CardioExchange Archive

March 25th, 2011

A Meeting That Could Change How You Practice

John Ryan, MD

There is a lot on offer this year at ACC in New Orleans. Whether you are going to live the high life and dine at the Commanders Palace, or crank out the karaoke tunes at Cat’s Meow on Bourbon Street, most fellows lucky enough to attend ACC this year will come away with a vision […]

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March 25th, 2011

The Best Tool for Treating Atrial Fibrillation

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. Today, I would like to tell you about the most effective way to treat the most common heart ailment — atrial fibrillation (AF). It’s not the novel new blood-thinner, dabigatran (Pradaxa). […]

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March 24th, 2011

Study Finds Pioglitazone Prevents Progression To Diabetes

Larry Husten, PHD

Pioglitazone significantly reduces the development of type 2 diabetes in people with impaired glucose tolerance, according to the results of the ACT NOW study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Ralph DeFronzo and colleagues randomized 602 patients with impaired glucose tolerance to pioglitazone or placebo. During a median followup of  2.4 years, diabetes […]

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March 23rd, 2011

New Protocol Identifies Low-Risk Chest-Pain Patients

Larry Husten, PHD

Investigators in the Asia-Pacific region are proposing a “reliable, reproducible, and fast” 2-hour protocol to identify chest-pain patients in the emergency department who have a low short-term risk of having a major adverse cardiac event and who may therefore be suitable for early discharge. The accelerated diagnosis protocol (ADP) consists of the TIMI score, ECG, and […]

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March 22nd, 2011

Good News And Bad News About Physical And Sexual Activity and Cardiac Events

Larry Husten, PHD

The bad news is that physical and sexual activity can trigger acute cardiac events. The good news is that the immediate increase in risk becomes much smaller with more frequent activity, and the long-term overall benefits of activity remain unchallenged. These are the key findings of a meta-analysis by Issa Dahabreh and Jessica Paulus published […]

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March 22nd, 2011

Study Explores Lowering the Troponin Diagnostic Threshold

Larry Husten, PHD

Lowering the troponin diagnostic threshold can significantly improve outcomes after MI, claim Scottish investigators in a report published in JAMA. More than 2,000 patients with suspected ACS were studied. Sixty-four percent of patients had troponin concentrations below 0.05 ng/mL, 8% had concentrations from 0.05 to 0.19 ng/mL, and 28% had concentrations 0.20 ng/mL or higher. […]

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March 22nd, 2011

AHA Releases New Recommendations for Management of Acute VTE

Larry Husten, PHD

The AHA is offering new guidance for the management of patients with pulmonary embolism, iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis, and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. The scientific statement is published online in Circulation. In addition to advice about anticoagulant therapy, the statement offers extensive recommendations about the appropriate use of fibrinolytic agents, catheter-based and surgical interventions, and […]

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March 22nd, 2011

PROTECT Compares Unfractionated Heparin And Dalteparin In Critically Ill Patients

Larry Husten, PHD

ICU patients are at high risk to develop venous thromboembolism. Published in NEJM, PROTECT (the Prophylaxis for Thromboembolism in Critical Care Trial) compared the effects of the low-molecular-weight heparin dalteparin with unfractionated heparin (UFH) in 3746 critically ill patients. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the primary outcome of the trial. […]

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March 18th, 2011

Dabigatran Dialogue: Two Experts Answer Our Questions and Yours

Samuel Goldhaber, MD and Elaine Marie Hylek, MD, MPH

In a series of blog posts on CardioExchange, Samuel Goldhaber, Director of the Venous Thromboembolism Research Group in the Cardiovascular Division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has been guiding us on best practices around dabigatran. Recently, he teamed up with Elaine Hylek, Director of the Thrombosis and Anticoagulation Service at Boston University School of Medicine, […]

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March 18th, 2011

Cardiology Training Around the World — A Survey

John Ryan, MD, Andrew M. Kates, MD and James De Lemos, MD

A few months ago, we started a discussion on the Fellowship Training blog at CardioExchange about the differences in cardiology training around the world. Because the response we received was so enthusiastic, we decided to learn more about how different countries train their cardiologists. We have now created a short survey that we would like […]

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