CardioExchange Archive

November 18th, 2014

Don’t Count the Numbers. HDL Function Looks Like the Key

Larry Husten, PHD

A new study offers important evidence explaining the protective role of HDL cholesterol against cardiovascular disease. Previous studies with drugs that increase HDL levels, including niacin and CETP inhibitors, have not been found beneficial. The new study suggests that simply increasing HDL levels isn’t useful. Instead, cholesterol efflux, the ability of HDL to remove cholesterol from […]

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November 17th, 2014

Large Japanese Trial Casts Further Doubt on Aspirin for Primary Prevention

Larry Husten, PHD

A large trial from Japan failed to provide any evidence to support the use of routine aspirin in high-risk elderly people to prevent a first cardiovascular event. The Japanese Primary Prevention Project (JPPP),  presented at the American Heart Association meeting in Chicago and published simultaneously in JAMA, enrolled patients between 60 and 85 years of age with hypertension, dyslipidemia, or […]

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November 17th, 2014

Selection from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: November 17th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topic is anticoagulant therapy during primary PCI for acute MI.

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November 17th, 2014

IMPROVE-IT Meets Endpoint and Demonstrates Real But Modest Clinical Benefit for Ezetimibe

Larry Husten, PHD

After all the waiting and all the controversy it turned out to be pretty simple. The IMPROVE-IT trial did what it set out to do and reached its primary endpoint. The benefit wasn’t very big or impressive but it will be enough to put to rest concerns that ezetimibe might have been an expensive placebo […]

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November 16th, 2014

Prolonged Dual Antiplatelet Therapy Affirmed in DAPT

Larry Husten, PHD

The advent of drug-eluting stents dramatically reduced the restenosis rate associated with bare-metal stents but prompted new concerns about the rare but potentially lethal complication of stent thrombosis (ST). Cardiologists have relied upon dual antiplatelet therapy to prevent ST but there has been considerable uncertainty and controversy about the ideal duration of therapy. The Dual Antiplatelet […]

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November 16th, 2014

Ryan’s Rules for #AHA14

John Ryan, MD

John Ryan provides some helpful hints for managing your experience at the AHA 2014 cardiology conference.

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November 16th, 2014

AHA 2014: There’s an App for That

Tariq Ahmad, MD, MPH

A fellow finds a convenient way to plan your activities at AHA.14.

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November 12th, 2014

Newly Identified Mutations Act Like a Lifetime of Treatment with Ezetimibe

Larry Husten, PHD

A very large genetic study published in the New England Journal of Medicine offers compelling evidence in support of a central role for LDL cholesterol in coronary heart disease. In a series of studies analyzing blood samples from nearly 100,000 people, Sekar Kathiresan and colleagues identified 15 rare mutations that block the activity of a single gene — […]

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November 12th, 2014

Popular Diets Achieve Only Modest Long-Term Weight Loss

Larry Husten, PHD

Four of the most popular current weight loss diets produce at best only modest long-term benefits, a new study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes shows. The study also found few significant differences across the four diets, offering little hope that any one diet can produce a serious dent in the obesity epidemic. Mark Eisenberg and […]

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November 7th, 2014

What You Need to Know About IMPROVE-IT

Larry Husten, PHD

The IMPROVE-IT trial will be big news when its results are finally presented on November 17 during the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. The results of the trial — underway for nearly a decade — have been long and eagerly awaited by everyone interested in cardiovascular medicine.  The trial could impact the future sales of a key Merck drug, ezetimibe; because it is […]

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