2010

Howdy, PARTNER!

Michael Mack, M.D., E Murat Tuzcu, MD, L. David Hillis, MD and Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA

CardioExchange welcomes Mike Mack and E. Murat Tuzcu, investigators for the PARTNER trial, an ongoing, randomized study of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in patients with severe aortic stenosis at high surgical risk. The first reported findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed an impressive 20% absolute reduction in 12-month mortality with […]

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September 22nd, 2010

PARTNER Results Boost Transcatheter Aortic-Valve Implantation

Larry Husten, PHD

Patients with aortic stenosis who are not candidates for aortic valve replacement surgery can benefit from transcatheter aortic-valve implantation (TAVI), according to results of the PARTNER (Placement of AoRTic TraNscathetER Valves) trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (The trial will also be presented at the TCT conference on Thursday.) Martin Leon and colleagues […]

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September 13th, 2010

SYNTAX at 3 years: CABG Still Winning, but PCI Acceptable in Low-Risk Patients

Larry Husten, PHD

Three-year outcomes from the SYNTAX trial continue to show the overall superiority of CABG over PCI in patients with complex disease, but they leave room for the use of PCI in patients with low-risk disease. The results of the trial were presented by A. Pieter Kappetein at the European Association of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery annual meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. […]

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