CardioExchange Archive

December 16th, 2012

A Compelling Cardiac Surgery Broadcast — in Norway

Øystein Horgmo, BSc

A visual journal of open and minimally invasive cardiac surgeries — side by side

---

December 13th, 2012

Diabetics with Multivessel Disease: FREEDOM with CABG?

Valentin Fuster, MD

Dr. Valentin Fuster answers questions about the FREEDOM trial, which shows that diabetics with multivessel disease had lower rates of death and MI with CABG than with PCI.

---

December 12th, 2012

Boehringer Ends Phase 2 Trial of Dabigatran in Mechanical Valve Patients

Larry Husten, PHD

Boehringer Ingelheim today announced that it had discontinued a phase 2 trial of its anticoagulant drug dabigatran (Pradaxa) in patients with mechanical heart valves. As reported here in October, the company had previously terminated one arm of the study after an interim review of the data by the trial’s Data Safety Monitoring Board. The RE-ALIGN trial was an open-label, 12-week randomized comparison of […]

---

November 27th, 2012

Longer Warfarin Therapy After Bioprosthetic Aortic Valve Replacement May Be Beneficial

Larry Husten, PHD

Three months of warfarin is the usual standard of care following bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement (AVR),  although the supporting evidence base for this practice is limited. A new, large registry study published in JAMA suggests that more-prolonged warfarin therapy may be beneficial. Danish researchers identified 4075 patients who underwent bioprosthetic AVR. As expected, warfarin treatment between 30 and […]

---

November 21st, 2012

HeartWare LVAD Approved By FDA For Transplant Patients

Larry Husten, PHD

The FDA said today that it had granted approval to the HeartWare Ventricular Assist System for use in heart failure patients waiting for a transplant. Approval of the device had been expected after the FDA’s Circulatory System Devices panel recommended approval of the device earlier this year. HeartWare was approved based on data from the pivotal ADVANCE trial, in which 140 […]

---

November 21st, 2012

What’s The Best Treatment For Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm?

Larry Husten, PHD

Endovascular repair of AAA (abdominal aortic aneurysm) gained enthusiastic acceptance after initial results from three trials (EVAR 1, DREAM, and OVER) found an early survival advantage for endovascular repair compared to open repair. Some of the enthusiasm waned, however, after long-term results from the first two trials found no difference in survival between the groups […]

---

November 19th, 2012

Comprehensive Guidelines for Stable Ischemic Heart Disease Released

Larry Husten, PHD

New comprehensive guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of stable ischemic heart disease have been released by the ACCF/AHA Task Force on Practice Guidelines.

---

November 4th, 2012

FREEDOM Lends Strong Support to CABG for Diabetics with Multivessel Disease

Larry Husten, PHD

CABG is associated with better cardiovascular outcomes than PCI in patients with diabetes and multivessel disease.

---

October 24th, 2012

TCT: Impressive Survival Benefit for TAVR in Inoperable Patients at 3 Years

Larry Husten, PHD

At the TCT meeting in Miami, Murat Tuzcu presented the latest findings from the PARTNER B trial comparing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with standard therapy in patients who are not considered eligible for surgical valve replacement. At 3 years, the mortality advantage continued to grow for TAVR over standard therapy. All-cause mortality at 3 years: 80.9% […]

---

October 22nd, 2012

FDA Approves the Sapien Transcatheter Heart Valve for High-Risk Patients

Larry Husten, PHD

The FDA today approved an expanded indication for Edwards Lifesciences’ Sapien transcatheter heart valve (THV). The device can now be implanted in patients who are eligible for aortic valve replacement surgery but are at high risk for serious surgical complications or death. Previously the Sapien valve was approved only for use in patients who were […]

---