CardioExchange Archive

February 23rd, 2010

Tuesday, February 23 News Roundup: Avandia Remains in the News; Dutch Study Questions Platelet Function Tests; IOM Report on Hypertension

Larry Husten, PHD

Avandia Stays in the News: Responding to all the news last weekend about rosiglitazone (Avandia), the FDA announced an ongoing review of the cardiovascular safety of Avandia based on the RECORD trial and published a safety announcement along with additional information for patients and healthcare professionals. Adding even more drama to events, a New York Times story by Gardiner Harris […]

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February 22nd, 2010

Monday February 22 News Roundup: Distal Protection for Primary PCI; 1 Million Stroke Patients Who Got the Guidelines

Larry Husten, PHD

Distal Protection for Primary PCI: The DEDICATION (Drug Elution and Distal Protection in STElevation Myocardial Infarction Trial) trial has turned up a troubling suggestion of an increased risk for stent thrombosis in STEMI patients who received distal protection (DP) adjunctive to primary PCI. In a study appearing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the […]

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February 20th, 2010

Senators and FDA Officials Attack Avandia

Larry Husten, PHD

A front page story in the New York Times reports that U.S. Senators and FDA officials are raising new questions about Avandia (rosiglitazone). A soon-to-be-released Senate report asks whether it is ethical to continue the ongoing 16,000 patient TIDE trial, while several FDA officials recommend that the drug should be removed from the market. In […]

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February 19th, 2010

Who Does and Who Doesn’t Get Aspirin? Can We Do Better?

Christopher Paul Cannon, MD

Aspirin is the best known and most widely used preventive therapy. A century of clinical experience and randomized trials in over 250,000 patients have proved its benefit in preventing cardiovascular events, and it costs pennies a day. So how can it be that not everyone who needs it gets it? In a new report, we […]

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February 18th, 2010

Thursday, February 18 News: Renal Outcomes in ACCOMPLISH Published in Lancet

Larry Husten, PHD

The combination of benazepril plus amlodipine was more effective than the combination of benazepril plus hydrochlorothiazide in preventing progression of chronic kidney disease, according to a new report from the Avoiding Cardiovascular Events in Combination Therapy in Patients Living with Systolic Hypertension (ACCOMPLISH) trial published online in the Lancet. ACCOMPLISH investigators had previously reported the main results of […]

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February 17th, 2010

Which Strategy for Severe Calcific Aortic Stenosis?

Anju Nohria, MD and James Fang, MD

The patient is a 72-year-old man with a history of ischemic cardiomyopathy (LV ejection fraction, 30%–35%) and NYHA class II/III heart-failure symptoms at baseline. Over the previous month, he had experienced recurrent episodes of volume overload and sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) requiring intravenous diuretics and up-titration of his amiodarone therapy. He then presented in VT […]

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February 17th, 2010

Wednesday, February 17 News Roundup: Statins & Diabetes; ARTS II at 5 Years

Larry Husten, PHD

Statins & Diabetes: Following the recent observation from JUPITER of an increased risk of developing diabetes among patients taking rosuvastatin, a large meta-analysis in the Lancet by Sattar et al. has found a small but significant increase in the risk of diabetes for all statins. The authors conclude that “the risk is low both in absolute terms […]

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February 17th, 2010

The Value of Statistical Modeling?

James De Lemos, MD

In this week’s “The Expert Is In” blog on CardioExchange, I interview Rodney Hayward about his very interesting and soon-to-be controversial paper just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Rodney and his coauthors argue that the current lipid guidelines are misguided. Specifically, the authors show that the NCEP ATP III guideline approach, in which lipid-lowering therapy targets specific goals, is […]

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February 16th, 2010

Tuesday, February 16 News Roundup: Women & CV Disease — HRT, Genetic Testing, and More

Larry Husten, PHD

HRT & Increased Risk: A new report from the Women’s Health Initiative in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds “no suggestion of a decreased risk for CHD … within the first 2 years” of HRT, even in women who started therapy within 10 years after menopause. For women who started HRT close to menopause, a “possible” […]

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February 12th, 2010

Stents in the News

Larry Husten, PHD

Bill Clinton’s stent procedure received enormous amounts of attention in the news. Some of the reports even contained various doses of truthful information, though many were riddled with inaccuracies and misperceptions. According to reliable accounts, Clinton had a closed vein graft and received two Xience stents in his left circumflex artery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center […]

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