CardioExchange Archive

August 5th, 2010

Three Questions about Ticagrelor: Part 3 — Jonathan Halperin

Sanjay Kaul, MD

PLATO is one of the most impressive trials in recent years, demonstrating substantial benefits for ticagrelor over clopidogrel in a wide population of ACS patients. However, patients enrolled in the US showed no benefit from ticagrelor, and experts have been unable to agree on a cause. Possible factors could include much higher doses of aspirin used in the […]

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August 4th, 2010

Three Questions about Ticagrelor: Part 2 — Mori Krantz

Sanjay Kaul, MD

PLATO is one of the most impressive trials in recent years, demonstrating substantial benefits for ticagrelor over clopidogrel in a wide population of ACS patients. However, patients enrolled in the US were found to have no benefit from ticagrelor, and experts have been unable to agree on a cause. Possible factors could include much higher doses […]

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August 3rd, 2010

Vitamin B Trial Finds No Clinically Significant Benefit

Larry Husten, PHD

The VITATOPS (The VITAmins TO Prevent Stroke) Trial randomized 8164 patients with recent stroke or TIA to either placebo or B vitamins. After a median followup of 3.4 years, the primary endpoint — the combined incidence of stroke, MI, or vascular death — occurred in 616 patients in the B vitamin group and 678 in the placebo […]

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August 3rd, 2010

Three Questions about Ticagrelor: Part 1 — Sanjay Kaul

Sanjay Kaul, MD

PLATO is one of the most impressive trials in recent years, demonstrating substantial benefits for ticagrelor over clopidogrel in a wide population of ACS patients. However, patients enrolled in the US showed no benefit from ticagrelor, and experts have been unable to agree on a cause. Possible factors could include much higher doses of aspirin used […]

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August 3rd, 2010

Building on Your Success

Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM

Welcome to the remodeled CardioExchange: We hope you like our new look! In our efforts to develop a website that promotes learning and discussion about our rapidly evolving field, we’ve been listening and learning. We have many new features. Some of the most prominent are: You can now see all of the activity on the site […]

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August 2nd, 2010

Framingham: Cardiac Function Linked to Brain Aging

Larry Husten, PHD

Brain age is closely associated with cardiac function, according to a new report in Circulation from the Framingham Heart Study. Angela Jefferson and colleagues collected brain MRI, cardiac MRI, neuropsychological, and laboratory data on 1504 participants in the Framingham Offspring Cohort and found a significant association between neuropsychological and brain MRI variables and cardiac index […]

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August 2nd, 2010

When in Rome…

John Mandrola, MD, FACC

CardioExchange welcomes this guest post reprinted with permission from Dr. John M, a blog by private-practice electrophysiologist and CardioExchange member, Dr. John Mandrola. In the quiet of the exam room, the patient’s cell phone obnoxiously chimes to life. “Hold on a minute Doc, I’ve been expecting this text.” You think, but dare not say, “You are […]

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July 31st, 2010

Calcium Supplements Linked to Increase in CV Events

Larry Husten, PHD

People who take calcium supplements may be at increased risk for cardiovascular events, according to a meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal. Mark Bolland and colleagues analyzed data from 15 randomized, placebo-controlled trials and found a significant increase in the risk of MI in subjects who received calcium supplements. The authors concluded that “although […]

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July 29th, 2010

CPR Studies: More Emphasis on Chest Compressions

Larry Husten, PHD

Two new studies of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) published in the New England Journal of Medicine provide strong support for recent initiatives that emphasize continuous chest compressions over the current standard of chest compression interrupted by rescue breathing. Rea and colleagues studied 1941 patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who were randomized to receive one of the two […]

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July 28th, 2010

FDA Cardiorenal Advisory Panel Recommends Ticagrelor Approval

Larry Husten, PHD

The Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee recommended today that ticagrelor (Brilinta, AstraZeneca) be approved for the treatment of STEMI and NSTEMI patients intended to be managed both invasively and medically. The committee spent most of the day trying to sort through the confusing finding in the pivotal PLATO trial that U.S. patients, unlike patients […]

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